From the News Tribune, on the state’s continuing natural resources budget problems:
Even in the details, not every issue is fully addressed. One example is the future of the Voights Creek Hatchery. Located outside Orting, the hatchery produces fall chinook salmon, coho salmon and winter-run steelhead for the Puyallup River system. Flooding the last two years has all but wiped out the facility.
“Voights Creek was a great fish producer and had great fish returns. It was one of the better hatcheries we had in terms of production,” Anderson said.
He said the department’s capital budget includes money to explore the option of moving the hatchery to a new location on higher ground. Since that process could take years, Anderson said, the department is talking with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians about increasing production at the tribe’s Puyallup River hatcheries.
The Puyallup Tribe had publicly opposed any closure of Voights Creek.
