PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A Southwest Washington hatchery is ceasing production due to funding constraints.

The Skamania Hatchery — which produces about 250,000 summer steelhead, 100,000 winter steelhead and 16,000 cutthroat trout annually — is set to close, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed to KOIN 6. The agency attributed the Washougal facility’s closure to the operating and capital budgets that were approved by Gov. Bob Ferguson in May.

WDFW noted that it requested $1.9 million for operations at its Skamania and North Toutle hatcheries for the 2025-2027 biennium, but it received just $750,000. The federal Mitchell Act — which established funding for the Columbia River Basin’s salmon and steelhead production starting in 1938 — has also been “chronically stagnant,"

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