[4] No More March Spill At Bonneville For Early Hatchery Release

Some fall chinook fish production will move from Spring Creek Hatchery above Bonneville Dam to the Bonneville Hatchery, just below the dam, according to an agreement signed Oct. 23 by action agencies and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The strategy was a high-priority item in the MOA that federal agencies and three lower Columbia tribes signed in May.

The move means there will be no more March releases of Spring Creek smolts and several days of spill at Bonneville to help the fish past the dam, which used to cost around $2 million in lost power revenues.

After they are reared, nearly two million additional fall chinook will be moved from Spring Creek to the Little White Salmon hatchery further upstream, where they will be released in April, after the hydro BiOp's spring spill regime has begun.

To make room for the increased fall chinook production at Bonneville Hatchery, 2.5 million upriver bright fall chinook will be moved to Little White Salmon for acclimation and release.

"The restoration of salmon depends on federal, tribal, and state governments working together on cooperative efforts like the Spring Creek Hatchery reprogramming," said N. Kathryn Brigham, chairwoman of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

"By addressing all the parties' concerns, we have a solution that has the same number of fish being produced in the Basin, increases efficiency of production at Spring Creek, and increases the number of high-value upriver brights released above Bonneville Dam--something the tribes have been seeking for decades," she said.

The total cost increase of the reprogramming will be $244,000 per year after one-time start-up costs of $192,000.

About $139,000 of the annual cost will be paid by the Corps from its John Day Dam mitigation program. (About 80 percent of this amount is paid by BPA ratepayers through a direct-funding arrangement with the Corps.) USFWS will fund $105,000 of the annual costs for the three-year agreement.

"Trying to maximize survival for Spring Creek releases has been a continuing goal for fishery managers because the Spring Creek stock is one of the largest single stock contributors to the duration and success of ocean and Lower Columbia River chinook fisheries," said Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife official Guy Norman. -B. R.

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