Mel Sampson Coho Facility

Background: During the pre-treaty era, 44,000 to 150,000 coho returned to the Yakima Subbasin annually. By the mid-1980s they were extinct. Habitat loss and overharvest are factors that led to the extinction. The fish’s cultural significance combined with U.S. v. Oregon objectives to restore salmon to upriver areas resulted in the release of hatchery fish (raised outside the subbasin) beginning in the mid-1980s. 

From 1996 through 2003, the Yakama Nation researched the feasibility of establishing a self-sustaining coho population that would not substantially affect other species of concern. With that phase of the project successfully concluded, project objectives since 2004 have been to increase coho spawning in tributaries, phase out out-of-basin broodstock, and test the effectiveness of new acclimation techniques. With the Mid-Columbia Coho Master Plan approved in 2013, the project received the go-ahead to implement the next phase of reintroduction efforts, to be supported by a new hatchery.

Melvin R. Sampson Coho Facility: In 2018, construction began on our new hatchery named in honor of  Mel Sampson, a respected elder and former Yakama Nation Tribal Council Chairman.

Facility Specifications:

• A state-of-the-art, highly efficient facility
• 30,000 ft² hatchery building
• 18 early rearing tanks plus 10 grow-out tanks
• 10 circular rearing ponds, which assist in strengthening fish and conserving water
• 9 groundwater wells
• Effluent treatment, designed to reuse 75% of facility water