From its founding in 1915 until it was closed in 2010, the Butte Falls Hatchery raised millions of young salmon and steelhead. If the Butte Falls School District gets its way, the property will be converted into an outdoor nature lab for its students.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife operated the hatchery for decades. Rebuilt in 2003, it had become Oregon’s best state-run hatchery by 2006, but a disease outbreak forced a four-year quarantine. Faced with $1 million in required improvements, the department decided in 2010 not to reopen the hatchery.
In 2012, the department deeded 10 acres to the Butte Falls School District for the purpose of creating an outdoor lab.
The district is considering everything from allowing children to grow mushrooms, wasabi and shrimp in the former fish raceways to converting adjacent homes into housing for homeless kids and college-student researchers. Another idea is to build footbridges over Crystal Creek wide enough for golf carts to carry disabled kids to forests and meadows.
The district seeks to raise $600,000 over the next three years to pay for improvements needed to make the learning lab a reality.
Source: Freeman, Mark. "Outdoor Education: BIG DREAMS." Daily Tidings 22 Aug. 2016 [Ashland, Ore.] , region ed.: A8. Print.
