WASHINGTON – Michael Tehan had dedicated his 43-year career in the federal government to preserving salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest, but soon after the fish biologist decided to retire in February, he got a phone call that made it clear his work wasn’t over.

Like Tehan, who already planned to retire from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at the end of 2025, some of the federal employees who operate fish hatcheries had accepted the “deferred resignation” and early retirement offers that were central to the Trump administration’s effort to downsize the government workforce. Coupled with the administration’s mass firing of workers who had spent less than a year on the job, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lost nearly a third of its staff at five hatcheries in the Columbia Gorge, according to their counterparts in Washington state government.

“Hatchery managers had made it clear under this administration that they were really struggling to take care of the fish, given some recent departures,” Tehan said. “I was still looking for opportunities to participate and put some of my knowledge of fish biology to work.”

To help keep the hatcheries operating during the past several months, which include the critical spawning periods for spring and summer chinook, Tehan has volunteered at three facilities near his home in Klickitat County. The Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and the state fish and wildlife agencies in both Washington and Oregon have also sent their hatchery staff to fill the gaps, along with interns and other volunteers.

After decades working on policy issues from a NOAA office in Portland, Tehan said the “very hard, physical work” at the hatcheries has given him a deeper appreciation for the workers who run the facilities – and of the challenges they face not just due to the staffing trouble, but also a longstanding shortfall in funding from Congress.

“It was just a real eye-opener to me,” said Tehan.

“It made all the work I’d done on the policy front extremely real and tangible.”

Tehan said he was surprised to see how old and worn out so much of the infrastructure was: nets mended with duct tape, hip waders with the soles falling off the boots. At the Willard National Fish Hatchery, built in 1952, a leak in the concrete structure that diverts river water into the hatchery requires them to supplement it with groundwater, he said.

Congress passed the Mitchell Act in 1938, establishing hatcheries to mitigate the impact of newly constructed hydroelectric dams on the salmon and steelhead that migrate from the ocean to spawn in the Columbia River and its tributaries. But critics say federal funding for those facilities has failed to keep pace with inflation and account for the cost of maintaining decades-old infrastructure.

In response to questions from The Spokesman-Review, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said its hatcheries in the Columbia Gorge “are adequately staffed for day-to-day operations and to protect the health and safety of humans and fish.”

“During spawning season, hatcheries ask for help from Service staff, partners and volunteers to make sure operations go smoothly,” the agency said.

“Spawning season is busy, and the Service values the time and effort of people who volunteer.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t provide details about its staffing, but Eric Kinne, hatchery division manager at the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, said his counterparts at the federal agency had confirmed they had lost 12 employees, or about 32% of their staff, at five hatcheries in the gorge: Warm Springs, Spring Creek, Willard, Carson and Little White Salmon.

A hiring freeze has prevented the federal agency from filling vacancies left by the retirements and other departures earlier this year, Kinne said, so his department and other agencies have sent their staff on spawning days and at other critical times when shorthanded hatcheries could mean fewer fish returning to the river years in the future.

Without enough staff at the hatcheries, he said, more of the adult fish could die before eggs can be collected – or they may not make it to the facility at all.

“They’ve been able to hold their own with some volunteers to get essential work done around the hatcheries, but it’s definitely taxing these facilities and the staff,” Kinne said.

Meagan West, federal policy coordinator at the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, said her agency doesn’t expect to be reimbursed for the cost of sending its staff to federal hatcheries.

A longstanding federal funding shortfall, which predates the recent staffing shortage, has forced Washington state to shoulder additional costs to operate hatcheries, she said, and contributed to the closure of the state-run Skamania Hatchery amid a state budget crunch earlier this year.

“We recognize this staffing issue is a huge problem on the fed side, so we are working with the tribes to send our staff to the facilities to help with spawning, so we’re paying our staff to work at U.S. Fish and Wildlife facilities,” she said.

“This is on our dime, and the tribes’ dime, to make sure that we have the capacity to spawn fish.”

Zach Penney, director of strategic initiatives at the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said the federally funded hatcheries upstream of Bonneville Dam are especially important to the tribes that are guaranteed fishing rights by treaties with the federal government.

“Federal fish hatcheries are important because hatchery fish are treaty fish, and those treaty fish predate the states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho,” Penney said. “They provide food, subsistence, culture, economy, employment and opportunity for not just tribal members, but they support fishing opportunities for anybody who likes to fish for salmon in the Columbia Basin.”

Hatcheries funded by the Mitchell Act provide roughly a third of hatchery production in the Columbia River, according to NOAA, and those salmon and steelhead support the commercial fishing industry as far north as Alaska.

In an executive order in April, President Donald Trump identified supporting U.S. seafood production as a priority of his administration.

“In some cases, I think the staffing cuts at federal agencies have put the facilities and their teams in an unwinnable situation, and that puts anybody who fishes for salmon in a place where we’re all going to lose eventually,” Penney said. “If juvenile production in 2025 is compromised, it is possible that we will lose adult fish returns in 2026, 2027, 2028 and beyond, depending on how long the fish might spend out the ocean. And the impacts of that are not just in the Columbia River or to tribes.”

Penney said the states and tribes, along with volunteers like Tehan, have helped to stabilize the federal hatcheries this year but he emphasized that it isn’t a long-term solution to the lack of funding and staff for federal hatchery programs. He emphasized that shorthanded and overworked teams at hatcheries can also threaten workers’ safety.

In a statement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said hatcheries “often provide volunteer opportunities, including assisting hatchery staff with special events, fish production, and light maintenance activities.”

“Volunteers offer valuable support, particularly during spawning season,” the agency said, adding that people interested in volunteering should contact individual hatcheries for more information.

Tehan said shorthanded hatcheries could potentially cause “catastrophic collapses in some of the fisheries,” especially if maintenance staff has to cover multiple facilities.

Even a brief power outage or pump failure could mean losing vast numbers of fish, he said.

“What’s at stake is losing the fish that they’re caring for,” he said. “The hatchery managers take such strong ownership and responsibility, and I’ve seen people going way above and beyond the call of duty trying to keep those fish alive and healthy and safe, for their ultimate release back into the wild.”

Orion Donovan Smith can be reached at (202) 853-2524 or at orionds@ spokesman.com.