Salmon Reintroduction Webinar Attracts Broad Audience
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- Published: Thursday, 01 July 2021 16:34
The Forum’s Upper Columbia Salmon Reintroduction Webinar in May brought together over 200 participants from diverse backgrounds. To view the three-hour webinar, go to
www.lrf.org/webinar.
Many thanks to the Upper Columbia United Tribes (UCUTs) and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) for helping organize the webinar. Here are some highlights and takeaways.
Collaboration Counts
In 2014, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council supported a multi-phase approach to investigate salmon reintroduction as part of adopting their 2014 Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program Amendments. Since then, a 15 Tribes coalition, WDFW and others are putting this approach into practice using best available science.
John Sirois, the UCUT Committee Coordinator and Colville Confederated Tribes member, summarized outcomes of Phase 1 efforts that other presenters built on. He also
thanked the Independent Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB) for their encouraging and thorough review of Phase 1 research.
Culturally, Sirois said matter of factly, “Nearly 80 years without salmon is too long for tribes and the ecosystem. Together, we must bring them back.”
Habitat is Available
A key question is whether sufficient habitat in the mainstem and tributaries above Grand Coulee is available to support reintroduced salmon. The short answer is yes, with Phase 1 studies showing 711 miles available for Chinook. There is also high spawner capacity in the Sanpoil River for Sockeye, while Lake Roosevelt has more than enough production to function as a nursery lake for the species.
Brian Bellgraph, Fisheries Research Scientist with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), summarized a very sophisticated, complex modeling study to evaluate Columbia River mainstem habitat for fall/summer Chinook between Kettle Falls and the Canadian border (about 47 miles).
Relying on thousands of data points and supercomputer processing, a model with an over 90% accurate prediction rate provided encouraging results. 25 to 85 acres of suitable habitat that can support the spawning activities of 6 to 32 thousand adults were found to be available. The majority of, and best, habitat was located from Northport to the Canadian border. This reach of the river is shallower, has swifter flows, and features streambed conditions that are preferred by Chinook.
Assumptions used in the PNNL modeling were based on the range of river flows seen by current hydropower operations. Bellgraph and others also noted there are encouraging indicators of habitat availability on the Canadian side of the Columbia River.
Donor Stocks and Risks to Resident Fish
Phase 1 studies show non-ESA donor stocks are available. A major point of investigation, however, is assuring reintroduction of salmonids does not become counterproductive by introducing diseases to resident fish species.
WDFW has taken the lead role in assessing this risk. Jed Varney, Senior Veterinarian in the WDFW Fish Health Unit, presented on this work. Varney explained that Lake Roosevelt is considered a separate watershed from below Chief Joseph Dam because there are diseases found in the lower Columbia that are not found above Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams. Of the 21 fish species in Lake Roosevelt, WDFW and co-managers identified a particular virus (technically termed the IHN MD clade) to be of most concern to Redband Trout.
For adult Chinook to be moved safely to Lake Roosevelt to support Phase 1 activities, WDFW worked with the USGS Western Fisheries Research Center to develop a novel, highly innovative test. In a three-day turn-around, Chinook collected from upper Columbia hatcheries received a clinical exam and test. Those found to be healthy and negative for IHN were cleared for transport to Lake Roosevelt.
Cultural and Educational Releases
Casey Baldwin, a research scientist for the Colville Tribes, and Conor Giorgi, the Anadromous Program Manager for the Spokane Tribe of Indians, described cultural and educational releases as “a parallel path to the phased approach.” Here, the focus is on supporting and reconnecting with tribal cultural ceremonies, outreach, educational programs, and harvest opportunities. Said Giorgi, “This is about reconnecting the people with salmon and the salmon with the habitat.”
2019 saw the initiation of ceremonial adult Chinook releases. With these releases, managers also included a science-based component to add to the scientific awareness and understanding of the phased approach.
Although the pandemic did not make ceremonial releases possible in 2020, the Colville Tribes were able to release 50 summer Chinook adults with acoustic tags into Lake Roosevelt, and 100 adults with pit tags into the Sanpoil tributary. Acoustic tags emit a signal that allows receivers located throughout the river system to track fish movements.
Baldwin noted that data from tracking these fish is currently being analyzed. Already, however, managersreported that salmon released are pinging receivers in Canada and below Chief Joseph Dam.
After release of salmon into the Sanpoil in August, 36 redds (a spawning nest) over a five-mile reach were counted in October. Baldwin commented “That of the 100 fish released, only 38 were female. So this suggests a really high conversion rate of fish released to redds counted.”
Giorgi reported that the Spokane Tribe also conducted adult releases of summer/fall Chinook in 2020. Fifty were released into Tshimikain Creek and 50 released into the Spokane River. In the fall, 15 redds were counted in Tshimikain Creek.
In addition, the Spokane Tribe and Coeur d’Alene Tribe released juvenile Chinook in 2020. The Coeur d’Alene tribal release was in Hangman Creek, a tributary of the Spokane River that is over 70 miles from the Columbia. Of the more than 1,400 juveniles released, 69 successfully migrated past 3 dams on the Spokane River as well as Grand Coulee Dam and Chief Joseph Dam, none of which have fish passage facilities.
Lastly, Giorgi reported that of the 90 juveniles released in 2017 that successfully made the journey to the ocean, four were found coming back up the Columbia. Said Giorgi, “These cultural and educational releases are demonstrations of the feasibility of returning Chinook to the blocked area. They give us a lot of hope of what’s to come.”
Said Rodney Cawston, the Colville Tribal Business Council Chair, at one of the ceremonial releases, “We have strong prayers today because our ancestors, our elders at the Ceremony of Tears, they had strong prayers that one day we could see these fish return back to the river, back to our people.”
Phase 2: What’s Next
Thomas Biladeau, a Habitat Restoration Biologist with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, gave the public the first view of the Phase 2 plan that is expected to be released this summer.
Phase 2 will further evaluate the feasibility of fish passage and salmon persistence in the region. Biladeau describes it as “where the paddle meets the water,” its
objectives include:
• Test the key biological assumptions made in Phase 1
considered critical for the success of the reintroduction
effort.
• Establish the sources of Chinook and Sockeye donor
stocks and broodstock that will be used to produce
the juveniles and adults required to conduct biological
studies and test fish passage facilities.
• Develop the interim passage and hatchery facilities
required to evaluate reintroduction.
• Provide the data and analyses needed for Phase 3
decision-making. This includes data necessary to
determine the need, type, and costs of permanent fish
passage systems and hatchery production facilities.
Phase 2 is projected to take a minimum of twenty years and over $100 million to complete, although the total cost and time depends on the outcome of studies completed in the first stage. The first stage will occur over the next 6 years, and includes developing hatchery and rearing capacity, establishing a trap-and-haul upstream fish passage program, and a suite of behavior and survival studies.
The hatchery and rearing facilities envisioned will supportreleasing 100,000 or more juvenile Chinook and Sockeye annually.
An early study being developed with USGS focuses on juvenile Chinook survival. Acoustic telemetry would assess survival across dams, juvenile behavior as they approach dams, and the migratory habits from multiple release locations. Managers would also like to expand this study to include movements of juvenile Sockeye to be released in the Sanpoil River.
A large-scale PIT tag study would be used to assess things like how far downstream juveniles are making it, how many are coming back from the ocean, and how those returning adults can be collected for transport and studied for behavior in the blocked area.
Said Biladeau, “Over these first few years, we have a pretty good idea of what things will look like. Specific steps and needs for adaptive management get hazier the farther out we try to see. Monitoring and studies will help us choose how to continue to progress.”
Securing sufficient funding to fully implement Phase 2 is a challenge. To date, the Bonneville Power Administration has declined to use Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program funding to support efforts. In the meantime, tribes and partners such as WDFW will continue to seek funding from other sources to fund Phase 2 as best they can.
Partner Enthusiasm
The webinar concluded with leaders from the Colville Confederated Tribes (Jared Erickson), NW Power and Conservation Council (Patty O’Toole), Stevens County (Wes McCart), WDFW (Chris Donley), and the UCUTs (DR Michele). To a one, they were complimentary and enthusiastic about progress to date.
Michele noted that the tribes commissioned an economics report that showed the value and need to properly balance power and flood risk management benefits with the value of protecting and restoring ecosystem functions “for the benefit of all people.”
McCart commented that “Nature finds a way. We just need to help it along a little bit here. I’m excited about where this may go, and as local elected officials we’ve been very supportive of what the UCUTs are doing.”
O’Toole encouraged all sovereigns and stakeholders to “increase communication and coordination” to meet the challenge of achieving multi-jurisdictional support. “These issues are complex and what I’ve learned is that it’s really easy to talk past each other.”
Donley built on O’Toole’s comments, saying “There are a lot of challenges at the federal level and the state level to figure out who has what authorities to make this a reality. But the biggest challenge beyond policy, the technical and the bureaucratic, is to be aspirational. To stay focused on what’s right culturally and environmentally. The aspirational and coordination can lead us to get beyond today’s general rules and thinking of what’s allowed to go on above and below Grand Coulee Dam.”
Jarred Erickson summarized the general feeling and those of the tribes when he said, “It just warms my heart to see us moving forward on all of this. If you think about it, the
Columbia River is like a big artery that goes to our heart. At our cultural release ceremonies, there were elders crying. This is our way of life.”