Salmon Reintroduction Takes Shape

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Published: Wednesday, 03 July 2024 17:07

With $200 million dollars over 20 years plus additional federal and state dollars pledged, Upper Columbia United Tribes salmon reintroduction efforts are taking shape.

Said Casey Baldwin, Research Scientist for the Colville Tribes, “The agreement was signed in September (2023). But because we developed the Phase 1 report and the Phase 2 Implementation Plan several years ago, we’ve been able to hit the ground running. We’ve been implementing pilot projects. Now that the P2IP agreement has been signed we’re ramping up capacity with staffing, contracts and a range of other needs to evaluate the feasibility of salmon reintroduction.”

From a life cycle perspective, current research efforts are focused on outmigration of juveniles going downstream and adults preparing to spawn.

Juveniles from several hatcheries are providing non-ESA listed summer Chinook that are then transferred to acclimation facilities such as net pens throughout the region. Before release, they are being tagged to study their downstream migration patterns. Between last fall and this spring, approximately 165,000 juvenile summer Chinook salmon were released into the blocked area of the upper Columbia.

Sourcing sockeye has proved more challenging because, notes Coeur d’Alene Tribe Anadromous Division Lead Tom Biladeau, “among other factors, one of the only hatcheries that raises them is in Canada.”

Adult Chinook are being sourced from the Douglas PUD Wells Hatchery, then placed in Lake Rufus Woods, Lake Roosevelt, the Spokane River and their tributaries to monitor spawning and other behaviors. For previously released juveniles that make their way back up the Columbia as adults, managers are planning to use trap and haul at Wells and Chief Joseph Dams to get them into the “blocked” area to repatriate them.

A long list of infrastructure and research projects are also on the drawing board. This includes development of a Coeur d’Alene Tribe acclimation facility at Sqweyu’ on Hangman Creek within Spokane city limits, a Spokane Tribe of Indians acclimation facility on the Little Spokane, and Colville Confederated Tribes net pens in the Sanpoil Arm of Lake Roosevelt and an acclimation facility in the San Poil watershed. Juvenile salmon will reside at these locations to “imprint” to these watersheds, effectively letting them know where ‘home’ is when they return as adults.

Long term, researchers will also be planning fish passage facilities, performing research needed for their design, and a host of other considerations needed to achieve the ultimate goal of full-scale reintroduction and permanent passage. Said Conor Giorgi, Spokane Tribal Anadromous Program Manager, “We’re being consistent with taking a phased, best available science approach to bringing salmon back.”