Hatchery hosts 20th annual open house on Oct. 16

The Return of the Salmon Festival held at Coleman National Fish Hatchery will mark its 20th anniversary this October, when the hatchery holds its one-day-a-year open house on Oct. 16, 9 a.m - 4 p.m. The free event will show off salmon spawning operations and host over 40 exhibitors.

Salmon make their journey from the Pacific Ocean, swimming against the Sacramento River current to return to Battle Creek to spawn. With a massive barrier weir in Battle Creek, returning salmon cannot travel further upstream and are redirected into the hatchery. Each year the hatchery strives to spawn 12 million Fall Chinook Salmon, one million Late Fall Chinook Salmon, and 600,000 Steelhead Trout, said Scott Hamelberg, hatchery project leader.

Those fish are released into the creek or in the Sacramento River "with the expectation that this is where they will return," Hamelberg said.

With only 9,000 salmon returning last year, Hamelberg said he expects numbers to improve this year, adding that he was hoping for 20,000. But whether the number of salmon returning to South County streams is high or low, the holding ponds will still have plenty of fish and plenty of salmon will still be jumping at the weir during the festival, Hamelberg said.

The hatchery completed construction this year on $10 million of improvements to its water diversion structures that included the installation of screens that prevented juvenile salmon from coming into the hatchery during operations.

With scant parking at the hatchery, the event provides regular, free shuttles to and from the event. Beginning at 9 a.m., visitors may park at Wal-Mart Supercenter, 5000 Rhonda Rd. in Anderson and catch the bus from there.

Beginning at 11 a.m., the shuttles will also pick up visitors from the Salmon Fest/Anderson Street Fair on East Center Street.

A salmon feed is planned at the street fair as well, with salmon donated by the Wintu Tribe, according to Dan LaBorie, liaison for the street fair.