Beginning in the 1970's, The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon (CTWSRO) began monitoring spring Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and summer steelhead (O. mykiss) populations within the Warm Springs River (WSR) and Shitike Creek (SC) watersheds, west-side tributaries to the lower Deschutes River, Oregon.  Data collection was designed to describe distribution of these species and whether changes occurred through time and population dynamics.  Estimating juvenile outmigrants (Humphrey or rotary screw traps), returning adults (escapement – weir counts), number of females that spawned (redd counts), and densities and abundance of juveniles rearing in streams (snorkel surveys) have been used to indicate population status and trends.

The Columbia River Fish Accords provides an opportunity to update baseline geographic distribution for both species, evaluate current methods of life cycle monitoring, and experiment with new methods to achieve greater understanding in salmon and steelhead production in Reservation streams.  Some of the new methods being used include collecting tissue samples for parentage analysis to determine the proportion of adults sampled that are successfully producing progeny that are outmigrating and to determine effective population size.  Further, sampling within tributaries and performing parentage analyses on juveniles can inform us about production within tributaries.  With new research on distribution and densities of Ceratonova shasta spores in the Deschutes Basin and with warmer than usual summer stream temperatures, disease may be impacting holding adult spring Chinook. Improved data management is a topic that CTWSRO has been working on, which intersects with this project in terms of more efficient electronic data capture, quicker data entry to allow for more timely analysis and report writing and also to provide indicators (ESA listed summer steelhead juvenile outmigration, redd counts, and escapement) for the Coordinated Assessment Exchange.

In 2017 - 2018 the objectives are to:
Install, operate, maintain, and remove rotary screw traps in the WSR and SC for the spring and fall out-migration period for spring Chinook and steelhead;
Insert PIT tags into juvenile spring Chinook and O. mykiss collected in the WSR and SC RST;
Enter PIT tag data into PTAGIS;
Operate a permanent full duplex PIT tag monitoring site in the WSR and SC;
Operate and maintain a resistance-board weir in SC to monitor upstream movements of summer steelhead and spring Chinook;
Determine juvenile distribution for spring Chinook and steelhead in third-order and above streams within the WSR and SC watersheds;
Conduct redd counts for spring Chinook and steelhead in the WSR and SC watersheds using pre-existing index reaches and a rotating panel design;
Collect tissue samples of incoming adults from the WSR and SC weirs for parentage analysis
Participate in C. shasta studies with OSU Microbiology Dept. and US Fish & Wildlife Service by making observations at the rotary screw traps and freezing mortalities for fish pathologists to inspect, assisting with water-sample collection in Reservation streams and the mainstem Deschutes River.