The Osprey Journal January 2022

THE OSPREY The International Journal of Salmon and Steelhead Conservation Issue No. 101

January 2022

Commercial Fisheries Affect Columbia River Chinook Size and Age Classes

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: • CONSERVATION BY GEAR, METHODS AND SEASONS • SALMONBERRY RIVER DATA COLLECTION PROJECT • BIG BENEFITS FROM SMALL DAM REMOVAL ON THE CLEVELAND NATIONAL FOREST

Contents Columns & News 3

From the Perch — Editor’s Message

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Hits and Misses — Chair’s Corner

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Fish Watch: Wild Fish News, Issues and Initiatives

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Letters to the Editor

THE OSPREY Chair Pete Soverel Editor Jim Yuskavitch Editorial Committee Pete Soverel • Dave Peterson • Greg Knox Bruce McNae • Brian Braidwood Rich Simms • Ryan Smith Kurt Beardslee • Guy Fleischer Scientific Advisors Rick Williams • Jack Stanford Jim Lichatowich • Bill McMillan Bill Bakke • Michael Price Design & Layout Jim Yuskavitch

Features 6

Ocean Commercial Fisheries and Impact Columbia River Chinook Salmon Size and Age Classes

By Ed Wickersham and Jack Tipping

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The Osprey Has a New Website!

By Sarah Lonigro

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The Salmonberry River Data Collection Project

By Joyce Sherman

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Big Benefits from Small Dam Removal on the Cleveland National Forest

The Osprey is published by: Wild Salmon Rivers 16430 72nd Avenue, West Edmonds, WA 98026 Letters To The Editor The Osprey welcomes letters to the editor and article queries.

The Osprey 69278 Lariat Sisters, OR 97759 jyusk@bendcable.com (541) 549-8914 The Osprey is a joint publication of not-for-profit organizations concerned with the conservation and sustainable management of wild Pacific salmon and steelhead and their habitat throughout their native and introduced ranges. This unique partnership includes The Conservation Angler, Fly Fishers International, Steelhead Society of British Columbia, SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, Wild Salmon Center, Wild Fish Conservancy, World Salmon Forum, Wild Steelhead Coalition and Trout Unlimited. Financial support is provided by partner organizations, individuals, clubs and corporations. The Osprey is published three times a year in January, May and September. All materials are copyrighted and require permission prior to reprinting or other use.

By Kirsten Winter

Cover Photo Courtesy NASA; Cover Inset Photo by Ian Fergusson 2

The Osprey © 2022 ISSN 2334-4075

The Osprey

FROM THE PERCH — EDITOR’S MESSAGE

The Osprey Goes to Sea

by Jim Yuskavitch

I

t’s no mystery that the ocean is a mysterious place, largely unexplored despite our advanced technology.

But the sea does give up some of its secrets — most recently living sponges beneath an Antarctic ice sheet, a fluorescent shark and mammoth tusks 10,000 feet down on the ocean floor.

When it comes to salmon and steelhead, despite a plethora of research, much of their activities at sea remain a mystery as well. For anadromous fish, natural ocean cycles and conditions play a major role in the health of various runs, often cited by fisheries managers — especially when returns are poor. But there is much more going on beneath the ocean’s surface that is a direct result of human activities and fish management policies that are often detrimental to salmon and steelhead. Like salmon and steelhead, The Osprey also spends its share of time at sea in the service of wild fish conservation.

In recent years, The Osprey has researched and published articles on many ocean management issues and policies that have direct, and often negative, impacts on wild salmon and steelhead. These have included the effects of Atlantic salmon farming off the coasts of British Columbia and Washington State on juvenile wild Pacific salmon and steelhead, as well as the farms’ detrimental influence on the forage fish that make up an important component of the salmonid diet. We have also investigated and critiqued British Columbia’s less than genuine attempt to close some of its commercial ocean salmon fisheries as well as sounding the alarm over the massive numbers of hatchery pink salmon being loosed upon the North Pacific Ocean ecosystem.

In this issue, The Osprey has put out to sea again with a cover story by researchers Ed Wickersham and Jack Tipping detailing how ocean fisheries — and particularly the troll fishery in off the coast of Washington State — is resulting in

smaller, and younger, spawning ages for Columbia River Chinook salmon. Columbia River spring Chinook are a critical food source for the declining Southern Resident orca population, and the troll fishery is almost certaining negatively affecting recovery efforts. Currently, five Columbia/Snake River basin Chinook salmon runs are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. The Osprey will continue its metaphorical sea voyages through the research and writing of scientists and others who are working to peel back the secrets of sea-going salmon and steelhead so that we can ensure that they prosper during that critical stage of their life histories.

The Osprey explores the vast Pacific Ocean on behalf of wild salmon and steelhead through scientific research and investigative journalism. Photo by Jim Yuskavitch

How The Osprey Helps Wild Fish The Osprey has been bringing the latest science, policy, opinion and news stories to its readers supporting wild Pacific salmon and steelhead conservation and management for 35 years. But we are much more than a publication that you subscribe to because of your own interest in wild fish conservation.

The funds we receive from our subscribers allows us to send The Osprey to wild fish conservation decision-makers and influencers including scientists, fisheries managers, politicians and wild fish advocates.

January 2022 • Issue No. 101

Sending The Osprey to decision makers is key to our wild fish conservation advocacy.

Your support makes that possible.

So when you subscribe/donate to The Osprey, you not only receive a subscription yourself, but you also help us put The Osprey into the hands of the people we need bring to our side to save our wild fish.

Please go to the subscription/donation form on page 23 or on-line at www.ospreysteelhead.org/donation and donate whatever you are able.

Thank you.

Jim Yuskavitch Editor, The Osprey

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HITS & MISSES — CHAIR’S CORNER

Long Time, Little Progress

By Pete Soverel

W

e open on a sad note: Frank Moore, North Umpqua fly fishing legend, passed away at 98 early this month.

Founder and original owner of the Steamboat Inn on the famed North Umpqua River he was a decorated World War II and D-Day invasion veteran, determined steelhead conservationist, friend, mentor and icon of the North Umpqua. In recognition of decades long conservation work, Congress established a 100,000 acre wild steelhead management zone along the North Umpqua River — The Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Sanctuary — a fitting tribute to a true friend of wild steelhead, defender of our nation, citizen and a life well lived. He is survived by Jeanne, his wife of nearly 80 years. A hard act to follow!

Still Failing, After All these Years For over three decades, The Osprey has chronicled the steady slide of wild steelhead towards oblivion with stock after stock winked out or listed as threatened or endangered. In this author’s opinion, the responsible agencies have been completely ineffective in sustaining wild populations: In 1991, Willa Nehlsen, Jack Williams and Jim Lichatowich sounded the clarion alarm, publishing “Pacific Salmon at the Crossroads: Stocks at Risk from California, Oregon, Idaho, Oregon and Washington” in Fisheries Magazine.

Agency responses included dismissal, disparagementand inaction; from 1991 onward: sequential listing of virtually all PNW stocks (Olympic Peninsuls and northern California stocks excepted) listed as already extinct or threatened/endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. Agency responses were more or less substituting minor changes to recreational angling regulations for real recovery plans, changes to management regimes, general lack of consistency among and between states on steelhead fishing

regulations (California, Oregon, Idaho, eastern Washington) minor changes to fishing regulations, little adjustments to stocking plans, etc.; in western Washington there has been wide-spread angling closures between February and May. There is complete lack of any comprehensive recovery plans with associated monitoring protocols or adaptive management criteria. In other words, thirty years of listings, nothing effective has been done except to restrict sports fishers; almost no significant changes to hatchery practices; no discernable programs to remove passage blocking culverts; etc.

This sad state of affairs did not sneak up on us. Agencies have been well aware of their responsibilities under the ESA to develop and implement wild salmon and steelhead recovery plans.

This sad state of affairs did not sneak up on us. Agencies have been well aware of their responsibilities under the ESA to develop and implement recovery plans, hatchery management plans, genetic management plans, fisheries management plans, all with real monitoring and adaptive management to assess the efficacy of the plans. Instead of taking these actions required under the ESA, state fish and wildlife commissions simply ignored these requirements never tasked the agencies they directed to comply with the ESA requirements. And this more or less universal failure to comply was accepted by NOAA? Of course developing effective recov-

ery strategies and implementation of said plans is challenging, would face squeals from various gored oxen, threats from executive and legislative bodies and so on. However, none of these factors justify simply turning a blind eye to the wide-spread collapse of wild salmon and steelhead populations and compliance with ESA legal requirements. All the agencies had at their disposal a whole range of management options. Indeed, The Osprey raised these issues directly in 2010. Similarly, we noted the need for more restrictive regulatory regimes for guides over 30 years ago in my article, “The Trouble with Guides”, in The Osprey #6.

Below, is my article, reprinted from the January 2010 issue of The Osprey, analyzing angling regulations and how to adjust them to meet steelhead and salmon conservation objectives:

Gear, Methods and Seasons

By Pete Soverel The Osprey, January 2010 It is no secret to readers of The Osprey that wild steelhead stocks up and down the Pacific coast are (and have been for many years) in steep decline.

Sadly, for the most part, management agencies have invested relatively little effort and fewer resources to determine the factors contributing to these declines other than pointing to “ocean conditions” as a blanket cause. With few exceptions, management agencies have not even documented the extent of the declines against either historic or more recent levels of abundance, which have been particularly pronounced among Salish Sea (Puget Sound, Hood Canal, Georgia Basin) populations. Nor has the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife initiated actions that would help populations rebound such as: 1. Eliminating or even reducing hatchery plantings (known to be harmful to wild stocks).

2. Using hydrological permitting authority to force passage compliance for Continued on next page

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culverts.

3. Using the Clean Water Act to limit pollutants (road run-off; agricultural contaminants; failed septic systems, hatchery effluent, etc.).

4. Using the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act to prevent habitat degradation, and so on.

More typically, management agencies have responded to declining wild populations by simply closing the rivers to angling either altogether or effective February 16 — a date chosen to protect spawning and late returning wild steelhead, while permitting angling for hatchery fish. These early closures now apply to scores of Washington rivers during March and April, which coincides with the present run timing of most wild steelhead stocks.

These policies have many negative consequences without much in the way of benefits to wild stocks. First, these closures dramatically reduce angling opportunity, while simultaneously concentrating angling pressure (and mortality) on the relatively few systems that remain open in March/April, while leaving scores of rivers bereft of anglers for six months or more each year.

Second, rivers without anglers are rivers without defenders. Nobody cares more about rivers and their fish than anglers. Anglers without rivers to fish soon turn to other pursuits, permanently robbing our precious resources of defenders and sources of financial support. Rivers without anglers are open only to poachers. For these two reasons alone, closures are a bad idea, especially closures of non-harvest fisheries. Consider the Suiattle River, which has been closed to winter steelhead angling since 1976. How many times has that wild river been patrolled during the winter season during the past thirty plus seasons? Probably never. So for the past 30 plus years, the only people who have fished the Suiattle are the many local poachers. They fish in solitude while law-abiding anglers are deprived of a near-wilderness fishery two hours from Seattle.

Management agencies should be more proactive, adopting regimes that restore angling opportunity, but limit mortality, coupled with real recovery programs. Gear and method regulations offer a variety of options to limit the “efficiency” of anglers (i.e. lower encounter rates), which preserves an-

January 2022 • Issue No. 101

gling opportunity and reduces anglerinduced mortality. This concept has long been utilized in the hunting community — less efficient methods allow for more people to hunt for longer periods. For instance: no “robo” or live decoys or baiting, steel shot requirements, magazine capacity limitations, bans on sneak boats, punt guns, sunk blinds, shooting from boats under power regs for duck hunters; baiting prohibitions for bear hunting, prohibition on the use of dogs for bear and cougar hunting; special/extended seasons for primitive weapons (archery/muzzle loaders); special seasons for “master hunters;” extended falconry seasons; limited entry hunts; trophy tag lotteries; motor vehicle closed areas; prohibitions against “spotlighting”; and so on. These restrictions are in general use throughout the U.S. and Canada and are widely accepted by the hunting public.

Hunters who want to hunt for longer periods take up archery hunting, for example. They spend more time in the field, but because archery hunting is less “effective” than rifle hunting, these added hunter days do not result in excess harvest of game animals. These same concepts should be applied to gear/method restrictions in angling. Restrictions to limit the efficiency of anglers (i.e. limit the lethal impacts on wild stocks) increase angling opportunity without harm to wild steelhead.

The potential menu is extensive: 1. Ban the use of bait. Bait is many times more effective than other lures for steelhead. Additionally, we know that preservatives used to cure salmon eggs are lethal to juvenile salmon, cutthroat and steelhead.

2. No fishing from boats. Regulations requiring bank fishing only immediately provide extensive in-river sanctuaries and greatly reduce the encounter rate. I am quite sure we would also see a dramatic increase in civilized behavior by requiring boat anglers to disembark and mingle with the bank anglers instead of simply fishing through the run without regard for shore anglers.

3. Catch-and-release. The mortality associated with catch and release steelhead angling is low—certainly less than 4% (based upon long-term studies in British Columbia). Even if every steelhead in the population were hooked at least once during the season the mortality from hooking would be minimal.

More typically, exploitation rates, especially if restricted to fly fishing only, will be much less than 100%, further reducing overall mortality.

4. Fly fishing only. For steelhead, fly fishing is by far the least efficient method and therefore provides the greatest angling opportunity, while causing the lowest impact on wild stocks. Studies conducted in B.C. suggest that fly-fishing is about one-sixtieth as efficient as gear fishing (i.e. one gear fisherman equals 60 fly fishers in terms of encounter rates and resulting hooking mortality). The efficiency of fly fishing can be further reduced by requiring the use of floating fly lines, banning weighted flies and so on.

5. Establishing limited entry or draw/lottery fisheries, such as practiced for Atlantic salmon and, increasingly, by BC steelhead managers. If kill fisheries are authorized, the department might sell limited numbers of river specific tags.

6. Limiting the number of guides licensed on particular waters.

7. Limiting the number of fish caught and released (or hooked) per day.

In other words, gear and method restrictions should be employed as conservation tools. They are not some sort of class warfare, but rather provide mechanisms to provide for maximum angler opportunity while limiting lethal impacts. Additionally, there is also a natural relationship between numbers of fish and numbers of anglers. As the fish population declines, so does the number of anglers and thus the exploitation rate and associated mortality and, when coupled with stringent gear/method restrictions, reduces angler induced mortality to very low levels indeed. It is a natural phenomenon.

If there are few fish, there will be few fishermen who will catch an even smaller percentage of the total.

Consider how this might work in practice on say the Skykomish River, where wild steelhead are listed under the Endangered Species Act. The 2010 run is predicted to be in the range of 2,700 wild steelhead — well below the escapement goal. Consider the consequences of different gear/method regimes: Option A: Current Regulations December 1 - February 16: wild steelContinued on page 23

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Ocean Commercial Fisheries Impact Columbia River Chinook Salmon Size and Age Classes

By Ed Wickersham and Jack Tipping

W

e examined the Coded Wire Tag (CWT) database for harvest distribution and mean age-athatchery return for several stocks of endangered Lower Columbia River Chinook salmon. Results confirmed Chinook salmon average age-at-return is now about 4 months shorter than in the 1970s, probably due to the ocean fishery removing primarily immature fish destined to spawn at older ages. From a conservation perspective, the exploitation rates on hatchery fish reflect impacts on wild stocks because most ocean fisheries are non-selective. Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed populations of Chinook salmon probably cannot recover while prosecuting mixed stock fisheries on immature fish at 30-60% exploitation rates in the ocean, not including unrecorded mortality or exploitation in natal streams. Not only are Chinook Salmon at risk but also other animals that depend on them. That point has been recognized by the Washington State Governor’s Southern Resident Orca Task Force (Inslee 2018) which set as its first priority “Increase the abundance of Chinook salmon.”

Our results substantiated that relatively few fish were caught off the Washington coast by Oregon or Washington sport anglers while most ocean harvest occurred with commercial or sport anglers in other saltwater areas, including over 46,000 Chinook salmon by a small number of Washington commercial trollers. Economic analysis showed that the troll fishery cost three times more than it generated, not including the value of fish lost from high rates of bycatch. We recommend that ocean fisheries be mark-selective (wild fish release), exploitation rates be reduced, that ocean harvest be directed to terminal areas, and that the non-tribal troll fishery harvest be redistributed.

Species Act (ESA) in the 1990s and since then, billions of dollars have been spent with little or no movement towards recovery. Of actions taken, there

Chinook salmon have decreased in size greatly since the 1920s because non-maturing individuals were taken by the troll fishery, which has also lowered the proportion of older age classes. has been little attention given to the ocean exploitation along the Pacific Coast from California to Alaska. Washington and Columbia River stocks of

Chinook salmon generally migrate between Washington and Alaska (Trudel et al. 2009). Current exploitation from the Columbia River to Southeast Alaska, excluding tributaries, was estimated at 953,000 Chinook salmon in 2019 by the Pacific Marine Fisheries Commission (Table 1, PMFC 2020).

Such harvest may impair recovery and influence age-at-return of naturally occurring Chinook salmon populations and those animals that depend on them.

In fact, 40 years ago, Ricker (1981) reported that Chinook salmon had decreased greatly in both size and age since the 1920s because non-maturing individuals were taken by the troll fishery, hence individuals that matured at older ages were harvested more intensively, which decreased the percentage of older ones available both directly and cumulatively because the spawners included an excess of younger fish.

More recently, Ohlberger et al. (2018) examined Pacific coast Chinook populations and determined that proportions of older age classes have decreased Continued on next page

Introduction Almost every stock of Chinook salmon in the Columbia River and Puget Sound was listed under the Endangered

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Nearly a million Chinook salmon were harvested in ocean waters between southeast Alaska and the Columbia River in 2019, affecting population recovery and the age of returning spawners. Photo by Ricardo Rossi, Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License

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over time in most regions. In addition, the Washington State Governor’s Southern Resident Orca Task Force set “increasing the abundance of Chinook salmon” as its’ first priority (Inslee 2018). We examined the Coded-wire tag (CWT) database for harvest and age distribution of Chinook salmon from some Columbia River hatcheries to determine if Ricker’s (1981) and Ohlberger et. al. (2018) observations remain correct, and if changes are needed to management of Chinook salmon stocks.

The PFMC manages Chinook salmon harvest based on expected stock survivals. As an example, PFMC currently manages the lower Columbia River tule stock of Chinook salmon for 38% exploitation. However, this exploitation rate resulted in harvest closures on hatchery fish for the last two years in the Cowlitz River due to insufficient hatchery escapement. Meanwhile, escapement of wild fish on the Cowlitz River has been insufficient to allow sport harvest on fall Chinook for the last 7 years ever since mark-selective (wild fish release) fish management was implemented for Chinook salmon, and above-dam reintroduction efforts of spring Chinook have been greatly hampered by low returns.

Understanding life history characteristics of Chinook salmon is important to this issue. Bergman (2016) stated that male Chinook mature at an average younger age than female Chinook.

Some mature after a single year in the ocean and never reach the minimum size for harvest. Three year males are

Status quo fish management will result in continuously smaller, less fecund Chinook salmon and ultimately collapsed fisheries. Photo by Jim Yuskavitch. common, and some mature at four or five years. Females rarely mature at less than three, and in unexploited populations four year fish are common and some mature at five. A few fish of both sexes mature at six. Most Chinook can be legally caught during their third year, so fish that mature at four or five years are available to the fishery for two or three years, while three year fish are available for only one year. If the maturity schedule was the same for both sexes, older fish would be exploited more heavily in general, since males leave the fishery sooner, the result is females suffer the greatest from harvest, especially large females with their greater fecundity.

Methods, CWT Analysis The CWT database, maintained for over 50 years, was examined for harvest distribution of Chinook salmon from the Columbia River. CWTs are small pieces of wire inscribed with a code that are injected in the snout of juvenile salmon. When salmon are subsequently recovered, they are scanned for presence of a tag, and if present, the fish’s snout is removed and sent to a lab for tag recovery and decoding. The tag number is then entered into the Regional Mark Processing Center (rmpc.org) database which can be accessed by interested parties. Releases at several Columbia River hatcheries, including Oregon Fish and Wildlife’s Sandy River Hatchery, were examined in the most recent years (e.g. 2014-15) where all recoveries would be recorded within the CWT database due to lag time in database updates. If the sample size was small, we expanded the release years as noted in the table. Although CWTs are primarily used on hatchery origin fish, they provide an accurate assessment of how these fisheries impact wild Chinook salmon because almost none of the ocean-based fisheries for Chinook salmon are mark-selective.

The CWT database was also used to determine mean age-at-hatchery return from the 1970s compared to more recent years. Average ages were determined for year classes by weighted Continued on next page

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returns to hatcheries and spawning grounds for Age 3 and older fish. For example, a CWT hatchery return of 100 Age 3 fish, 150 Age 4 fish, 200 Age 5 fish would have a weighted mean age of 4.2 yrs.

Economic Analysis We did an economic analysis of the Washington troll fishery for benefit:cost ratio. We used hatchery production costs as a metric and assumed a juvenile-to-adult survival of 0.5% for spring and fall Chinook combined (ranges from 0.12% for fall Chinook to 0.80% for spring Chinook), an average size at release of 25 fish/lb (springs typically 5/lb, falls 80/lb), and a hatchery rearing cost of $15/lb. Since we were unable to ascertain actual rearing costs for salmon at Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife hatcheries, our hatchery rearing cost number was derived from what private trout farms charge ($6/lb). However, since most private trout farms use gravity fed spring water rather the pumped surface water, we increased the cost to a conservative $7.50/lb to cover pumping costs, administrative costs, fish health staff, marking costs, etc. Plus, we added another $7.50/lb for 30 yr amortization of capital costs of hatchery construction, making a total of $15/lb. A hatchery costing $50 million to construct with a life expectancy of 30

yrs would have an amortization costs of $1.67 million per year.

Economic value of commercially harvested Chinook salmon was based on ex-vessel price.

Results The CWT database showed that average Chinook salmon age-at-return declined from 4.13 years in the 1970s to 3.75 years more recently, a difference Cannery workers in the early 20th Century. Imagine if Chiof 4.6 months (Table nook salmon could reach these sizes again. Photo courtesy 2). Since fish grow the authors. with age, today’s Chinook are undoubtedly smaller and stock, 20- 50% of Chinook salmon were therefore, less fecund than those of a harvested by Washington/Oregon sport anglers (Table 3), while most of the refew decades ago.

Sport harvest of Chinook salmon from mainder are caught in commercial or the Columbia River to Southeast recreational fisheries off the coast of Alaska, excluding tributaries, was esti- Alaska and Canada. Sport angler harmated at about 254,000 Chinook salmon vest on the Washington/Oregon coast in 2019 (PMFC 2020). Commercial har- was minor and only comprised 7%, 14% vest of Chinook salmon was about and 1% of spring, fall and summer Chi700,000 fish from Southeast Alaska to nook harvest, respectively. PFMC indithe Columbia River. For Columbia cated that Washington coastal sport River stocks of Chinook salmon, we harvest was distributed as 17% for found that harvest favors ocean-based charter boats and 83% for private commercial and non- Washington/Ore- boats. Meanwhile, other coastal fishgon recreational fisheries. The CWT eries consistently took 30-60% of most database indicated that, depending on stocks before those fish returned to their natal rivers.

The PFMC report had intriguing data for the Washington commercial troll fishery: ‘ Commercial trollers harvested an average of 46,600 Chinook salmon per year in 2016-2019 (Table 4). ‘ The troll season started in early May and continued through September. ‘ Based on fish prices, from $6.19 to $9.33 per pound (dressed) and on mean fish size, Chinook salmon brought an average of $85 each at the dock. ‘ A 26% bycatch mortality (undersized fish, etc.) was estimated at 11,500 fish for 2019. ‘ Much of the troll harvest consists of immature Chinook salmon, averaging 6.2 to 11.7 lbs each, depending on year.

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‘ Regarding economic analysis of the troll fishery, it would take about 9,320,000 juveniles weighing 372,800 lbs at a cost of $5.6 million to produce a harvest of 46,600 fish (Table 5). Since the troll harvest valuation was $2.1 million, the troll fishery cost nearly three times more than it generated.

Discussion Our analysis showed a decline in ageat-return for Chinook salmon from the 1970s to recent years, continuing the decrease reported by Ricker (1981) and Ohlberger et. al. (2018) for earlier years. Status quo fish management will result in continuously smaller, less fecund Chinook salmon and ultimately collapsed fisheries. The harvest of immature Chinook salmon in the ocean, exemplified by troll caught fish averaging only 6.2 lbs each in 2019, undoubtedly had negative stock health effects.

Relatively few Chinook salmon from the lower Columbia River were caught by sport anglers off the Washington coast while most were caught by commercial fisheries plus a sizeable take by sport anglers off the coast of Canada and Alaska. In targeting hatchery fish for harvest, reducing offshore fisheries would allow managers to target hatchery fish as the fish get closer to home and provide managers with higher predictability of the stock being targeted.

The Washington troll fishery is problematic, it has high bycatch mortality rates while producing a harvest that

costs nearly three times as much to generate as measured in hatchery fish production.

The Troll fishermen have resisted mark-selective harvest: Bergman (2016) quoted a letter that the Washington Trollers Association sent to Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife that stated “The Washington Trollers are unanimous in that forcing the troll

The Washington troll fishery has high by-catch mortality while producing a harvest that costs nearly three times as much to generate as measured by hatchery fish production. fleet to use the Chinook fin-clipped mark-select method will lead to the demise of the troller fleet”.

Economics of the troll fishery is further confounded because their harvest includes wild fish. Society has spent billions of dollars to save wild Chinook, making those fish incredibly expensive for a fishery that sells them for $8.26/lb.

The fishing gear consists of lighter lines with a lure on one end and a clip

on the other to attach it temorarily to the mainline. Bergman (2016) related that a commercial troller usually pulls four to six mainlines, each with a heavy weight at the terminal end. There are up to four of these fishing lines, called spreads, attached at intervals to each mainline. When a salmon strikes a lure, the fisherman uses one of his winches to pull the mainline with the salmon up to the boat.

With the other mainlines still fishing, stopping the boat to land one fish is not practical so the troller keeps moving and uses his hands to pull the spread and the salmon to the boat’s transom where he can either gaff the fish or pull it aboard.

Determining adipose fin status is difficult but even if the fish is marked, he might have to measure the fish to see if it is legal size. The procedure is not conducive to live release.

In summary, current ocean exploitation rates must be reduced if Chinook salmon are to be recovered in Washington State. By reducing ocean exploitation and implementing selective fisheries, the numbers of Chinook salmon returning to their natal streams will immediately increase, a good step towards recovery. Not only will the number of fish returning increase but they will be larger and perhaps the decline in age-at-return will cease. If we are to save wild Chinook salmon and the animals that depend on them such as Southern Resident killer whales, harvest methods that effectively target hatchery stocks and protect wild fish are needed but will require courage and foresight.

Recommendations ‘ The current exploitation rates set by PFMC need to be greatly reduced. Current harvest rates are unsustainable and obstruct any reasonable chance for stock recovery. Not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars already spent on recovery that after 30 years has resulted in limited population improvement, if any at all. As an example, reducing the 38% tule stock exploitation would allow sufficient hatchery broodstock to return to lower Columbia River hatcheries. In addition, it would allow escapement of wild fish to levels that should facilitate recovery and in some instances allow some harvest within rivers of origin on wild stocks.

For example, the Cowlitz River produces thousands of fish caught out-ofContinued on next page

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basin while anglers on that river are denied harvest. It would also slow the shifting of age at return, and thus, the health of Chinook stocks. ‘ Mixed stock ocean fisheries should be managed for mark-selective harvest to increase wild fish escapement. ‘ Harvest fisheries should be pursued near the mouth or within rivers to reduce encounters with immature fish. ‘ Due to the unwillingness or inability to endorse mark-selective harvest, high bycatch rates, negative benefit-cost rates, and harvests of immature fish in lengthy seasons, we recommend that Washington non-tribal troll fishery licenses be purchased by the state and their harvest be redistributed.

Ed Wickersham worked more than 30 years in Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement, inlcuding three years with NOAA monitoring foreign fishing fleets in the North Pacific and Bering Sea. During his career, much of his work included monitgoring and enforcement of commercial and recreational fisherieis, tribal and non-tribal , inland and marine, domestic and foreign from Alaska to California, icluding Puget Sound and the Columbia River. He retired in 2002 aftwer almost 25 years as a Special Agent with the US Wildlife Service.

Jack Tipping worked 30 years for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife as a fish biologist, mostly involved with hatchery research to improve fish survival. He has authored or co-authored more than 40 journal publications and is past Associate Editor of the North American Journal of Aquaculture. He retired from WDFW in 2005.

References Bergman, P. K. 2016. Caught in the net.

Northwest salmon recovery with no one in charge. An unfinished manuscript due to death, formatted for printing by L. Blankenship, D. Knutzen, G. Vander Haegen and F. Haw, Northwest Marine Technology, Shaw Island, WA. Inslee, J. 2019. Five executive orders to save Southern Resident Orcas in Washington State.

Ohlberger, J., E. Ward, D. Schindler, and B. Lewis. 2018. Demographic changes in Chinook salmon across the Northeast Pacific Ocean. Fish and Fisheries 19(3): 533-546.

Pacific Fishery Management Council.

2020. Review of 2019 Ocean Salmon Fisheries: Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation Document for the Pacific Coast Salmon Fishery Management Plan. Pacific Fishery Management Council, 7700 NE Ambassador Place, Suite 101, Portland, Oregon 97220-1384.

Ricker, William. 1981. Changes in the average size and average age of Pacific salmon. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 38: 1636-1656.

Trudel, M. and eight co-authors. 2009.

Distribution and migration of juvenile Chinook salmon derived from coded wire tag recoveries along the continental shelf of western North America. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 138:1369–1391.

Comments on 2022 Washington, Oregon and California Ocean Salmon Fisheries Plan to Open NOAA Fisheries will be opening a comment period on the development of the 2022 ocean salmon management measures for commercial, tribal, and recreational salmon fisheries off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California. These comments will be used by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) to make final recommendations for the 2022 management measures. The Council will develop alternatives for 2022 ocean salmon fishery management at the March 2022 Council meeting before selecting the recommended 2022 ocean salmon fishery management measures at their April 2022 meeting.

The Pacific Fisheries Managment Council will develop salmon managment at its March 8-14, 2022 meeting. Those alternatives will be posted on the Council’s website at https://www.pcouncil.org beginning on March 22, 2022.

Written comments can be submitted electronically to Mr. Marc Gorelnik, Chair, Pacific Fisheries Managment Council though the the Federal e-Rulemanking Portal. Go to https://www.regulations.gov and enter NOAA-NMFS-2022-0001 in the Search box. Click on the “Comment” tab, complete the required fields, and enter or attach your comments. All personal identifying information ( e.g., name, address, etc.), confidential business information, or otherwise sensitive information submitted voluntarily by the sender will be publicly accessible. NMFS and the Council will accept anonymous comments (enter “N/A” in the required fields if you wish to remain anonymous). Hardcopy comments can be sent to: Pacific Fishery Management Council, 7700 NE Ambassador Place, Suite 101, Portland, OR 97220-1384. A series of meeting in Washington, Oregon and California will also be scheduled for hearing public comment.

Written comments via the Federal Register notice (87 FR 4869) must be received electronically or in hard copy prior to the April 2022 Council meeting. NOAA Fisheries will publish a final rule in May 2022 to implement these management measures.

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January 2022 • Issue No. 101

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The Salmonberry River Data Collection Project Citizen scientists compile long term wild fish database

By Joyce Sherman

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his year, 2022, will be the 30th year of the Salmonberry Collection Data River Salmon Trout Enhancement Program (STEP) project, a program sponsored by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to facilifisheries-related volunteer tate projects. My husband Marty Sherman and I started this project in 1993 to collect data on a healthy run of wild winter steelhead over five years for baseline data. The Salmonberry seemed a perfect place to establish what needs to be present for a run of wild fish to prosper.

Wild River, Wild Fish The Salmonberry River originates in a remote area of the Coast Range in Northwestern Oregon, flowing 20 miles through temperate rainforest before entering the Nehalem River. All of the Salmonberry’s fish populations — salmon and trout as well as steelhead — are wild.

The only industrial activity within the entire basin is timber harvest and, formerly, the Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad (POTBRR), which only ran about once a week. There is a small group of cabins and Salmonberry Lodge at the mouth of the river, but the only roads

Over decades of working on fish conservation on the Salmonberry, I have learned the basic fact that wild fish are more adaptable than hatchery fish.

within the basin were built to harvest timber. One member of the original Oregon Trout Committee Steelhead group, Randy Stetzer, has continued to survey every year.

Over decades of working in fish conservation on the have I Salmonberry, learned these basic facts: wild fish are more adaptable than hatchery fish; have more stable redd counts; destructive shortindustrial rotation forestry needs to be stopped and; volunteers can do a great job of data collection that government agencies can never afford to do.

The first year, we did everything wrong! We surveyed the North Fork Salmonberry River before fish could get over the falls at its lower end. We Wolf Creek flats surveyed With an all wild fish population, the Salmonberry River is perfect for developing a salmon and steel- after the fish had finished head population data base. Photo by Joyce Sherman spawning, and quickly

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learned that redds can disappear within two weeks on a high gradient stream.

We did place temperature monitors in the river, in major tributaries and below each tributary, but the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s closure of the Seaside office meant that our data was lost. That taught us to keep copies of all the data ourselves!

Fortunately, Ian Fergusson joined the project in 1994. In addition to doing a full share of surveying, he has carefully managed the data ever since, shaping it into easily-understood reports. We also learned that it was necessary to tether water temperature monitors to something stable in order to prevent their loss from high water flows.

Flooding Complications In February, 1996, the fourth year of the project, there was a major flood on Oregon’s north coast. In places, the river was unrecognizable; there were 80 damage sites within the 12 miles of the Port of Tillamook Bay’s railroad that ran through the steep canyons alongside the river. When we made our first spawning survey trip to the river, we found heavy equipment working in it, while fish were spawning. Although ODFW had done two surveys each April since 1971, we had managed to schedule some February and March surveys during 1993-1995. We were pleasantly surprised when our mere three years of data helped ODFW get the repair equipment out of the river and prevented the use of existing boulders to shore up the rail bed to protect the spawning wild steelhead. We were amazed even more by the resiliency of the wild fish to overcome the devastation of the river, and the ability of the river to recover.

Juvenile counts that summer were surprisingly stable. Although in some cases the little fish had been blown down over obstructions, they were present in expectable numbers below the obstruction. There weren’t many juveniles in the North Fork above the falls, but the big pool below the falls was alive with them.

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During the first three years of our project, we became confident that nothing would ever affect this healthy run of wild winter steelhead. However, we had not considered the damage caused by short-rotation industrial forestry, where rivers are never able to recover normal stream flows. Consider the three hundred-year floods in the Salmonberry during the past 30 years: • 1992, some timber thinning, no clear cuts; approximately $2 million in POTBRR damage at $167,000 per mile.

• 1996, extensive timber thinning, some clear cuts; $16 million in POTBRR damage at $1,400,000 per mile.

• 2007, continued thinning and many headwalls clear cut; estimated $57 million in POTBRR damage, $4,750,000 per mile. That marked the end of the Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad — the Port simply could not afford to pay for constant flood damage repairs.

While not all “hundred-year” floods are the same, there does seem to be a relationship between increased timber harvest and far greater damage.

The major flooding in 1996 showed us that we needed to keep collecting spawning and temperature data. We recruited large crews of volunteers so that we could survey consecutive reaches during the same day. Some of the volunteers had never really spent time looking at a river or its fish, so we were able to teach lots of people about the relationship of the basin, the river, and the fish.

In Search of Steelhead, Chinook and Coho We tried to do fall Chinook salmon surveys, but found that it was very difficult to schedule them. The fish don’t enter the river until after the first real fall rains, which often raise river levels, making crossing the main stem dangerous and offering poor visibility (inability to see spawning salmon and their redds). Initially, we tried to survey every weekend, from March through May, but we learned that high river levels often cancelled March surveys, so we concentrated on April and May. Because redds are visible for up to two weeks, we eventually cut back to surveys every other weekend. Because

January 2022 • Issue No. 101

Wild Salmonberry winter steelhead attempting to leap North Falls. Photo by Ian Fergusson the road into the canyon is roughly a thousand feet higher than the summit of Highway 26, we found that December coho salmon surveys were virtually impossible to schedule due to road access conditions.

Those of us who led surveys and taught others how to survey did at least one survey with an ODFW biologist, usually Walt Weber, who was District Biologist based in Tillamook at the time. That and Ian’s carefully-prepared reports of spawning survey data and temperature monitoring meant that ODFW people accepted information we

Even short logging rotations of 35 or 40 years means that coastal rivers will never, ever, be able to recover natural streamflows. learned. In fact, although our temperature monitoring follows Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) guidelines, the way Ian learned to build cases and tethers for monitors is generally accepted although temperature monitoring with tiny, affordable monitors was still very new when we started.

We were able to establish that there is

still a remnant run of summer Chinook salmon, by observing them while retrieving temperature monitors in early September. Ian Fergusson was positive that there should be winter steelhead in the South Fork Salmonberry and confirmed it with a spawning survey. Not only were there fish present, but, probably due to the many shallow areas in the South Fork, they appeared smaller than fish elsewhere in the system.

ODFW agrees that the South Fork fish may be genetically distinct, even though there’s no money available to confirm that with genetic studies. We confirmed that fall Chinook used Wolf Creek Flats for spawning, which was higher than ODFW had believed salmon spawned in the river. Although we were never able to actually schedule coho surveys, at least we confirmed their presence. We have found juvenile coho well up into the system during placement and retrieval of temperature monitors.

Annual surveys from 1973 through 2021 show a pattern of redd counts cycling widely around the long-term average of 24 redds per mile. There is not a discernible trend, either up or down, which indicates a stable population.

Some years, hatchery runs were dismally low, while the wild steelhead population was stable. I remembered Jim Martin (who later became head of the ODFW Fisheries Division) lecturing the first STEP Advisory Committee on how juvenile wild fish will display much better than expected survival rates when there are far fewer of them due to habitat problems. In other words, Continued on next page

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runs — rather than redd counts — are often more stable than might be expected. One of the foundations of STEP was to encourage wild runs whenever possible rather than simply adding more hatchery smolts. When Walt Weber and I surveyed juvenile wild winter steelhead following the 1996 flood, we found that, although many of the small fish had been blown over obstacles such as rapids and falls, the juveniles were present below the obstacles in numbers surprisingly close to normal. In other words, there were fewer fry than normal, but the percent-

age of fry that survived to go out as smolts was higher than normal.

The December 2007 flood made the devastation of the 1996 flood look like almost nothing! The main stem Salmonberry River through the canyon was often bedrock with gravel piled shoulder-high on one side. Although we found little spawning in the main stem and none in the lower three miles of river, the redd counts for the two North Fork surveys were record-breaking! By this time, much of the basin had been clear cut or extensively thinned. In addition, North Fork falls had been notched during the flood, making it easier for steelhead to get over the falls.

Industrial forestry along Wolf Creek, a tributary of the Salmonberry River. The small clump of trees in the middle distance is marked “buffer.” Photo by Joyce Sherman

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The railroad was damaged beyond affordable repair. While the canyon section worked to restore itself to a normal river, the lower river, with its gentler gradient, collected huge amounts of silt sent downstream. After river levels dropped in late May, the gravel was like aggregate, cemented together. There were no redds found in the lower river until 2018, when there was one redd. The following year there were two, and then numbers worth counting in 2020 and 2021 — 12 and 13 seasons after the 2007 flood!

The past few years have seen such dismal returns of salmon and steelhead up and down the Oregon coast that salmon runs have been officially declared disasters, but our redd counts of wild winter steelhead for 2021 were the second highest average for all survey reaches and the highest ever for the lower North Fork at 130 redds per mile. Wild steelhead definitely seem to have abilities to overcome some habitat problems.

The Threat from Industrial Foresty Overall, the Salmonberry Data Collection Project has been far more successful and worthwhile than we ever dreamed it could or would be. Yes, there were early mornings when rain was pounding down and it seemed like a really bad plan to head for the Salmonberry, but I’ve never spent a truly bad day on the river. Even on the days with the worst weather, there were good moments that made me glad to be there.

While we didn’t intend to track the downside of industrial forestry, our data supports the belief that it is not good for rivers or fish — or for people who need domestic water. Towns all along the coast have been forced to declare water restrictions, as early as May this past summer. Roughly 80% of the west side of the Coast Range is managed for industrial forestry; it’s no surprise that coastal rivers like the Siletz report zero stream flows every summer. The Perry & Jones Report, “Summer streamflow deficits from regenerating Douglas-fir forest in the Pacific Northwest, USA,” published in 2016 by Oregon State University reContinued on next page

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perature monitoring results prove that it’s all too real. Unfortunately, in the searchers proved that young trees re- Salmonberry (and other rivers where quire great amounts of water for at extensive timber harvest has been least 40 years. It’s generally agreed by done) it’s simply not possible to sepamany managers that trees continue to rate climate change from the effects of require lots of water for 80 years, or logging. During recent summers, we’ve even longer. Their research showed seen up to 90 consecutive days of temthat extensive logging and conversion peratures too high for steelhead and of natural forest to tree plantations has salmon in the lower river. We’re now resulted in significant long-term low seeing high temperatures as far as 12 miles upstream — the entire main stem during warm years — something we never expected to see.

Last September, when I hiked in to retrieve tempera t u r e monitors in the middle of the month, I found the Salmonberry lower than I had ever imagined it Road failure on Wolf Creek, the uppermost spawning/rearing trib- could be.

Comparing utary of the Salmonberry. Its location high in the watershed should 50 position it as a cooler water refuge. However, reapeated scouring nearly events have allowed the water to warm more than expected. Photo years of stable redd

by Joyce Sherman counts of wild streamflow compared to unlogged wa- winter steelhead , including both ours tersheds. Short logging rotations of 40 and ODFW’s, clearly contrasts with the or even 35 years mean that coastal good and bad years of nearby hatchery rivers will never, ever be able to re- runs. With coastal rivers far lower durcover natural stream flows. There’s ing summers than they ever were in the also the problem of herbicide spraying past, steelhead and salmon must Continued from previous page

following clear cutting. There’s simply no way to keep the deadly chemicals out of rivers, where it affects not only fish but all creatures that drink water, including humans. Clear cutting also means far more silt goes into rivers, often making spawning gravel impossible for fish to utilize.

Thirty years ago, climate change was only a rather vague A pair of wild winter steelhead spawning in the term, but our tem- Salmonberry River. Photo by Joyce Sherman

January 2022 • Issue No. 101

quickly adapt to finding better places to spawn. So far, the wild steelhead of the Salmonberry have been able to do that.

It just may be possible that the poor hatchery salmon and steelhead returns of the past several years are due in part to hatchery fish spawning where the the less adaptable fry are doomed to die.

Recruiting Future Wild Fish Advocates Best of all, a volunteer project can attract many people and teach them how rivers and fish interact. Some of the people who’ve volunteered for our project were already interested in fish, even knowledgeable about them, but the bulk of them knew very little about rivers and fish. Those people came away with new knowledge. Even if they never set foot on a survey again, they may be supportive of actions to aid fish.

We’re looking forward to the post-Covid time when we can encourage large groups to survey the Salmonberry with us!

If you or a group you belong to is interested in starting a data collection project of your own, please feel free to contact us for additional information: joycesherman@charter.net or ian.fergusson@comcast.net. Today, with e-mail readily available, it’s far easier to organize survey groups than it was 30 years ago, when we had to make lots of telephone calls a couple of days prior to each survey. Today, e-mail does the job much more easily. Temperature monitors are far less expensive these days, and it’s not difficult to apply for grants to buy them. Most of all, a data collection project is a source of satisfaction, and a way to connect people to the natural world. It’s a small step in making the world just a little bit better.

Joyce Sherman is a photographer, editor, and graphic designer, owner of River Graphics. She served on the first STEP Advisory Committee, 1981-1987, helping to set up the guidelines for Oregon’s STEP program.

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Big Benefits from Small Dam Removal on the Cleveland National Forest

By Kirsten Winter

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mproving fish passage opportunities through removal of dams and other constructed stream barriers is a national initiative that is a priority for federal and state agencies, including but not limited to the US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Federal Highway Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Barrier removal is a key component in restoring stream health and function.

In 2010, staff on the 460,000-acre Cleveland National Forest located in southern California initiated planning for complete removal of 81 dams, and replacement of eight concrete ford crossings with bridges in Orange and Riverside counties, California. The purpose of the project was to enhance aquatic organism passage and stream habitat in Silverado, Holy Jim, and Upper San Juan, and San Mateo creeks.

Removing dams in these creeks is essential to supporting native aquatic species and providing suitable habitat for potential re-establishment of extirpated species including southern California steelhead trout. The project also eliminates public safety hazards created by these dams and restores natural stream processes.

Steelhead spend most of their life in the ocean, returning to freshwater streams to spawn. Although this life history is similar to salmon, steelhead do not necessarily return to the stream where they were hatched. They follow freshwater streams up to spawning areas in the spring after the major winter stream flow events have subsided.

The southern California steelhead distinct population segment (DPS) is the most southerly anadromous form of Onchorhynchus mykiss and was listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act in 2006. Southern California steelhead historically occupied coastal streams from the Santa Maria River in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties to northern Baja California, Mexico. Southern steel-

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head populations have decreased 95% from the early 1900s and are in immediate danger of extinction. They have been extirpated from at least 10 streams in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties.

Removing these dams will allow southern California steelhead to access habitat on the Cleveland National Forest by 2025.

The current distribution of steelhead in southern California is extremely limited by channelization and man-made barriers to steelhead migration. On the Cleveland National Forest, steelhead may access portions of San Mateo Creek and Devil Canyon. Due to exist-

ing barriers in the Santa Ana and San Juan Creek watersheds, southern steelhead cannot access the upper stream reaches. There have been recent steelhead sightings in San Juan Creek and Trabuco Creek approximately 6 miles downstream of the San Juan project areas and 15 miles downstream of the Trabuco Creek project areas. Downstream barriers located outside of Cleveland National Forest on Trabuco and San Juan Creeks are being targeted for fish passage projects as well. Removing these dams will allow steelhead access to the Forest by approximately 2025.

The creeks discussed above contained eight concrete fords and the remnants of approximately 115 dams, which were originally constructed to create pools for a stocked rainbow trout fishery, conserve water and wildlife, and provide water for fire suppression. All of the dams were constructed by Orange County between the 1940s and midContinued on next page

Removing multiple dams within the Cleveland National Forest will provide addional spawning and rearing habitat not previously available for restoring southern California steelhead populations. Photo by NMFS/Southwest Fisheries Center; Salmon Ecology Team

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1970s using native rock combined with mortar. Most of the dams had a wooden gate that was placed in the center of the dam each spring to retain water through the summer. Gates were then removed in the fall to allow water to flow through the dam during winter storms. Despite the presence of the gate openings, more than 30 of the dams had completely failed and washed out during rainstorms. The dams that did not have gates were mostly filled with sediment and did not store water.

Several dams were removed by Orange County in the 1980s, with the assistance of the US Marine Corps, which used explosives to remove some dams that were creating safety hazards. Many of the remaining 81 dams were undermined, partially washed out, or have been damaged by storm events.

The ability to move up and down stream is essential for aquatic species to complete their life cycles and maintain viable populations. The concrete fords and the remaining dams presented barriers to native fish and other aquatic organisms, especially during periods of low flow. The dams and concrete fords stored large wedges of sediment and created splash pools below.

Each dam or ford created jump heights of up to 10 feet, making the stream impassible for most aquatic organisms.

Dams also alter physical stream processes such as bed load and sediment transport, natural surface flows, and channel adjustment, all of which negatively impact aquatic species, aquatic habitat, and downstream habitat.

The targeted stream systems represent some of the very few streams without major municipal dams in Southern California, and their restoration is expected to contribute substantially to recovery of the endangered southern California steelhead in San Diego and Orange Counties. Other species of concern that are present in these streams include arroyo chub, the endangered arroyo toad, and California Coast Range newt. These species will also benefit from the more natural stream conditions that are present after dams and concrete fords are removed.

The fish passage project has two principal components: 1) removing the eight concrete ford barriers, that are passage barriers, and replacing them with bridges or bottom-

January 2022 • Issue No. 101

The 460,000-acre Cleveland National Forest is the southern-most national forest in California. The Trabuco Ranger District, where the dam removals are taking place, encompasses much of the Santa Ana Mountains. Photo by USFS

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less culverts. Since 2012, one concrete ford has been removed from Los Alamos Creek (2012), one has been replaced with a bridge at Trabuco Creek (2017), and two have been replaced with bottomless culverts at Holy Jim Creek (2019).

The four remaining concrete fords will be replaced with bridges.

Bridge construction will be complete as we obtain funding. The Forest currently has a bridge de- Dam 12 on San Juan Creek , January 2013, before resign for the Los Alamos moval work began. Photo by Julie Donnell, USFS Bridge and is working on designs for the three remaining bridges in Trabuco Creek.

2) removing 81 rock and mortar dams that are barriers to fish passage. These dams were built in the 1930s and 1940s, and were maintained by Orange County. This portion of the project is complete and has already resulted in improvements to stream health and improved fish pasBeginning of Dam 12 removal, San Juan Creek, 2019. sage. Dam removal work was completed Photo by Kirsten Winter, USFS with a conventional excavator in 2014, with explosives in 2017, 2018, and 2020, with walking (spider) excavators in 2019 and 2020, and with hand crews in 2018, 2019, and 2020.

Since the removal of dams and concrete fords, the streams have been able to establish more natural contours and streambed features.

Fish passage is notably improved, with even the small arroyo chub now able to move upstream through areas San Juan Creek after Dam 12 removal, 2019. Photo by previously blocked by dams. The project has Kirsten Winter, USFS

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resulted in unobstructed fish passage for approximately 10 miles of streams and complements several other fish passage projects that are planned or underway in San Juan Creek — including a new bridge to be constructed by Orange County on Live Oak Canyon Road, and fish ladder structures where US Interstate 5 and the Metrolink train cross Trabuco Creek. This fish passage project has been featured in publications by US Fish and Wildlife Service, American Rivers, and Center for Biological Diversity.

This project has involved a long list of partners who have contributed funding or in-kind work. American Conservation Experience crew, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, State Proposition 84 funding, Caltrans, Orange County Parks, Orange County Transportation Authority, Federal Highway Administration, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the US Marine Corps have all been key partners.

Kirsten Winter is the Forest Biologist for the Cleveland National Forest, located in San Diego, California. She focuses on threatened and endangered species protection, resource management, and various forest projects including fuels management, recreation, and special uses.

For more information about this project, please see the Cleveland National Forest web page at https://www.fs.usda.gov/cleveland/ or contact Kirsten Winter, Forest Biologist at kirsten.winter@usda.gov

Removing Small Dams Provide Major Gains for Fish While most of the attention often goes to removing large dams, small dam removal projects, such as on the Cleveland National Forest, are crucial for wild fish retoration as they make many small, but important spawning and rearing streams accessible And even when large dams are taken out, smaller dams on tributary streams also need to be removed to maximize usable habitat.

According to American Rivers, 69 dams — mostly small ones — were removed in the US in 2020, and 1,197 from 1912 through 2020

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FISH WATCH — WILD FISH NEWS, ISSUES AND INITIATIVES Alaska’s Bristol Bay Sees Record Sockeye Salmon Returns in 2021 The 2021 Bristol Bay sockeye salmon run was the largest on record, with total inshore run of 66.1 million fish — 60 percent above the average run of 41.3 million over the past 20 years, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. This is only the third time on record that the run has exceeded more than 60 million fish. Initial pre-season estimates had pegged the run at 50 million, but came in 32 percent above that estimate.

Commercial fishers, using drift, and set gillnets, harvested 40.4 million sockeye salmon. It was the third time in the last four years where the harvest was more than 40 million fish, and fifth largest harvest on record.

for the Bristol Bay Defense Fund puts the Bristol Bay commercial sockeye salmon fishery at more than $2 billion in value, supporting more than 8,500 harvesters from Bristol Bay, other parts of Alaska and from outside Alaska, and also supports more than 6,000 fish processors.

Bristol Bay recreation fishing and related tourism supports around 2,300 seasonal jobs valued at $67.9 million in labor income.

Until recently, Bristol Bay watershed and its salmon runs were under threat from the proposed Pebble Mine, planned for 20-square mile of land owned by the State of Alaska by Northern Dynasty Minerals. The gold, copper and molybdenum mining operation would have included a 1,700 feet deep, mile long open pit mine and a 10-square-mile containment pond that would hold up to 10 billion tons of mining waste.

However, last November, the Environmental Protection Agency determined to review and potentially recommend permanently protecting the Bristol Bay watershed under the authority of the Clean water Act, Section 404(C). The agency will make a final decision by May 31, 2022, and if it decides favorably, it will permanently end the threat of the Pebble Mine proposal.

Bristol Bay is the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery, producing 46 percent of the global sockeye population.

For more information visit the Bristol Bay Defense Fund website at https://www.bristolbaydefensefund.com.

US Army Corps of Engineers Sued for Illegally Polluting Columbia River Waters

Bristol Bay streams had a record sockeye salmon run in 2021, with an even stronger run predicted for this year. Photo by Jonny Armstrong ADFG reports that all sockeye salmon escapement goals were met on all management districts with a basin-wide escapement of 25.7 million fish. The 2021 sockeye run was dominated by fish with one year of freshwater residence and two or three years in the ocean phase of their life history.

More than 70 million sockeye salmon are predicted to return to Bristol Bay streams in 2022.

However, Chinook, chum and coho salmon harvest numbers were down from previous years. The Chinook harvest was just over 6,000 fish, well below the most recent 20-year average of 43,100. Chum harvest was also well below its 20-year average of 1.1 million. The 2021 harvest was 316,600. At 47,900, the coho salmon harvest was down from its 20-year average of 95,600. Only a small number of pink salmon were harvested in 2021 as they are typically are an even year fish in Bristol Bay. The overall commercial value of the total 2021 salmon harvest — 40.8 million — was worth more about $24.7 million.

A recent report prepared by the McKinley Research Group

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Columbia Riverkeeper filed a lawsuit in early December 2021 against the US Army Corps of Engineers for illegally polluting the Columbia River with hot water, oil and toxic chemicals. This pollution is emanating from the dams operated by the Corps between Portland, Oregon and Tri-Cities, Washington — Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day and McNary dams on the Columbia and Ice Harbor Dam on the Lower Snake River — in violation of the Clean Water Act. High water temperatures are a significant ongoing threat to the river’s salmon and steelhead runs. A study by the US Environment Protection Agency “Columbia and Lower Snake Rivers Temperature Total Maximum Daily Load” published in August 2021, found frequent instances of water temperatures exceeding water quality criteria (WQC) that protects migrating salmon and steelhead during the summer months, as well as on the lower river in the fall.

The study noted that since the 1960s, summer water temperatures on the Columbia and Snake rivers increased by 1.5° Celsius (2.7°F). The cumulative effects of the dams on both rivers have caused water temperatures increases in September up to 2.5°C (4.5°F) at John Day Dam, and up to 2.2°C (3.96°F) at Ice Harbor Dam. To further complicate matters, waters flowing into the Columbia and Snake rivers from Canada and Idaho already exceed Washington State’s WQC for summer.

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The report found that summer temperatures on the lower Columbia River often exceeded 20°C (68°F), which is hot enough to negatively impact migrating juvenile salmonids, including decreased growth, impairment of the smoltification process as well as increased disease and predation. For migrating adults these high temperatures increase stress and disease, decreases energy levels and impairs spawning success.

British Columbia Goes Code Blue An initiative called CodeBlue BC looks to develop and implement a plan to aggressively protect water quality in watersheds throughout British Columbia. Recognizing that healthy watersheds are key to water security with threats to BC’s freshwater quality including drought, wildfire, flooding, pollution and irresponsible resource development, CodeBlue BC has developed an action plan to combat those many challenges.

The three-part CodeBlue BC plan includes: 1. Get tough on water wasters and polluters.The plan notes that the province has does not have any drinking water protection plans, the fracking industry has built 92 unauthorized dams illegally storing vast amount of water and clearcut logging is allowed with little consideration on its impacts to streams.

Actions planned include forcing the BC government to implement its clean water laws, including fully implementing the Water Sustainability Act and the Drinking Water Protection Act. Then enforce those rules by increasing the number provincial enforcement officers, raise fines for breaching the rules, and ensure that polluters pay the fines, and cannot declare bankruptcy prior to paying the costs og environmental clean-up.

A study by the Environmental Protection Agency found that water temperatures on the Columbia River are frequently too high for salmon and steelhead. Photo by Jim Yuskavitch Currently, 13 species of salmonids on the Columbia River system are listed as either threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. A majority of these atrisk runs are present in the Columbia and Snake rivers when water temperatures exceed 20°C (68°F), which is known to be a limiting factor in recovering these populations.

In 2015, high water temperatures and diseases associated with high water temperatures caused a die-off of about 95 percent of the ESA-listed Snake River sockeye salmon between Boneville Dam and Lower Granite Dam, on the Snake River Cold water Refugia, where tributaries flow into the Columbia River are important sanctuaries where fish can temporarily escape high water temperatures. The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission has designated five thermal refuges on the Oregon side of the river where angling is prohibited. These include the Eagle Creek, Herman Creek, Herman Creek Lagoon, Deschutes River and John Day River thermal refuges.

Warm waters and increased nutrient loads are also increasing the frequency of algal blooms on the Columbia River, exacerbated by the dams, which can have a negative impact on aquatic habitat and species.

The EPA report is available at https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2021-08/tmdlcolumbia-snake-temperature-08132021.pdf.

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2. Make big industrial users pay the true cost of using BC’s water. The BC government is not investing in watershed security. The province does not have the staff and resources to adequately manage, plan and monitor BC’s freshwater resources. First Nations are critical stewards of the provinces water resources but receive no royalties from its use by industry. Big bushinesses get big government subsidies while paying only a fraction of profits derived from its access to freshwater resources. The maximum rate that BC charges business for water use is $2.25 per million liters. This puts the majority of the costs to the public when a community’s water supply must be switched or a new water treatment plan built due to industrial water contamination.

Solutions include charging industry a fair rate for industrial use of BC’s freshwater resources; enforce the provincial Continued on next page

Healthy watersheds are key to clean water security, not just in British Columbia, but throughout the entire planet. Photo

by Jim Yuskavitch

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government’s capacity for water management, enforcement and community training and; require industry to measure and report their water use and make that information readily available to the public.

3. Give local people the power and resources to restore and manage thier local watersheds. BC’s water resources should be owned by the people who know them best and need them the most. The current top down management structure limits the ability to manage and protect freshwater resources rather than engaging local people and expertise. Currently a one-off approach is being practiced where some regions of the province have good community participation programs while other regions are lacking, despite the Watershed Sustainability Act provisions to involve local communities in the decision making process. In addition, more resources need to be devoted to transition rural communities into new economic models to protect them from the often unstable natural resource extraction economy.

Solutions including a $40 million or more watershed Security Fund to develop lasting freshwater management andstewardship programs with First Nations, local governments and community organizations. In addition, establish watershed boards and locally developed watershed plans implemented by local communities that would include the authorization to enforce land-use decisions and control the amount of water used by industry.

One of the organizations supporting this initiative is SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, one of The Ospreys partner organizations. To learn more about CodeBlue BC visit their website at: https://www.codebluebc.ca

both Skagit Valley Park and E.C. Manning Park. The company agreed to return to the Province of British Columbia all of its mining and related rights within almost 5,800 hectares (14,332 acres) in the Skagit River Donut Hole.

The Skagit River flows 240 kilometers (150 miles) from its headwaters at Allison Pass in the British Columbia Cascade Mountains to its entry into the Pacific Ocean at Skagit Bay, Puget Sound in Washington State. Along its entire length the river contains a diversity of habitat for fish and wildlife and is an important corridor for Pacific salmon, steelhead and bull trout, among other fish and wildlife species.

In addition to protecting the Silverdaisy watershed in BC, the agreement will also protect water quality and habitat on the US reach of the Skagit River as well.

Infrastructure Bill to Benefit Wild Salmon and Steelhead On November 15, 2021, President Biden signed the federal infrastructure bill into law. Over the next five years, the $1.2 trillion bill will provide $550 billion in funding for infrastructure improvements including roads, bridges, increased broadband access, and water, and energy facilities and systems.

Agreement Protects Skagit River Donut Hole in BC from from Future Mining An agreement was signed in January between the Imperial Metals Corporation and the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission to surrender its mineral tenures in the Silverdaisy watershed located between Hope and Princeton, British Columbia. Also known as the Skagit River Donut Hole, it is an environmentally sensitive area surrounded by

Protecting the Donut Hole will benefit the Skagit’s water quality on both sides of the border. Photo by Jim Yuskavitch

“Bottomless” culverts are designed to facilitate upstream and downstream fish passage in a more natural setting.

Photo by Jim Yuskavitch Wild steelhead and Pacific salmon stand to benefit from the bill as well. Up to $11 billion may be available for various salmon and steelhead conservation projects, including $1 billion that has been allocated for replacing culverts that currently block wild fish movement.

Culverts that direct streams under roads can be a major barrier to upstream and downstream movement of both anadromous and resident fish species. Impediments include culverts too high above the stream on the downstream side of the road for fish to jump, too-shallow jump pools that don’t allow the fish to develop enough energy to leap into the culvert, and high water velocities running through the culvert that upstream migrating fish are unable to overcome.

Some effective solutions to eliminating these barriers include removing the old culvert and installing a “bottomless” culvert that utilizes the natural streambed, which doesn’t reContinued on next page

January 2022 • Issue No. 101

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quire the fish to jump, or replacing the culvert with a bridge.

Oregon has about 40,000 structures — not necessarily all culverts that block fish access — with the 600 highest priority structures blocking about 24,000 miles of fish habitat.

Washington State estimates it has about 20,000 barriers to fish along its streams. Washington indigenous tribes won a court injunction in 2018 ordering the state to remove hundreds of culverts on state roads that block salmon and steelhead from accessing streams where the tribes have treaty fishing rights. The state has until 2030 to comply. The estimated cost of replacing those culverts is about $4 billion.

Funding from the infrastructure bill will help move these culvert removal projects along.

The bill also provides funding for many other projects that will benefit wild fish. That includes billions to improve the efficacy of fish passage facilities at dams, and for removing dams that no longer provide benefits, improvements to irrigation and water supply systems, restoring habitat affected by old mine waste, as well as for numerous other fish and wildlife habitat restoration projects.

Washington State Legislature Considers Bill to Legalize Fish Traps Statewide The Washington State Legislature is considering a new bill that would legalize the use of commercial fish traps, also known as pound nets, in Washington State.

If passed, Senate Bill 5567 will provide new opportunities for coastal fishing communities by finally allowing commercial fishers who strive to fish sustainably the option to use fish traps, tested and proven to safely release threatened and endangered wild salmon and steelhead.

Wild Fish Conservancy’s, one of The Osprey’s supporting organizations, has been on the forefront of pound net research, which allows the selective harvest of targeted salmon stocks while allowing for the release of wild fish from vulnerable populations. See “Commercial Fish Traps for Bycatch Mortality Reduction in Salmon Fisheries,” The Osprey, January 2020.

OR Creates Largest Network of Wild Fish Management Zones South of Canada In December, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission established a network of Wild Fish Emphasis Areas (WFEA) in 18 of 26 watersheds along the state’s south coast. These new conservation plans adds to previously established WFEAs along the Oregon Coast that now stretches from the Nehalem River Watershed on the north coast, south to the Nork Fork Smith River, which overlaps the border between Oregon and California. The effort was spearheaded by a number of wild fish conservation groups including the Native Fish Society, Trout Unlimited and the Wild Salmon Center, the latter two among The Osprey’s supporting organizations.

Wild fish are the management priority in WFEAs and pro-

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Letters to the Editor Dear Editor: Here enclosed is a donation check from the Southern Oregon Fly Fishers to The Osprey. We have donated to your organization in the past, but missed last year because of COVID. We recognize the importance of current scientific reporting related to steelhead in the Northwest and Canada. The information is vital to fisheries managers who deal with steelhead.

We are a flyfishing club with 250 memnbers in Grants Pass, Oregon. Many of our members enjoy fishing for steelhead in the Rogue and Klamath rivers. We appluad your efforts to present the latest developments in steelhead populations, distribution and habitat.

Keep up the good work! We appreciate it.

Dave Grosjacques Habitat Chair Southern Oregon Fly Fishers

Attention Wild Fish Researchers and Advocates Previous issues of The Osprey, going back to 2008, are now available on our new website, providing access to decades of in-depth science, policy and legal articles pertaining to wild Pacific salmon and steelhead, their management, research and conservation written exclusively for us by experts in their fields.

Whether you are doing a literature search for a research project or preparing a wild fish conservation initiative and looking for supporting data, The Osprey is an invaluable data base of wild fish information — past and present.

Access back issues of The Osprey at: https://www.ospreysteelhead.org/archives-1 Older issues available by request. hibits establishing new hatchery programs within the designated watershed. In addition, the plan will focus on improved harvest management and monitoring of both adult and juvenile salmon and steelhead in all the designated watersheds.

Wild fish advicates did not get everything they wanted, notably catch-and-release only for wild steelhead. Instead the Commission elected to continue limited steelhead harvest for the next five years while monitoring its impacts on the wild fish population. The Commission will revisit that request again as part of a five-year review of the plan.

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head release but all other methods permitted (bait, fishing out of boats, etc.), while angling over the most depressed component of the wild populations (early returning wild fish).

Angling Mortality: Assume 20% of the wild run enters the river prior to February 28; exploitation rate – 60%; hooking mortality – 4%. Total mortality = .6 x .2 x .04 x 2700 = 13 wild steelhead Option B: Current regulations plus catch and release, selective fishing March 1 - April 30 Angler mortality 12/1-2/28: 13 wild steelhead Angler mortality 3/1-4/30 (assume exploitation rate – 40%) = .4 x .04 x 2700 = 43 wild steelhead Total angler caused mortality option B: 56 wild steelhead

scribed by BC authorities) = (1/6) x .4 x .04 x 2700 = 7 wild steelhead Total mortality option C: 20 wild steelhead Option D: Catch and release, fly fishing only, December 1 - April 30 — Discontinue stocking hatchery steelhead Total angler caused mortality option D: 7-10 wild steelhead Clearly options C and D offer the prospect of extended angling opportunity at very low levels of mortality –— certainly orders of magnitude lower than the margin of error in either spawner surveys or run reconstruction.

Indeed, option C would provide for nine additional weeks of angling for hundreds of citizens at the cost of less than a dozen wild steelhead. Why is the Skykomish (or dozens of other rivers) then not open in March/April under restrictive gear/method regulations? Any-

Angler mortality 3/1-4/30 (to be conservative assume fly fishing efficiency is only one sixth as efficient as gear fishing rather than the one sixtieth as de-

Pete Soverel is Chair of The Osprey Management and Editorial Committee, and founder and President of The Conservation Angler: www.theconservationangler.org.

The Osprey

Option C: Current regulations plus catch and release fly fishing only March 1 - April 30 Angler mortality 12/1-2/28 13 wild steelhead

one can see that something is terribly wrong with this picture. The situation is made even more irksome because other than closing the river, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has no research program to identify population bottlenecks, does not have an actual plan to recover the stocks and continues planting millions of hatchery smolts into the closed systems annually, knowing full well that such plantings are harmful to wild stocks. In reality, the regulatory approaches I suggest are not some elitist ploy. They are sound regulations that conserve the resource, preserve angling opportunity and protect the local economy.

2012 recipient of the

Haig-Brown Conservation Award for excellence in fisheries conservation journalism and communications

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2021 HONOR LIST T

he Osprey thanks the dedicated people and organizations who gave their financial support in 2021. Our readers are our primary source of funding and without your support we could not continue publishing.

Your donations are much appreciated, and used wisely. $1,000 and Up The Conservation Angler Fly Fishers International Wild Steelhead Coalition SkeenaWild Conservation Trust World Salmon Forum Steelhead Society of British Columbia Wild Salmon Center Wild Fish Conservancy Trout Unlimited North Umpqua Foundation Washington Fly Fishing Club Foundation Keith Beverly $500 to $999 Dale Greenley Jim Hubbard Barbara Phillips Peter Soverel Peter Tronquet Rick Rupp Donald Turcke Randy Labbe $200 to $499 Southern Oregon Fly Fishers Glenn Brackett Danferd Henke Bill Morrish David Thomas Martin Sherman Evergreen Fly Fishing Club Scott Hagen Edward Atkinson Don Simonson Mary Wahl

$100 to $199 Robert Stewart Zack Williams Felton Jenkins Bradley Wistrom Rick Williams J Lee Lashway William Robinson Jim Maus Larry Lowe Blake Quinn Bill Tattam Janet Owen Hugh Clark Adam Tavender John Rogers David Moskowitz Roy Maus Sarah Bachman Paul Peterson Paul Evans David Brown Philip White Bert Bowler Charles Bucaria Doug Schaad Philip Greenlee Christine Soverel James Schramm Mark Friedman Richard Carns Jim Hubbard Jim Hoschouer Patrick Micek The Steamboaters Martin Sherman John MacDiarmid Rainland Fly Casters Chris Stromsness James Graham Carol Dull Jay Beckstead Frederick Buckner Elmer Jantz Jon Lund Joe Ferguson Dennis Rankin Stanford Young Christopher Striebich

Bill Bakke David Thyer Robert Backus Harry Griffith Todd Sandell Patrick Dunham John Rosenberg Stephen Starke Brad West Edward Kikumoto Arthur Carlson Keith Stamm Steve Lewis Edward Stefanison Arthur Carlson David Krause Stephen Starke John McGlenn David Krause $50 to $99 Dan Syroid Bruce Ashley Andrew McDonnell Suzette Birrell John Hanousek Patricia Arnold David Glanzman Gregg Rogers Robert Colson Danny Beatty William Knight Thomas Sisk Earl Rettig Terry Vaughan John Jenkins Alexander Uber Chris Velik Outdoors Eric Taylor Steve Rajeff Craig Smelter Scott Wallace James Ford Christopher Jones Andrea Warner Tom Squeri Richard Johnson Joseph Jauquet Leonard Volland

Yale Sacks Bruce Magill C. Mark Rockwell Dake Traphagen Bruce Allen William Lenheim Jerry Mahony Bill Kuest Jack Berryman Save Our Wild Salmon Doug Webb Greg Gibbons Robert Van Kirk George Johnson John Titland Robert Tarleton Hugh Clark Brad Staples Yancy Lind Dennis Beardsley William Pearcy David Johnson Ian Fergusson Brian Lencho John Davis J. Michelle Swope Richard Cavanaugh Jeff Reese $15 to $49 John Randolph Chinook Indian Nation Jeff Bright David Beatty Richard Watts Dale Timberlake Richard Cavanaugh Eric Pettine Josey Paul Ed Heidel Craig Fusaro Ronald Dyslin Hans Solie Frank Collin Paul Moore Ben Godfrey Richard Burge James Tippett Robert Bailey

Robert Cook Charles Hammerstad Fred Carter Brian Lencho Vance Luff Rick Kustich Will Godfrey John Jenkins Bruce Baker Fred Carter Eric Pettine John Jenkins Robert Cook Sam Wright Steve Turner Sarah Lonigro Larry Brown Matthew Erickson Glenn Law Victor Colvard Robert Hurley Tom Worrtman Todd English Joseph Brown Harry MacDonald John Brinkley Timothy McGilvrey David Frisendahl Alan Smith Lewis & Clark College, Boley Law Library David Odell Robert Pauli Dennis Lockett Herb Burton John Townsell Patrick Trotter Arlene Christy John Warrick William Pearcy John Jenkins Donald Dezurik William Lum Carmel River Steelhead Association Mitch Williams Chris Denchfield