Progress seen in Hood River's spring chinook run; Starting to build a self-dudtaining program
Herald and News, 9/26/13
PARKDALE (AP) — As salmon streams go, Hood River faces some unique challenges: glacial gullywashers from Mount Hood, heavy irrigation withdrawals for Oregon’s top fruit orchards and a once hardy population of spring chinook that scientists figure was wiped out four decades ago.
But the Powerdale Dam came down in 2010, improving prospects for young salmon migrating downstream. Investment in the basin has spiked, part of a 2008 accord between four Columbia River tribes and the Bonneville Power Administration.
And early signs are that
Hood River spring
chinook, which
biologists from The
Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs and Oregon
officials are trying to
restore, may be gaining
a more secure foothold.
The numbers are small,
but estimated returns of
wild chinook topped 400
in 2012, tribal
officials say, up from a
low of 20 in 1999.
Estimated returns of
hatchery fish this year,
about 1,100 to date, are
relatively strong, even
compared with the much
bigger Deschutes River,
says Mark Fritsch,
project implementation
manager for the
Northwest Power and
Conservation Council.
“They’re starting to
build a self-sustaining
program there,” Fristsh
says, “and it should
improve over time.”
Tangible results on the
Hood River would bolster
expensive efforts across
the Columbia River basin
to restore salmon and
steelhead runs, after
decades of dam building
and development knocked
them down.
The Deschutes cuts
through the Warm Springs
reservation, but Hood
River’s spring chinook
are also vital to the
tribes. The river is in
the tribes’ treaty ceded
lands, where they still
retain fishing rights.
And Punchbowl Falls is a
spectacular tribal
fishing spot for the
first salmon to return
from the ocean each
spring.
After years of fishing
shutdowns, improving
returns have allowed
spring chinook fishing
the last seven years for
both tribal and
non-tribal anglers, says
Chris Brun, coordinator
of the tribes’ Hood
River production
program. Hatchery fish,
marked by a clipped fin,
are kept, wild fish
released.
For the tribes, being
part of the solution is
“really important,” says
Brun, standing on cliffs
that jut 100 feet above
the falls. “And this is
a place where tribal
members can fish in
seclusion.”
But by the late 1960s,
the Hood’s spring
chinook run was
effectively
“extirpated,” federal
fish biologists say.
Bonneville Dam,
completed downstream on
the Columbia in 1938,
slashed salmon returns,
as did habitat
destruction and splash
dams built by loggers.
Debris flows fueled by
huge winter storms hurt,
too — you may remember
the last one in 2006,
which destroyed a
section of Oregon 35.
The Hood is relatively
cool and clear. But
river temperatures
increased with
irrigation withdrawals
and lower water volume;
state regulators still
count the river as
impaired for high
temperatures.
Today, all native runs
of salmon and steelhead
on the river are listed
under the Endangered
Species Act.
Beginning in the early
1990s, the tribes and
the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife
started stocking the
river with hatchery bred
spring chinook, taken
from Deschutes River
stocks, to try to
resurrect the wild run.
Under the
“supplementation”
approach, when the
hatchery fish return to
the river, they’re
allowed onto wild
spawning grounds. When
their offspring return,
they’re counted as wild.
The effort amped up
after 2008, when the
Warm Springs, Colville,
Umatilla and Yakama
nations signed accords
with the BPA, which
sells hydropower from
the Columbia basin’s
dams.
The 10-year deal granted
$900 million for tribal
hatchery and habitat
improvements. In
exchange, the tribes
agreed to drop out of a
long-running lawsuit
challenging dam
operations.
Along the Hood River,
the money has helped pay
for stream improvements
to supplement the
reintroduction efforts,
from enhancing spawning
habitat to helping
irrigation districts
conserve water in pear,
cherry and apple
orchards, increasing
river flows.
“We’re rebuilding
habitat and constantly
supplementing the run,
so they’ll kind of heal
together,” Brun says.
In the next few years,
Brun says, the tribes
hope to raise all
150,000 spring chinook
hatchery smolts along
the river before
releasing them. Today,
about half are raised in
a Deschutes River
hatchery, a high desert
spot that’s a far cry
from the Hood Basin.
“They’re sniffing that
out-of-basin water for
most of their lives, and
a fair amount are
straying back to the
Deschutes” when they
return from the ocean as
adults, Brun says.
“We’re a small program,
so every fish is
important.”
One drawback of taking
down the Powerdale Dam:
All the fish, including
both chinook and
steelhead, had to pass
it, making it easy to
count fish and
thoroughly study
returns.
Some of those studies
used genetic analysis to
conclude that
interbreeding between
hatchery fish and wild
fish was hurting wild
fish returns, though
those studies were
focused on steelhead,
not chinook.
The hope is the new
ladder and trap will
capture most of the fish
on the west fork. That
would aid research
efforts and allow for
better selection of
returning hatchery fish
for hatchery broodstock
and release into
spawning grounds.
At this point, it’s too
soon to say with
certainty whether the
changes along Hood River
have improved wild
populations, says Rod
French, an ODFW fish
biologist. Habitat is
limited, he says, and
it’s unlikely the wild
population will ever
recover to robust
numbers of old.
But the spring chinook
are recolonizing
tributaries throughout
the Hood basin, Brun
says. Counts of redds,
or salmon nests, are up.
The percent of smolts
returning as adults has
increased, too.
Long-term, limited river
flows from irrigation
withdrawals make it
likely hatchery fish
will still have to be
produced to supply
anglers, Brun says. But
he hopes that the wild
run will become
self-sustaining, with no
need to allow hatchery
fish in the spawning
grounds to supplement
strengthened wild
stocks.
“Human population is
going to limit what the
basin can produce,” he
says. “We’re looking for
a middle ground, where
we can have both fish
and farmers.”