Yakama Nation supporting more coho in the Methow

By Joyce Campbell

The Yakama Nation is proposing to continue sponsoring an effort to put enough coho salmon back in the Methow and Wenatchee rivers to support a tribal catch and sport fishery.

The Bonneville Power Administration kicked off a public scoping process in Twisp on Friday, Aug. 21, for an environmental impact statement on the Yakama Nation’s Master Plan to develop a locally adapted, self-sustaining population of fish in the Methow and Wenatchee rivers. The BPA is proposing to fund the project and is seeking public comments and ideas.

The project would be a continuation of a feasibility project that is succeeding in the development of a broodstock that returns to spawn in both river basins, according to Keely Murdoch, lead monitoring biologist on the project since 2000. The next phase of the project is the natural production phase, developing naturally-spawning coho in their natural environment.

The proposed project would use existing hatchery facilities, construct some new facilities in the Wenatchee basin for broodstock development and modify existing ponds or side channels to serve as semi-natural rearing areas for juvenile coho salmon. There are no plans to construct new broodstock facilities or ponds in the Methow.

The project in the Methow basin includes the continuing use of the Winthrop National Fish Hatchery facilities to spawn and rear coho. Due to limited space at the facility, developed embryo are reared at the Cascade (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife) and Willard (White Salmon U.S. Fish and Wildlife) hatcheries and brought back to the Methow for release from acclimation ponds at Winthrop. This spring, coho fry were also released from the Methow Salmon Recovery Foundation ponds on the Twisp River.

The plan proposes the modification of 10 existing ponds or side channels to serve as semi-natural rearing areas for the juvenile salmon from the Methow basin. The Chewuch, Twisp, Methow rivers and Beaver, Wolf and Gold creeks have been targeted for proposed acclimation sites, according to Rick Alford, lead biologist with the Yakama Nations in the Methow Valley.

Yakama fisheries staff and contractors will be conducting environmental surveys in late summer on the proposed sites. Most of the sites are on privately owned land, one is owned by the MSRF and one is Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife property.

A natural acclimation site could be a disconnected waterway such as a stream, beaver pond or constructed earthen pond. Side-channels and wetland complexes are also being considered. The sites would be used for short-term rearing from March to June and long-term overwintering from October to June, said Alford. Staff would provide daily feeding and water quality monitoring for dissolved oxygen levels and ideal temperature ranges from 45 to 55 degrees.

“Predation is expected to a certain level,” said Alford, “but I can promise you that we will not be using firearms.” Non-lethal predator controls include battery-operated owls, coyote decoys and staff members running and flapping their arms in the early morning and evening hours. Blue heron, ducks, mink, otter and garter snakes will help the juvenile coho learn prey recognition and flight responses, said Alford.

The coho is a smaller salmon that prefers stream margins and slower moving water than its cousins, the Chinook salmon. Murdoch has been monitoring predation by hatchery coho on spring Chinook and competition for spawning habitat and food. Biologists were concerned about the risks and interactions of coho with the threatened and endangered species of fish in the rivers, but there have been “no red flags,” said Murdoch.

Columbia River populations of the coho were decimated in the early 1900s, according to the Yakama Nation Coho Master Plan. The feasibility project began in 1999, with the introduction of lower-Columbia broodstock and the vision of developing a locally-adapted, naturally spawning coho stock by 2026.

The environmental review and preferred alternative will be published in a draft EIS in the fall of 2010, and a decision is expected in spring 2011. To learn more about the Mid-Columbia Coho Restoration Project EIS go to the BPA’s website at www.efw.bpa.gov/environmental_services/nepadocs.aspx and click on project reviews–active.

Written scoping comments are due no later than Sept. 15. You may submit comments online at www.bpa.gov/comment or fax to (503) 230-3285 or call comments toll-free at (800) 622-4519. Refer to “Yakama Nation – Mid-Columbia Coho Restoration Project” in your comments. For questions about the environmental process contact Bruce Hollen at (800) 282-3713 or e-mail bahollen@bpa.gov.