The anadromous form of sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka is functionally absent and possibly extinct from the Deschutes River Basin.  Artificial barriers to fish movement including the Pelton Round Butte Hydroelectric Project (PRB Project) which was completed in 1964, are among the factors contributing to potential sockeye extinction.  The PRB Project is owned and operated by Portland General Electric Company (PGE), an Oregon corporation, and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon (CTWSRO).  In 2005, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted PGE and CTWSRO (the Licensees) a new 50-year operating license (FERC License No. 2030-077).  In 2004, a Settlement Agreement concerning the relicensing of the PRB Project was made by and among the Licensees and 21 other Parties.  The Settlement Agreement includes provisions for a Fish Passage Plan to: 1) establish self-sustaining harvestable anadromous fish runs of Chinook salmon, steelhead and sockeye salmon above the PRB Project; and to 2) provide for safe, timely and effective upstream and downstream fish passage of adult and juvenile life stages of several fish species including sockeye salmon.

The goal of this sockeye development project is to develop and re-establish a self-sustaining, harvestable, anadromous sockeye run(s) above the PRB Project.  The goal is included in the first requirement of the Settlement Agreement and supports requirements of the FERC license.  Goal achievement is a shared responsibility among the CTWSRO, PGE and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) because CTWSRO and PGE are co-licensees and CTWSRO has co-management authority with ODFW regarding fish and wildlife in the Deschutes River Basin.  Within the Deschutes watershed, CTWSRO, PGE and ODFW conduct O. nerka investigations both cooperatively with and independently of one another in the basin and this project like others has been developed to accommodate and support information and data sharing.

Self-sustaining populations of resident O. nerka persist in Lake Billy Chinook (LBC), the Round Butte Dam pool, and Suttle Lake, the historic Deschutes River Basin sockeye nursery lake; and offer an opportunity to restore an anadromous sockeye population.  Smolt-sized fish already attempting to emigrate from these two nursery lakes above the PRB Project will be used to initiate the sockeye run.  Such restoration would focus on preserving or potentially enhancing genetic fitness of these populations.  Completion of fish passage improvements at the PRB Project in 2009 has accommodated testing of fish passage facilities.  Test results will contribute to conclusions regarding sockeye development or re-establishment.

Project study objectives are designed to address some of the needs in the upper Deschutes River Basin for many details of O. nerka ecology and life-history.  Such details are necessary to inform fisheries management decisions and to provide insight to the relative contribution to sockeye salmon run development for LBC and Suttle Lake.  Information needs for LBC and Suttle Lake O. nerka include: genetic data marker analysis to assess population relatedness within the Deschutes River and Columbia River basins; outmigration timing and relative abundance; outmigrant survival to the Selected Water Withdrawal (SWW) facility; population size and age structure; recruitment; growth rates; spawning escapement; spawning distribution; and smolt-to-adult return (SAR) rates.