Wild spring Chinook harvest prohibited on mainstem Umpqua River, reduced on North Umpqua

NEWS RELEASE

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

www.odfw.com

Contact:

Evan Leonetti, 541-464-2175, [email protected]

January 3, 2025

Wild spring Chinook harvest prohibited on mainstem Umpqua River, reduced on North Umpqua

ROSEBURG, Ore. – A temporary rule prohibits wild spring Chinook salmon harvest on the mainstem Umpqua River and reduces the North Umpqua bag limit, ODFW announced today.

Feb. 1 – June 30, 2025:

• Only hatchery spring Chinook may be kept on the mainstem Umpqua River. Harvesting wild spring Chinook (jacks and adults) is prohibited.
• Just one adult wild spring Chinook per day, 10 per year, may be kept on the North Umpqua River.
• Anglers may still retain hatchery spring Chinook.

This temporary rule is meant to help protect populations returning to the South and North Umpqua rivers as biologists forecast low returns of adult wild spring Chinook this year.

South Umpqua adult wild spring Chinook were low in 2024 with just 111 wild fish, while runs in the North Umpqua were also well below average. This combination of low returns in 2024 and a low forecast in 2025 is triggering the restriction of wild spring Chinook harvest according to the sliding scale in the CMP, ODFW’s Coastal Multi-Species Conservation and Management Plan.

ODFW continues to work with our partners (U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, and NOAA Fisheries) to share information and address habitat and passage issues for spring Chinook in the upper South Umpqua River.

The CMP was adopted in 2014 by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission. It was developed with help from stakeholder teams within the Umpqua Basin along the Oregon coast.