After more than 30 years of managing the Willow Creek Hatchery in Edmonds, the local chapter of Trout Unlimited has decided to turn over its stewardship.

Edmonds Parks and Recreation Director Carrie Hite confirmed that Sound Salmon Solutions, a nonprofit organization and regional leader in salmon conservation, has agreed to take over management of the hatchery operations and expand educational programming and outreach activities.

Also operating on site is the volunteer-run Wildlife Habitat Native Plant Demonstration Garden run by the Pilchuck Audubon Society.

Our feeling is that rather than taking it over, we are carrying on the work that Trout Unlimited has done for the past 30-plus years, said Executive Director Rodney Pond of Lake Stevens-based Sound Salmon Solutions, a nonprofit working to ensure the future of healthy salmon runs in the Snohomish, Stillaguamish and Island county watersheds.

The nonprofit has a picnic at Willow Creek Hatchery Aug. 26.

We will be transitioning the current group of volunteers running the hatchery; they will continue to do so. Were going to take over operations and development of the hatchery. They want to see programs at the hatchery grown and built upon.

A professional services agreement was signed in February to cover staff time for training and grant writing, and Sound Salmon Solutions staff has been working closely with Trout Unlimited with the goal of fully taking over operations at the facility in 2018.

Weve been doing 10-year leases with Trout Unlimited, Hite said. In 2014, we sat down with them and looked at their goals and their operations. They said they didnt have an interest in another 10-year lease; they said they were all getting old, the job was very physically demanding and they thought they were at the end of their life at the fish hatchery.

Trout Unlimited agreed to stay on until a successor was found.

They are a large, energetic group that will be able to continue the work we began nearly 30 years ago, said John Hjord, a past president of Trout Unlimited.

Hatchery manager Walter Thompson agreed.

Theyll do the nuts and bolts of the operation, said the Edmonds resident, 73. The volunteers where will continue on, but Sound Salmon Solutions is a younger group much more comfortable with social media, that sort of thing, and recruiting volunteers.

"Our membership is getting very old, and its difficult to get people to come on board and volunteer time for these kind of activities. Weve turned a corner, and our vision is more of an educational outreach program to the local school districts as opposed to focusing on salmon enhancement programs.

Hite said she and her staff did plenty of research of hatcheries before agreeing on Sound Salmon Solutions.

There are two schools of thought if the hatcheries are helpful or not, she said. After the research, we decided we thought the hatchery would be helpful from an educational point of view. So our No. 1 priority is to continue salmon education by running the hatchery. And who better than Sound Salmon Solutions to take it over?

That education includes hundreds of Edmonds and Shoreline elementary school students who have participated in Willow Creek Hatchery and Edmonds Fishing Pier field trips. Today, the Edmonds-Woodway High School group Students Saving Salmon meets at the hatcherys main building.

To be clear, the city of Edmonds owns the hatchery, but does not provide money, resources or staff to run it. Throughout the years, Trout Unlimited has provided volunteer labor and paid for utilities there.

The city, which provided a $1,500 grant to help Sound Salmon Solutions work with Trout Unlimited on the transition, it will charge Sound Salmon Solutions $1 per year for its lease.

Founded in 1974

The Edmonds/Laebugten Salmon Chapter of Trout Unlimited is affiliated with the Washington Council of Trout Unlimited. It was founded in 1974 by 17 concerned sport fishermen in response to diminishing salmon available to recreational fishermen.

Since 1979, the chapter has sponsored a Coho salmon net pen-rearing project under the Edmonds Fishing Pier. It has been on hold since the piers rehabilitation in March 2016, and Sound Salmon Solutions is not interested in continuing its operation.

Thompson said he is seeing if Puget Sound Anglers, a conservation group, is willing to take over the project.

After years of fundraising and contributions, the Trout Unlimited chapter built the Willow Creek Hatchery and Aquatic Education Center in 1985. It is one of the largest privately maintained and volunteer operated hatcheries in the state.

Under the supervision of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, it has raised and planted an average of 100,000 salmon each year.

Sound Salmon Solutions

Ponds organization is familiar with Edmonds streams and wetlands.

In November 2016, thanks to the Rose Foundations Puget Sound Mitigation and Restoration, it provided a grant to Students Saving Salmon and Stream Team student groups.

It enabled students to continue water-quality testing at Willow, Shell and Shellabarger creeks in Edmonds, as well as at the Edmonds Marsh.

At the Willow Creek Hatchery, at Pine Street and State Route 104, Sound Salmon Solutions will work on writing grants and securing donations while recruiting new volunteers to work alongside Trout Unlimited members.

Edmonds Trout is unusual in terms of other Trout Unlimited chapters in that its always had a salmon focus, Pond said. Its a bunch of old white guys who arent recruiting new members. It would have been a shame if the hatchery were mothballed after all these years.

My understanding is that those guys are still very much invested in volunteering for the hatchery, and we are absolutely going to need them. I know some of those guys. Its just part of their life. Theyre retired, they love raising the fish, love working with the kids. Its a home away from home for them.

Ironically, while Trout Unlimited is all about salmon education and raising salmon, Pond said Trout Unlimiteds national stance is more or less against hatcheries.

It focuses on wild-fish populations, with a position that supports healthy wild fish population, Pond said. We agree its healthy all around for the species. We need diversity thats wild, thats subject to natural evolutionary forces and the changing of the environment.

However, salmon are very different. Its absolutely essential to the sustenance and spiritual lives of our local tribes. Theres a big investment to keep these hatcheries running. If we didnt have hatcheries, we wouldnt have salmon. Wed have salmon, but there would be so few of them here in Puget Sound.

Pond pointed out an incongruity: Hatcheries do muddy up the genetics of wild populations. Its basically running semi-domesticated species into the same environment as wild species. Its like running domestic goats with wild goats. Its going to bring down the genetics of the wild salmon population.

With that in mind, its pertinent to point out that Willow Creek Hatchery which used to be called Deer Creek Hatchery for reasons that remain murky has never been strictly a production hatchery.

Its been for educating kids about the salmon lifecycle, salmon release and getting them interested in the watershed and the environment. It contributes very little to salmon that return, if any at all.

Pond said details of the stewardship succession of the hatchery will be worked out in a meeting next month.

Were thrilled to be doing this, he said. This place is an Edmonds institution.Theres been so much community involvement going on. Theres generations of people. Adults bring their kids and grandparents bring their grandchildren.

I dont see any reason to change, just add to it. Our ambition is build a more comprehensive education center, and the hatchery will be part of that.

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New group to run Willow Creek Hatchery - Edmonds Beacon