[6] WDFW Calls For Comment On Steelhead Report
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is asking for public comment on its draft assessment of steelhead populations that will lead to a new plan for managing what's left of the state's steelie stocks.
The report says habitat loss has reduced productivity more than 80 percent on average for the 21 populations examined, and recommends that agency expertise be available to help local watershed groups identify habitat needs and funding sources to help fix it.
The report includes many other recommendations as well, part of the agency's embrace of the viable salmonid policy developed by federal agencies that gauges abundance, productivity, spatial structure and diversity as the main elements.
"This assessment is based on the best current scientific information available on Northwest steelhead," said WDFW director Jeff Koenings. "It will provide the scientific foundation for the future management of this important resource."
But the report also says there is going to be a fair amount of uncertainty in the management process since a lack of data has kept the agency from rating nearly half of the steelhead populations. It has also found that hatchery practices, especially in western Washington, pose risks to wild stocks. Only two hatchery stocks are used in about 70 percent of the steelhead hatchery production west of the Cascades.
The draft report says 90 percent of the steelhead runs on the Olympic Peninsula are healthy, while 60 percent in Southwest Washington are in the same category, but only 20 percent are considered healthy in the rest of the state.
The report says most habitat loss has occurred on the Columbia River, where hydro projects have blocked access to migrating fish, but nearly all of Puget Sound's historical steelhead habitat is still accessible and 96 percent of the region's historic populations remain viable.
A draft of the management plan's first section that focuses on Puget Sound stocks is scheduled to be finished by next January. NOAA Fisheries has proposed listing the Sound stocks as "threatened." All wild steelhead stocks in the Columbia and Snake systems have been listed for years, but their numbers have generally improved since they received protection under the ESA. -B. R.
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