Title: Wind River Watershed Project: FY2023

The USGS component of the Wind River Watershed Project has a goal of using instream PIT-tag detection capabilities within the Wind River subbasin to describe parr migrant patterns within the watershed and to assess the contribution of various migrant life histories to smolt and adult populations.  These data, coupled with WDFW's role in assessing adult and smolt populations and developing life-cycle models are providing a robust picture of steelhead life-histories, abundance, and diversity in this Intensively Monitored Watershed.  Increased PIT tagging of age-0 parr Steelhead in headwaters and PIT tagging of age-1 parr in headwaters and at screw traps and use of instream readers in tributary and mainstem locations will contribute to understanding of varying life-histories of wild Steelhead within the Wind River.  Instream detection capability within the watershed will also provide companion data to help track adult and smolt populations within the Wind Subbasin and can inform managers about the efficacy of restoration actions.  USGS and WDFW are collaborating on data collection and PIT tagging of Steelhead at all life stages to inform life-cycle models and life-stage specific survival.  Steelhead parr PIT tagged at age-0 in natal areas and at age-1 in rearing areas and at screw traps are providing data on migration behavior and rearing strategies.  A steadily improving instream PIT tag detection network provides data on headwater and screw trap tagged parr Steelhead, which in concert with screw trap recaptures and detections in the Columbia River as smolts and adults provides a robust design for life-cycle modeling.  

Below are listed some of the specific research questions we hope to address with increased data and scope of work.

The Wind River Project involves data collection under two of the monitoring types listed in the Draft Columbia River Basin Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Reporting Plan (MERR): 1) Status and Trend, and 2) Action Effectiveness.  Status and trend data (abundance estimates) are collected on wild lower Columbia River Steelhead smolts and adults in the Wind River subbasin, which is managed as a wild Steelhead sanctuary with no hatchery Steelhead.  These data, and a study design allowing evaluation of the removal of Hemlock Dam on Trout Creek, will provide Action Effectiveness Monitoring for habitat restoration actions including Hemlock Dam removal and instream restoration actions.  The MERR recommends that Action Effectiveness Monitoring be conducted in an intensively monitored watershed, which the Wind River has been listed as by the Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board (SRFB) and the Lower Columbia River Salmon Recovery Plan (Ruckelshaus and Koenings 2005; LCFRB 2004a).  In addition to data on life-histories and life-cycle modeling provided by PIT tagging, the sampling of Steelhead parr provides valuable data on growth, population structure, and condition factor in natal and rearing areas.  These data, submitted to PTAGIS for PIT-tagged fish, and to StreamNet for non-tagged fish provide a long-tern record of fish metrics useful for documenting or assessing changes due to habitat or environmental changes.

The Columbia River Basin Research Plan (CRBRP) lists 12 focal research areas, each with critical uncertainties that need to be addressed.  The work of the Wind River Project will contribute information to four of these focal research areas and their associated critical uncertainties.

Tributary and Mainstem Habitat –
Work with lower Columbia River (LCR) Steelhead in the Wind River will help address questions related to the full life cycle of this salmonid species.  Questions about life-history dynamics including migration timing and limiting factors by life stage can be addressed with a robust PIT-tagging program.  Information on use of both tributary and mainstem habitats at juvenile and adult stages can be gained.

Critical uncertainties that Wind River data can contribute to understanding:
1)  To what extent do tributary habitat restoration actions affect the survival, productivity, distribution, and abundance of native fish populations?
2)  Are the current procedures being used to identify limiting habitat factors accurate?

Harvest –
PIT tagging of LCR steelhead in the Wind River provides marked fish to investigate loss of adult Steelhead between Bonneville Dam and the Wind River.  A number of potential factors may be leading to an observed difference in number of Wind River origin Steelhead that cross Bonneville Dam and that return to the Wind River.  These factors may include harvest or harvest related mortality (due to sport or commercial fishing), delayed mortality due to downstream effects, or mortality due to thermal stress or water quality.

Critical uncertainties that Wind River data can contribute to understanding:
1)  What are the effects of fishery interceptions and harvest in mixed-stock areas, such as the ocean and mainstem Columbia, on the abundance, productivity and viability of ESUs or populations, and how can fishery interceptions and harvests of ESUs or populations, both hatchery and wild, best be managed to minimize the effects of harvest on the abundance, productivity, and viability of those ESUs and populations?

Population Structure and Diversity –
Work with LCR Steelhead in the Wind River subbasin and its watersheds will provide data to evaluate processes influencing their distribution, interconnection, and population dynamics through time and space.  Estimation of populations of smolts and adults and PIT tagging of parr coupled with instream PIT tag readers in mainstem and tributaries to provide data on movement and rearing habits will contribute to understanding of co-occurring life-history types and use of tributary and mainstem habitats.

Critical uncertainties that Wind River data can contribute to understanding:
1)  What approaches to population recovery and habitat restoration are most effective in regaining meta-population structure and diversity that will increase viability of fish and wildlife in the Columbia River Basin?

Monitoring and Evaluation –
Monitoring of LCR Steelhead populations in the Wind River provides a critical dataset on a wild Steelhead population in the Lower Columbia, relatively free of hatchery influence.  Evaluation of habitat restorations projects, including the removal of Hemlock Dam, will help to quantify what gains may be expected from restoration actions taken to restore depressed populations of wild Steelhead.

Critical uncertainties that Wind River data can contribute to understanding:
1)  Can a common probabilistic (statistical) site selection procedure for population and habitat status and trend monitoring be developed cooperatively?
2)  Can empirical (e.g. regression) models for prediction of current abundance or presence-absence of focal species concurrent with the collection of data on status and trends of wildlife and fish populations and habitat be developed?

The Wind River Subbasin Plan outlines a number of goals that on-going work in the Wind River will help to address.  Work with PIT tagging and instream detection systems in mainstem and tributaries will provide information to help address the goal that the summer Steelhead population in the Wind River be productive, abundant, exhibits multiple life history strategies, and utilize significant portions of the subbasin.  Implementation of habitat projects, along with monitoring of habitat and water temperatures will help address the goals of lowering water temperatures, improving flows, and restoring habitat diversity.

The ISRP/ISAB Tagging Report (ISRP/ISAB 2009) makes a number of recommendations for improvements and better collection of data with various tagging methods.  Because the Wind River Project is using PIT tags and includes monitoring of Steelhead parr to smolt to adult life history strategies and survivals, we will be deploying multiple instream PIT tag detection systems.  These methods and data should help further knowledge related to recommendation 3.5, which states: “We recommend for PIT tags, further development of prototype in-stream transceivers for detection in tributaries to monitor smolt and adult movements in both large and small tributaries to better understand salmonid behavior and migration timing, fate of juvenile, smolt, and adult migrants before and after dam passage and to spawning grounds.”   Installation of multiple instream PIT-tag detection systems in the mainstem Wind River and tributaries will help further the understanding of knowledge that can be gained with these systems.

The Tagging Report lists, as examples of data contributing to better understanding of salmonid behavior and migration timing, the fall migrants documented at Beaver Creek in the Methow Subbasin and Rattlesnake Creek in the White Salmon Subbasin.  Both of these projects were done by personnel from USGS Columbia River Research Laboratory (CRRL) who will be primary personnel in the Wind River project.  These varied life history expressions are critical to a complete understanding of salmonid population dynamics and may be critical to maintain with environmental changes through restoration, climate change, or introduced species.  

In-stream detection does require some ability to estimate detection efficiencies at different life-stages and flows.  Personnel from CRRL have been exploring methods for efficiencies (Connolly et al. 2008) and guidelines have been provided (Connolly 2010) in the PNAMP Special Publication, Tagging, Telemetry, and Marking Measures for Monitoring Fish Populations (Chapter 7, Wolf and O’Neal 2010).

Knowledge and lessons learned from experience with instream PIT tag detection systems in the Wind River has been critical to other BPA funded projects in the region.  Our experience with system design, installation and O&M, and data collection has helped inform and train project personnel working in the Hood River, OR; the Klickitat River, WA; and Rock Creek, WA as well as other non-BPA funded projects throughout the western U.S.  We continue to learn and adapt in both the physical setup and data collection aspects of instream PIT tag detection system operations.  We continue to collaborate and share knowledge and experience with such systems with other entities.

Objectives, Tasks, and Methods

OBJ 1.  Maintain four PIT tag interrogation systems (plus two auxiliary single-antenna systems) to provide data on movements of juvenile and adult Steelhead PIT tagged by USGS and WDFW.  Ensure data from PIT tag interrogators are submitted to the PTAGIS database.

OBJ 2.  PIT tag 1,500 Steelhead parr in headwater areas of the Wind River subbasin.

OBJ 3.  Annual Reporting: Produce Annual Report covering January 2022 through December 2022.

OBJ. 4.  Compile and synthesize recapture and interrogation data from steelhead parr PIT tagged in the Wind River to date.

OBJ 5.  Continue to monitor and report on growth of steelhead PIT tagged at age-0 and age-1 Steelhead in the various headwater areas of the subbasin.

OBJ 6.  Estimate and report detection efficiencies and probabilities of migration of PIT tagged parr Steelhead to the PIT tag interrogation systems in the Wind River Subbasin.