[1] RIVER USERS HEAR FROM ALL SIDES

Members of the Columbia River Alliance got a dose of political reality with their pasta when Slade Gorton spoke during lunch at their day-long seminar in Portland on Jan. 7. The group, made up of agricultural, industrial and transportation interests, liked what they heard when Gorton said he had a "strong view that dam removal or major modification is as foolish a thing as I have ever heard discussed." The Republican senator from Washington state said his interim goal was to make sure that nothing like that occurred without the specific authority of Congress.

Gorton said the national debate over BPA's future and energy deregulation "gives us the opportunity to make changes in the operation of the river system more rational and less divided." He said it's a key priority in the bill he is working on with Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-AR).

But Gorton warned that it is almost impossible to solve the salmon crisis without "considerable coming together" among different factions that represent electrical power, transportation, irrigation, flood control and recreational interests.

Gorton said there was too much focus on one or two elements, meaning dam removal and drawdown. "I don't think anybody should be cut out. We don't have to return to the society of the '30s in order to save the fish." He said the region will have to make some changes, though, and that there is a limited amount of time to come up with the answers before Congress will take over.

"I don't think Congress should make those decisions," he said. He called for a reasonable balance to preserve competitive advantages in the Northwest. On that point, Gorton said he felt that the agricultural community and the transportation industry have felt left out of the debate over salmon recovery. He said he also believes insufficient attention is paid to the benefits of flood control.

Congresswoman Furse Calls For Action

Earlier in the day, Rep. Elizabeth Furse (D-OR) told the group, "We need to be bold." Pointing to a recent poll in the Oregonian about attitudes toward salmon, Furse said people "don't want to hear more about science--they want action." She said residents of the Northwest have spoken and that the "leaders will follow." She told the group that "restructuring will not occur without salmon being part of the equation," and that salmon losses in the Columbia Basin have amounted to an economic hit of $13 billion.

"We must think outside the box," Furse said; and to that end, there is a greater mandate to action than the Endangered Species Act; namelythe treaties signed with Columbia Basin tribes. "There's no wiggle room left," Furse said, because the US Constitution says treaties are the supreme law of the land. "We need economic certainty and we will get it when we save the salmon," she told the river users.

But Furse also indicated that could only be achieved through the Three Sovereigns process, where state, federal and officials from 13 Columbia Basin tribes are trying to develop a new way of governing the river.

"We may have to do drawdown," Furse told the group, because not just costs must be examined, but benefits, too. She said the Corps of Engineers' drawdown analysis is very important. "They have opened the box," she said. "We must look at John Day."

Drawdown of John Day to spillway crest or natural river are options the Corps is slated to begin examining this year. Proponents of river level drawdown say it will provide new spawning areas for fall chinook and improve survival of migrating fish. But the strategy could reduce BPA's power base, create transmission problems, end the barging industry and make for expensive modifications to irrigation systems.

Furse was firm in her commitment to the tribes. "We don't have enough money in the US Treasury to pay for the loss of property rights ensured by treaties."

Ted Strong, executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, told the farmers, towboaters and manufacturers that "we cannot submit our spiritual values to the $32 billion Columbia Basin economy, or the ESA or the CRA, but we extend our hand to help manage the river as a natural ecosystem." He said the tribes fully support the Three Sovereigns process.

Hemmingway Optimistic

Roy Hemmingway, salmon advisor to OR Gov. John Kitzhaber, told the group that "we thought we took a giant step forward with passage of the Northwest Power Act, but after fish were listed under the ESA, NMFS was put in the lead.

"I have respect for NMFS making the river more fish-friendly," he continued, "but some things are wrong with this picture." None of the states are really involved in the decision-making, he said--"the federal decision-maker sits two or three feet higher on the dais"--and the process is not transparent. "We don't know what causes decisions to be made."

In contrast, he pointed to the open process used by the Power Planning Council. The current arrangement does not allow effective stakeholder input in the process, he added. He said that within a month or two, a draft of the Three Sovereigns process will be available for public comment.

"A new governance process is not a solution," said Hemmingway, "but a way to reach those solutions." He noted that without a change in federal law, authority could not be transferred from the feds to another body, "But that doesn't mean we can't find better ways to work together" to develop a common agenda. Hemmingway said he felt more optimistic about the process now than he has in a long time.

The group also heard from Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, who said that with five senators from the region on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, they could probably block anything "detrimental" to the Northwest. But Smith said a federal judge may end up being the ultimate arbiter of salmon recovery.

Power Council chair John Etchart said there was some "good news" on the scene. He said there has been too much focus on the hydropower system, but that's "slowly changing." He pointed to a new study underway that is looking at hatchery impacts on wild fish and to the increased scrutiny of spending for habitat restoration.

Fish agencies have finally acknowledged they have allowed many stocks to be overharvested as well, Etchart said. As for which direction to go, he pointed out that "we don't have enough information to make an informed decision," and noted that funding for a drawdown study hasn't yet been approved.

Citing the importance of the Snake River dams for stability of the transmission system, Etchart acknowledged that the full costs of dam removal haven't been determined. Therefore, it is premature to talk about it, he indicated.

Competition May Cost BPA Another 1,000 Jobs

Acting BPA administrator Jack Robertson said his agency was going to "lay off 1,000 more people" to get costs down in order to stay competitive in the energy marketplace and meet debt obligations, including future funding of fish and wildlife projects. But he warned that the region must get focused on exactly what it wants, or the system, presently worth between $5 billion and $25 billion, would lose value.

Robertson said the problem is trying to integrate the complex ecosystem of the Columbia basin with the Northwest's electrical industry--"the world's largest and most complex machine." He told the group that air quality and economic life are issues as important as salmon, and a consensus is needed on both sides of the equation.

NMFS administrator Will Stelle said powerful new data is being evaluated that is beginning to give results. Though findings are still preliminary, Stelle said the new work shows that fish survival in the hydro system has improved by 20 percent to 25 percent over the past 20 years; that mortality past the eight major dams downstream from Idaho is about 50 percent to 60 percent, and new data on transport survival shows a two-to-one benefit over inriver migration. He said smolt-to-adult returns have lately been in the 1.5 percent to 2 percent range--the low end of recovery. "We will need to do better than this," said Stelle, to get a "robust recovery."

The CRA group heard from Washington and Oregon lawmakers about state efforts to recover salmon and difficulties working with the National Marine Fisheries Service over development of the Oregon plan, in particular. They felt more answers were needed before money could be spent wisely.

Rick Applegate, now working as a NMFS policy analyst with Oregon, said he thought the region hadn't worked hard enough at creating a unified plan. He said more court battles would perhaps help. "Sometimes we do our best work under the cloud of litigation." He said the region is in danger of abrogating treaties because the salmon runs are half what they were in 1980. He pointed out that neither Canada nor the US is rebuilding salmon runs, but the Oregon plan is a promising step.

"Policy by Oprah"

CRA attorney James Buchal, who has just published a book called The Great Salmon Hoax, written from his perspective as a main litigator for the aluminum industry, told the group that the present situation has resulted from a corrosion of science and ideals. "If you can't put it into numbers, it isn't science," said Buchal, who said plainly that it was "balderdash" to seek consensus when some people were right and some people were wrong. With turbine mortality at some dams as low as five percent, and the two-to-one benefit from barging fish, Buchal said the main recovery goals have already been achieved. He called the present situation "policy by Oprah--it's a bunch of mush."

CRA executive director Bruce Lovelin told his members it was clearly time to engage in the Three Sovereigns process. He said Will Stelle may not want to admit it, but as federal administrator for the region, he is "salmon czar;" and NMFS did a good thing when it set a timeline for a 1999 decision on the main path of salmon recovery. "We need to hold him accountable," said Lovelin. -Bill Rudolph

[2] STAKEHOLDER PROCESS WON'T WORK, SAY SALMON TREATY ENVOYS

Representatives of the US and Canadian government have released a report that drives a stake through the salmon treaty's stakeholder process. US envoy William Ruckelshaus and his Canadian counterpart David Strangway, both appointed by their respective governments, were charged to jointly "reinvigorate" the stakeholder process last summer, but they have decided the process has no chance of getting the stalled talks moving again. They announced their conclusions at a Jan. 12 press conference in Seattle when they released their report to the public.

Alaska fisherman and stakeholder Bob Thorstenson, who took part in last year's talks, said the report completely "mis-characterizes" the stakeholder process. He said that northern stakeholders were close to agreement before Canada pulled the plug on the talks, which would have gotten both sides to agree to a fishing regime, a move that he said would have forestalled last summer's fish war between the two countries. Stakeholders from both sides of the border met in two groups, which reflected different issues in northern and southern areas, to hammer out their differences.

Thorstenson said an agreement would have kept Alaska fishermen from catching several hundred thousand Canadian sockeye. That harvest led to the blockade of an Alaska ferry in the northern BC port of Prince Rupert. Alaska later sued BC and fishermen over the ferry incident, and the BC government has sued all US parties to the treaty for compensation over fish harvest inequities. If that wasn't enough, the Canadian federal government has sued BC to keep open a torpedo testing rage that provincial premier Glen Clark said he would close if treaty talks failed.

Canadian Stakeholder's View

Thorstenson's view of the value of the stakeholder talks was partly disputed by John Malcolm, a Canadian gillnetter who took part in the negotiations. He said it was true the two sides had come close to a mutually agreeable fishing plan, but "that didn't take care of equity"--the long-standing Canadian complaint about the harvest imbalance between the two countries which have different interpretations of what "equity" means in the treaty.

Malcolm said the American stakeholders offered to pay Canadians for past fish inequities, money for major fish enhancement projects, but the talks failed when his side realized that the US government was not going to back their stakeholders' promise. "We finally realized there was no money coming--it was totally in the ether," said Malcolm. He said it showed him how limiting the stakeholder process was.

The two envoys reached the same conclusion. After watching the stakeholders in action, they concluded the process "cannot achieve the necessary fishing arrangement." And that both sides should adopt interim two-year

Alaska Seiners May Face Cuts

fishing agreements, which should give them enough time to establish longer term arrangements.

The salmon treaty, which was signed in 1985, says both countries should receive benefits that reflect the numbers of salmon produced by each one. But it also states that changes in harvest should "avoid undue disruptions of existing fisheries."

The envoys also recommended a through review of the Pacific Salmon Commission and called for both Canada and the US "to dedicate themselves to making it a functional institution for the preservation and management of the Pacific Salmon."

"Tragedy of the Commons?"

Ruckelshaus and Strangway said that meaningful compromises of positions "strongly held" will be necessary. "However, we must not forget the stakes are high. If the 'tragedy of the Commons' is to be averted, rules must be established for the preservation of the fish, and time is not on their side." The "tragedy of the Commons" refers to a concept developed in the 1960s by university professor Garret Hardin, which tried to explain why users of a common resource will generally overexploit it. But it's a concept that others think is inappropriate and over-simplistic. University of Washington history professor Richard White is one of those. In his 1995 book on the Columbia River, The Organic Machine, White wrote, "... historians know that Hardin's model of the commons is an invention. No such simple commons has ever operated... In historical practice users of common resources set up rules and limits; they created customs; they limited access."

The commons argument had Alaska negotiators blinking. They point to record runs in their state with salmon escapements double from twenty years ago, and say the envoys are clouding issues of conservation with allocation questions.

At issue are charges that Alaska fishermen catch too many Canadian fish, mainly sockeye and coho. Canadian fishermen have been unable to keep that catch between the two countries balanced because of weak stocks in the south. Canadians who fish off Vancouver Island have traditionally caught about half of the fall chinook destined for the Columbia River, including Snake River fish that are listed under the ESA. But worries over the weak status of some of their own runs of coho and chinook has drastically cut fishing there over the past couple of seasons.

With wild coho stocks in Puget Sound in poor shape and the region's chinook expected to be listed in February, the situation gets even more complicated. Overlaid on this grid of weak stocks is the generally healthy runs of Fraser River sockeye targeted by fishermen from both countries.

Another factor that complicates the issue is that salmon populations have changed dramatically since the treaty was signed, reflecting changes in hatchery production and ocean productivity. Alaska has pushed for an abundance-based harvest management regime that takes into account such fluctuations.

Ruckelshaus said they talked to individual stakeholders and government people at all levels--tribal, state, and federal--and met again with northern and southern stakeholder chairs on Dec. 19, "To look at the group talking--to see if they could get anywhere." They concluded that it didn't make sense to bring them back together.

But fisherman Thorstenson had a different story. He said a precondition for resuming talks was for northern US stakeholders to agree to a "substantive" move of fish from Alaska to Canada. He said no specific numbers were discussed, but it was essentially the same deal Canadians walked away from last year. But accepting the "precondition" now was not something the Americans could tolerate.

The envoys said that any agreement would involve a compromise "in the form of movement of fish to Canada and a willingness on the part of Canada to agree that not all the fish they deemed to be theirs would be returned."

Deputy commissioner of Alaska Fish and Game David Benton was disappointed with the report as well. "The stakeholder process is a far superior way to solve all allocation disputes," he said after the press conference last week. "Now we're going back to federal bureaucrats and professional negotiators." "The tragedy of the commons" doesn't mean anything in Alaska, where many runs are still near all-time highs of just a few years ago. At the same time, Benton said Canada is "trying to get its fleet off the water." The Canadians have carved up their fishing turf into three areas, which means that salmon fishermen are required to buy extra, expensive licenses from others who are retiring theirs, to fish both northern and southern areas of the province.

The envoys said the existing treaty will work if the political will to achieve accommodation is present by all the parties. Ruckelshaus said the ultimate responsibility for a lasting arrangement rested with the White House and the Canadian prime minister, but he didn't think it had to go that far. He said the blockade by angry Canadian fishermen of the Alaska ferry "had no input on me, or David."

Federal Support On Both Sides

Canadian Minister of Fisheries and Oceans David Anderson said the report was constructive. "It clarifies that government-to-government negotiations are the best way to resolve our differences, and that we cannot rely solely on stakeholders to do that for us. We now have the basis to move ahead on conservation and fair catch-sharing."

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the US was disappointed "that a basis was not found to restart the stakeholder process," but felt the stakeholders still had a role. "We are prepared," she said in a Jan. 12 statement, "with the assistance of the stakeholders, the involved states and tribal representatives, to pursue discussions to develop short-term and long-term arrangements for Pacific salmon."

But there are still some who feel the treaty is basically a flawed document. Robert Wright, a Canadian commissioner to the treaty process who resigned last summer, said the treaty "as written" was the problem. In September, Wright said the Queen and the Pope wouldn't be able to solve the salmon issue if they had to work with this treaty, and he blamed Canadian federal fisheries policies that were driving some salmon stocks to extinction the BC government was sabotaging any agreement when it began a lawsuit against the US to seek C$325 million in damages--what it considered the value of salmon lost to US fishermen since 1985, when the treaty was signed.

BC Premier Clark was roasted by the Canadian press last week when it was revealed his government has spent $400,000 "to produce a 90-minute infomercial supporting the premier's salmon war against Ottawa and the Americans," said the Vancouver daily, The Province on Jan. 9. The paper reported a government film crew had videotaped federal fisheries minister Anderson in an ambush interview. Province columnist Michael Smyth said the video "was a slickly produced political commercial designed to make Clark look like a war hero and Anderson look like a limp-wristed shmuck." It was reported that viewers could send for a information package that included a refrigerator magnet and a sticker. Cost of the production was split with BC Hydro, according to the paper.

Last week Benton, other Alaska officials, and some Washington fisheries policy people received subpoenas in regard to the BC lawsuit, which confused the situation even more. All were meeting in Seattle to discuss the future of the treaty, and the fresh subpoenas made them unsure just how much they could or should say about the future of salmon negotiations between the two countries.

That didn't stop Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski, who said without input from the fishing interests, he doubted that the issue could be reolved. "It's clear that while the talks continue endlessly, the fish won't wait. And I don't want to see a repeat of the confrontations we saw last summer. But it is hard to see how another two-year interim arrangement will necessarily lead to a longer-term solution-since the report provides little in the way of a roadmap for how to reach that longer-term solution."

But if past negotiations are anything to go by, fishing interests will remain close to federal negotiators as the talks proceed. -B. R.

[3] SALMON BRING NUTRIENTS BACK TO STREAMS

Scientists who have examined 42 years of escapement records for five salmon species in British Columbia have found that many streams have suffered a decline in the influx of marine nutrients—another sign that small salmon populations have suffered under traditional salmon management practices. They say it’s because stocks from enhanced streams have frequently dominated the total escapement of entire regions.

Gillian Larkin and Pat Slaney, researchers with the BC government, reported on the nutrient declines in the November 1997 issue of Fisheries, published by the American Fisheries Society.

"In the large number of streams with smaller salmon escapements, stream-rearing species already in decline may decrease further from oligotrophication. Risk-averse escapement targets for wild salmon stocks need to include sufficient spawners to provide the nutrient influx linked to the maintenance of stream productivity."

Recent studies have shown that up to 40 percent of the carbon and nitrogen in the food chain comes form marine sources--the rotting carcasses of salmon. One 1995 study showed increases in nitrogen, phosphorus, and chlorophyll in a stream after the experimental introduction of only 24 chinook carcasses.

The authors said that low levels of primary and secondary productivity are characteristic of many Pacific Coast streams. Therefore, even "modest inputs" of nutrients and carbon may be important in driving primary production and maintaining trophic productivity. They consider their estimates of nutrient levels "conservative" because of evidence that years of commercial harvest has reduced the size of returning fish.

The scientists said that their data, while not complete, has still identified "such significant risk" to wild salmon that a complete review should be conducted of all BC stocks at medium risk (78), high risk (624), and of special concern ( 230).

They said fertilization technologies could be used to make up for losses in regulated rivers "since reservoirs can act as nutrient traps or sinks." Transporting hatchery carcasses could also be utilized but required caution " to ensure no movement occurs outside local drainages" to avoid disease transfer.

Larkin and Slaney also cautioned that without habitat restoration, placing carcasses in streams may do little good, because nutrients will not be retained.

They were also critical of harvesting practices that targeted enhanced stocks, inadvertently causing overfishing on weak stocks, which caused the decline of spawners and the nutrient levels in many streams. They recommended a broad-based integrated strategy for renewal for BC stocks, of which 142 have become extinct. -B.R.

[4] BPA RESPONDS TO NMFS CRITICISM OF LOW-FLOW OPTION

BPA acting administrator Jack Robertson responded to criticism from regional NMFS administrator Will Stelle on Jan. 8 with a letter that said his agency will keep looking at ways of running the hydro system other than those outlined in the federal BiOp. At a November regional workshop, consultant Darryl Olsen reported on a low-flow option being developed under a BPA contract that could save the agency up to $60 million a year. The option would use a full transport strategy and cut some capital improvements at the dams.

Stelle said Olsen had misinterpreted NMFS data, but Robertson pointed out that NMFS' most recent studies showed no "significant" survival benefit from spring flow augmentation in the Snake River, yet barging nearly doubled the number of returning adults.

Robertson said presenting the low-flow option at the Nov. 17, 1997 Spokane workshop was "probably not the best way to pursue this matter, and was at least partially due to internal miscommunication." He said he hoped the matter wouldn't have a negative impact on the ability of the two agencies to work together and said he "would like to challenge our two organizations to consider whether this new information could have relevance for finding ways to meet our twin objectives of achieving healthy salmon stocks and a financially healthy BPA." -B.R.

[5] HATCHERY SUPPLEMENTATION EVALUATED ONCE AGAIN

Many salmon supplementation efforts are failing, but the reasons are not fully known, says Robert M. Bugert, habitat conservation planning facilitator for the Mid-Columbia PUDs. To find some answers, he examines case histories on three Columbia Basin rivers, the Chiwawa, Methow, and Tucannon, in the January 1998 issue of Fisheries.

It’s an expensive issue the region has been struggling with for years. The Power Planning Council has spent tens of millions of dollars on this technology and the Bonneville Power Administration has funded the development of a scientifically-based supplementation process called Regional Assessment of Supplementation Projects (RASP), as well as an evaluation of over 300 supplementation projects on salmon. So far, scientific evaluation of supplementation only shows that it does not work, and the evaluation has dredged up some knotty problems.

Bugert refers to the definition of supplementation developed by RASP as the basis for guiding all supplementation programs in the basin: : Supplementation is the use of artificial propagation in an attempt to maintain or increase natural production while maintaining the long-term fitness of the target population and keeping the ecological and genetic impacts on non-target populations within specified biological limits.

To Bugert this means that hatchery supplementation is used to increase production, but "in a way that leaves no footprints," which means doing things like releasing smolts that are "innocuous to their natural counterparts" and trapping adults in a way that doesn’t harm the donor population or hinder the passage of other species. But he says "no matter how we package it," supplementation will not "sidestep" the underlying causes of declining salmonid abundance--habitat loss, passage mortalities, and overharvest of weak stocks.

Bugert says hatcheries can be versatile instruments used to increase natural productivity if they are recognized for their strengths--increasing early-life history survival. If this advantage is applied within the context of watershed management, he says the promise of supplementation may be fulfilled: the increase of juvenile salmonids using techniques that will not interfere with long-term fitness of affected and non-target natural populations and the genetic diversity that is important for adaptation of these populations to variable habitats, climate and oceanic conditions.

"Not only do supplementation programs disregard the realities of variable environmental conditions," Bugert writes, "but they also relentlessly battle ever-changing stream flows, debris loads, and other vagaries of nature."

Research has shown that while production can be increased through supplementation, the productivity of the population being supplemented may not increase. In other words, hatcheries can increase adult production by increasing smolt production, but the fitness of the affected population can decline as the population experiences a reduction in traits that respond to natural selection pressures. The hatchery fish become more fit under hatchery conditions and less fit for survival under natural selection pressures. Bugert says, "...the foundation of the supplementation concept-- that which encourages local adaptation--is arguably the most difficult objective to meet."

This is because it is difficult to collect brood stock on small streams where the target population spawns, and still ensure that discrete populations are collected, thus reducing the risk of outbreeding depression. Outbreeding depression occurs when more than one population is collected for broodstock, which homogenizes the populations for artificial propagation and removes local adaptability of distinct populations through mixing. This results in a homogenous hatchery population that may be genetically diverse, but poorly adapted to the streams where they are expected to reproduce naturally, thus affecting their survival fitness. Research in Washington state has shown that hatchery fish have very low fitness and are likely to produce very few if any adult progeny. This is the opposite result expected from hatchery intervention.

What are the problems, according to these case studies? On the Chiwawa River near Wenatchee, the trap for collecting adult broodstock, like many others in the Columbia Basin, can collect fish only in low flows, causing concern that traps select for late-returning salmon. Less than five percent of the run was trapped in 1990 and 1991. In 1992, no fish were trapped until May when the trap was destroyed by high flows. In 1993, the trap collected one third of the run. "Analysis of marked carcasses recovered on the spawning grounds of nearby streams showed that the trap prevented upstream migration into the Chiwawa River and forced some Chiwawa fish to spawn among other populations," Bugert says. "Increased vulnerability to outbreeding depression could have resulted from this action."

On the Tucannon River in the southeast part of the state, hatchery supplementation started in 1985, but the adult broodstock trap missed 25 percent of the run. It could collect fish well enough during low flows, but did not work during peak spring flows. Fixing the trap to collect fish more reliably in high flows caused a shift in the spawning distribution of native steelhead and spring chinook to areas below the trap. This dislocation increased from 18 percent of the run in 1986 to 56 percent of the run in 1992 and meant that fish were spawning in areas less suited for survival than before the supplementation project was started. Since the trap intercepted late running salmon during lower flow periods, the supplementation project selected for late running fish.

In the Methow River on the east side of the North Cascades, three distinct populations of spring chinook have been identified. The Methow Hatchery was designed to collect and propagate these discrete runs separately to maintain genetic diversity of locally adapted salmon populations in three rivers: the Methow, Chewuch and Twisp. Again, the adult trap was not successful in collecting fish during high flows with only 10 to 24 percent of the run being trapped. In order to improve the efficiency of the hatchery program it was decided to trap spring chinook at Wells Dam on the Columbia below the mouth of the Methow River. But the three distinct populations of spring chinook could not be separated at the dam. Depressed returns of spring chinook to the Methow caused the fish managers to assume the risk of reduced "with-in population diversity" was a lower priority than risk of extinction of the runs.

Bugert identifies other issues relating to hatchery supplementation that must be addressed. One is the straying of hatchery fish that can lead to interbreeding with native, wild salmonids which reduces the survival fitness of the native population. He says, "the incidence of stray fish in hatcheries will probably increase if artificial propagation increases."

Stray hatchery fish are a problem for hatchery managers attempting to implement scientifically sound supplementation programs and maintain locally adapted natural populations in rivers. While elaborate processes to detect and remove stray fish have been developed, traps still can’t keep stray hatchery fish from spawning with wild salmon. Not all hatchery fish are externally marked so they can be easily identified, and methods for detecting stray fish are stressful to unmarked or wild salmon. Also, the fish agencies have not developed a procedure to manage gene flow from hatchery fish into other hatcheries and wild populations. This problem is so serious that the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has concluded that stray hatchery steelhead in Oregon's Deschutes River have caused the collapse of the wild steelhead run in there.

The creation of juvenile salmon acclimation sites for release into streams is another problem. Because of access problems in many watersheds related to remoteness or snow pack in the spring months, acclimation sites for supplementation projects are generally situated below the important salmon spawning areas. This results in a change in salmon spawning distribution and survival. Bugert claims that large, expensive acclimation sites are less flexible and options for their use are more limited than cheaper strategies of a lower technological order.

Bugert concludes that hatchery supplementation and watershed improvement must go hand in hand in order to successfully rebuild wild salmon runs, but this is seldom the case. He argues that the RASP premise requires that if hatchery supplementation is to work, it must be done within the context of a healthy productive salmon habitat. In addition, the program must respect locally adapted populations and their habitat. This leads to the larger problem plaguing state and federal policies—the traditional separation of salmon conservation from habitat protection, and simply relying upon hatcheries to overcome habitat degradation. "At this time," says Bugert, "hatcheries face overt disincentives to operate in ways that support natural productivity." -Bill Bakke

[6] CORPS CALLS FOR MORE BARGING IN NEW STEELHEAD ASSESSMENT

The agencies responsible for barging young salmon past Snake and Columbia River dams have recommended transporting even more of them this spring because it’s a strategy that will help juvenile steelhead as well. And citing 20 years work of research, they say spill would have to be cut at dams to collect more fish for the barges.

Those conclusions are part of the biological assessment (BA) for upper Columbia and Snake River steelhead released last week by the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Bonneville Power Administration and the US Bureau of Reclamation after lengthy discussions with other federal agencies. The two steelhead stocks were listed under the Endangered Species Act last summer.

But the proposal is on a collision course with present NMFS policy, which calls for keeping half the fish in the river. Sources have indicated that NMFS regional administrator Will Stelle argued unsuccessfully to have the barging recommendation toned down because it could conflict with the 1995 BiOp for Snake River chinook, which outlined a "spread the risk" policy that keeps half the juvenile fish in the river during their migration. It was reported that Stelle said the administration would not support negotiations over the next BPA Fish Cap agreement or the power agency’s subscription process unless draft language was changed. Stelle was unavailable for comment.

It was also reported that Justice Department lawyer Fred Disheroon tried to work out a compromise between the two sides, in order to keep present programs and policies in place while allowing the Corps to cite the science. It seems that minor semantic changes were made, such as substituting the word "propose" for "recommend" at certain places in the draft language of the assessment.

But the final document says the action agencies (BPA, the Corps and BuRec) "propose" that NMFS consider operations out of minimum operating pool conditions at reservoirs "in order to support maximization of transportation," to reduce spill at times when a lack of market forced water over the dams to keep reservoirs at MOP.

The assessment also mentioned that continuing studies of spillway crest and natural river drawdown at John Day Reservoir are underway to determine the value of such strategies for steelhead, but the BA said "drawdown of the reservoir could force predators into the reduced river channel" and cause more steelhead mortality until a new predator/prey balance was created. The BA cited 1997 PIT tag work that shows steelhead survival through the reservoir close to 95 percent, higher than previously documented (84 percent), which they said could have occurred from better research techniques or reduced predator populations.

Since steelhead are guided past turbines into bypass systems better than salmon, the assessment says that spill requirements are lower for them than called for in the salmon BiOp. It points out that when gas levels were modified to 120 percent to increase spill, later analysis of PIT tagged fish found that such spill decreased system survival. For this reason, the action agencies recommended maximization of transportation and minimization of spill at Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower Monumental, and McNary dams.

Over 20 years of NMFS own research was cited, that "show transport generally returned 1.5 to 2.5 times as many spring/summer chinook, 3 to 5 times as many fall chinook (McNary research), and 2.5 to 3.5 times as many steelhead compared to in-river survival." Since all stocks are benefited by the transport strategy, the action agencies said barging fish from all four dams "should be adopted throughout the juvenile fish migration."

Dave Geiger of the Corps’ Salmon Coordination Office said the steelhead assessment is just the first step in a consultation process with NMFS over development of a steelhead BiOp.

The federal fisheries agency was trying to have a biological opinion in place before this spring’s migration, according to Donna Darm of NMFS’ Protected Species Office. -B.R.

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Link/Document Annex
Works Cited

LINKS/DOCUMENTS FROM NW FISHLETTER 051:: Below are listed links and documents referred to in the text of NW Fishletter issue 051 .

• Columbia River Alliance
• The Great Salmon Hoax, James Buchal, Iconoclast Publishing, 1997
• Pacific Salmon Commission
• NW Fishletter 49, Dec. 16, 1997
• Letter from Acting BPA Administrator Jack Robertson to NMFS Regional Administrator Will Stelle, Jan. 8, 1998
• Biological Assessment for 1998 And Future Operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System, Upper Columbia and Snake River Steelheed, US Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration, US Bureau of Reclamation

THE ARCHIVE :: Previous NW Fishletter issues and supporting documents.

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