Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Bill Nyara’s daily routine for more than 30 years has revolved largely around fish.
But now he’s turning his attention from the water to the land. To real estate, actually.
Nyara, 50, retired Sept. 30 after 31 years working for the state Department of Fish and Game?s fish hatcheries, most recently as manager of the South Santiam Hatchery just below Foster Dam.
During that time he’s raised millions of salmon, steelhead and trout to help keep fish Oregon’s river and ocean fisheries healthy. He’s spent plenty of sleepless nights cleaning hatchery water intake pipes during storms. He’s fielded complaints from members of the public who either didn?t like the idea of releasing hatchery fish into the state’s rivers or were unhappy that there weren’t more fish in the rivers.
He’s hauled truckloads of steelhead down the river to give anglers another chance to catch them “recycling,” it’s called. He’s hauled Lahanton cutthroat trout eggs in coolers to the Klamath Hatchery to attempt to revitalize state trout fisheries.
And now he’s going team up with his wife Robbie to sell houses and property.
“A couple of years ago we decided to find something to do after I retired,” Nyara said. “I think we can enjoy real estate. We’ll be working as a team. We?ll be helping people.”
First, though, he’s helping his contractor finish his retirement home on a piece of riverfront property west of the hatchery.
It’s definitely going to be a big change, he says.
“Really, (hatchery work) is the only permanent job I’ve ever had,” Nyara said, seated on the half-finished porch of his house.
He started as a part-timer at the Sandy Hatchery when he was 19, a student at Mt. Hood Community College in the Fisheries Technology program. After he graduated with an associate of science degree in 1975, he moved around the state, to Marion Forks Hatchery in the Cascades east of Salem (1975), back to Sandy as a full-timer (1975), Klamath Hatchery in Chiloquin (1980), as assistant manager of Round Butte Hatchery in Madras (1983), as manager of the Siletz Hatchery on the coast (1985), and back to Round Butte as manager in 1987, where he decided to stay until his children graduated from high school.
With the kids in college, the Nyaras made one last move, to Sweet Home, in 2000.
Their daughter Abby, now 27, is a third-year medical student at New York Medical College in New York City. Their son Charlie, who is almost 25, graduated from the University of Idaho and works for a dental laboratory in Corvallis.
Robbie Nyara was chief cook at Madras Junior High before they moved to Sweet Home. She worked in food services for School District 55 in Sweet Home until 15 months ago, when she moved into selling real estate full-time.
Bill Nyara says he?s seen public perceptions of the hatchery program change over the three decades he’s been involved in it.
“I think there are only 32 state hatcheries, which automatically makes it a unique occupation,” he said. Most hatcheries have four or five staff members, he said.
“I’ve kind of felt that during the course of my career we went from being good guys in the ’70s and mid-80s to being the bad guys in a lot of people’s eyes in the ’90s,” he said.
He said that hatchery operators have learned as they’ve gone along in a business that’s relatively new, particularly about the differences between various strains of fish.
“For the first 100 years, we really didn’t know what we were doing,” he said. “We thought a coho salmon was a coho salmon.”
Nyara noted there are a lot of competing interests and opinions regarding raising fish to be released in the state?s lakes and rivers, ranging from those who oppose placing hatchery fish in the state’s waters to those who get angry when the run of hatchery fish drops in a particular year.
“I don’t necessarily disagree with those who advocate 100 percent natural fish,” he said. “But wild fish and hatchery fish can co-exist. By having runs of hatchery fish, we take the pressure off the wild fish.”
He said there is plenty of evidence that hatchery programs have been successful in restoring fish to Oregon’s rivers, including the South Santiam, in which the fish traps at Foster Dam are turning out increasing numbers of wild fish, which now can only be caught and released by anglers.
“Some day the wild populations will be built up enough that people can fish and keep what they catch again,” he predicted.
The Sweet Home hatchery produces spring-run Chinook salmon and summer steelhead, the fish that have historically run in the South Santiam River, he said.
Nyara said he’s taken some heat from the public over this year’s reduced numbers.
“Until 2005, we had phenomenal runs,” he said. “The 2005 run has been the level we had back in the late ’90s.”
He said the differences in the numbers of fish are due to natural cycles.
“The ocean is the biggest factor,” he said.”But I sure felt like the villain this year. When it gets tough to catch fish, (the public) get critical. Our goal is to put fish in the creel.”
When Nyara gazes at the river flowing past his home, he looks like he’s still thinking fish. But now catching them will be a hobby, not a job any more. And he’s kind of glad. Constant waning budgets and increased demands have taken a toll.
“For the first half of my career, being a state employee was something to take pride in, a respectful position. I don’t feel that way any more,” he said.”It’ll be good not to be a public employee.”