Upper Columbia Salmon Reintroduction: Phase 2 Implementation Plan Guides the Way

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Published: Monday, 17 January 2022 17:33

In October the Upper Columbia United Tribes introduced a visionary, 21-year Phase 2 Implementation Plan (P2IP) to reintroduce salmon above Chief Joseph, Grand Coulee, and Spokane River dams. The cost is projected to be $176 million, or about $8.4 million annually. The plan neatly concludes with the 100-year anniversary of Grand Coulee Dam being completed, the marker for salmon being lost to upper Columbia tribes in the U.S. and Indigenous Nations of Canada.

Said Carol Evans, Chairwoman of the Spokane Tribe of Indians Business Council, “My ancestors’ relationship with salmon is since time immemorial. It’s in our creation and oral stories. Seeing the salmon across the river … so plentiful, so large you could just walk across the river on their backs.”

Summer/fall Chinook and Sockeye are the focus of reintroduction efforts. The expanse of the vision includes potentially opening nearly 1,200 river miles of habitat. Imagine adult salmon once again swimming to the Canadian border and beyond; or taking a right from the Columbia to go over 80 miles up the Spokane River before hanging another right and going more miles up Hangman Creek to the Coeur d’Alene Reservation in Idaho; or moving up other tributaries like the Sanpoil and the Little Spokane rivers.

P2IP builds off the successfully completed Phase 1 Report that was released in 2019 and favorably reviewed by the Independent Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB). In addition, cultural and educational releases that began in 2017 have both captured people’s imagination and demonstrated the efficacy of the effort.

Go to lrf.org to see summaries of Phase 1 efforts in the summer 2021 newsletter or salmon reintroduction webinar.

P2IP Implementation

Using phrases like “stepwise” and “adaptive management,” P2IP reminds one of how NASA approached reaching the moon. Within the vision were complex tasks and subtasks being carried out over years. With each success or failure, adjustments large and small were made to achieve the end goal. “Fortune,” as the proverb says, “favors the brave.”

The scientific framework for salmon reintroduction is grounded in a life cycle model (LCM) developed during Phase 1. As assumptions in the model are tested with on the ground efforts and additional research, the LCM model will be updated to replace assumptions with validated results. Future efforts will then be adjusted accordingly.

During the first six years of P2IP, activities will focus on baseline research studies and establishing interim facilities.

Some highlights:

- Developing facilities to annually raise and release 50,000 – 200,000 juvenile summer/fall Chinook and Sockeye respectively.

- Using acoustic, radio and passive integrated transponders (PIT tags) to evaluate salmon behavior, survival, and sources of mortality as they migrate downstream as juveniles and then return upstream as adults.

- Using trap-and-haul to move returning adults past one or more dams currently blocking their way (Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams on the Columbia River, and Little Falls, Long Lake and Nine Mile dams on the Spokane River).

- In the equivalent of ancestry.com for salmon, using genetic sampling to track generations of salmon families released and where they are returning to.

Salmon Reintroduction Above Grand Coulee: Potential Habitat Areas

Said Conor Giorgi, the Spokane Tribe of Indians Anadromous Program Manager, “Phase 1 involved a lot of tabletop exercises. Phase 2 is research studies to evaluate salmon survival as they migrate out of the Spokane River and upper Columbia, then as adults coming back. This sets us up for Phase 3, which will determine how a permanent reintroduction program can proceed.”

While the number of juveniles being raised and released sounds like a lot, it pales in comparison to the millions released from hatchery programs throughout the Columbia River Basin.

In addition, planners are using existing infrastructure. Said Casey Baldwin, senior research scientist with the Colville Tribes, “Taking advantage of some of the staffing and infrastructure that’s already in place, it’s not a huge build-out.”
Said Tom Biladeau, a Habitat Restoration Biologist with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, “When it comes to restoration, we’re trying to take a holistic approach to how all these ecosystems tie into one another.”

Funding
Various sources such as Washington state, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, tribes, and Avista Utilities have thus far pledged $1.2 million. The tribes are actively working with state and federal partners to achieve the full level of funding necessary to implement P2IP.
“We have always welcomed our neighbors with open arms,” said Hemene “Gene” James, Secretary-Treasurer of the Coeur d’Alene Tribal Council. “We cannot get to our ultimate goal without our friends, without our neighbors, without our adversaries. It’s going to take a large number of peoples and parties to fix a century’s worth of damage.”