Our Irrigon Hatchery volunteer experience

This photo tour of the facility starts at the top right of the map along the road, goes through the hatchery building, circles the ponds at the top counterclockwise, then a larger clockwise circle around the ponds at the bottom, and finishes along the back of the property.

The sign out front

Our first view of the facility

Getting a little closer to the main building shows the two small lawns that Tim had to mow with a push mower each week. The fertilizer, rain, and sprinklers combined to produce fourteen bags of grass out of these small sections in the last mowing.

The sidewalk and show pond were being renovated. We got to help net the 58 monster trout and one sturgeon that lived in this pond in front of the visitor center.

The visitor center that we cleaned once a week

The main tank room where young fish start their lives. Kris spent some time pressure washing a few of these tanks.

Eggs were delivered each monday. We helped dump them into their incubation trays, 10,000 per tray.

A close-up of the eggs in a tray

Kris pushes the freshly loaded egg trays in to start circulating water after a 10 minute soak in disinfecting iodine.

This is the smaller tank room with its own egg trays along the wall.

Back out front, looking between the ponds and the main building. The Oregon flag flies in the never ending wind.

Tim was no Edward Scissorhands, but he trimmed tons of bushes like the ones in the lower right that separate the ponds from a couple of the worker residences.

On this particular day, Mike, our supervisor, helps the QC crew round up fish for inspection.

All of these tiny fish were suppose to have their adipose fins clipped with scissors and then have a metal tag inserted in their snout.

After verifying a clipped fin, Kris drops one of the little fish through the metal detector tube to verify its tag.

Between the two rows of ponds was this truck loading unit. Fish and water are pumped up to the top. A screen separates the fish and water. The water drains out the blue hose on the bottom and the fish drop into the truck through the white chute. The fish are counted by the change in water level in the truck.

As we head around the other set of ponds, we can see the results of Kris' efforts at sweeping around the ponds and even cleaning the fish feeders (white boxes).

The fish feeders pneumatically convey fish food, blowing it out into the pond. The fish disturb the surface as the feed is discharged.

Looking out away from the ponds, you can see our campsite in the distance, behind the storage lot and well pump building.

Walking from our campsite, this was our view across the fields each morning as we headed for work.

The retention pond looks much nicer after Tim cut down the weeds and pulled the tumbleweeds out of the fence. A couple tall weeds in the back had to be missed due to a nesting killdeer.

The fuel tanks and maintenance shop are behind this set of ponds. Our morning meetings took place in the break room in the near corner of the maintenance shop.

This closer view of the maintenance shop also shows our Cushman cart that we used to haul countless loads of dirt, weeds, grass, and tumbleweeds as we cleaned the place up.

This paved trail heads to the back of the property between the retention pond and the fuel tanks. Tim edged this stretch by hand over a couple days.

The paved trail provides access to the fishing dock right on the Columbia River. Mostly only carp were caught here.

This watered section of grass was one of Kris' weekly responsibilities.

Kris and I spent many hours with these two machines.