PROJECT PURPOSE/JUSTIFICATION

Project #2003-017-00 (Project) seeks to develop two novel monitoring and evaluation programs: (i) subbasin-scale pilot status and trend monitoring efforts for anadromous salmonids and their habitat in the Wenatchee, John Day and Upper Salmon River basins, and (ii) effectiveness monitoring for suites of habitat restoration projects in selected watersheds within the three target subbasins.  This work - critical for implementing the 2000 NMFS FCRPS Biological Opinion (RPA Actions 180, 181, and 183) (BiOp) - builds on current status and trend monitoring programs within each of these basins.  Several regional and local organizations are funding and implementing these programs.  In short, this project will integrate existing and new monitoring and evaluation activities in three pilot subbasins to help ensure that provisions of the BiOp are satisfied.

This Scope of Work (SOW) will enable the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to implement the Project in the Wenatchee Subbasin.  Specifically, within this SOW, the Yakama Nation (YN) will 1) estimate the smolt production of spring Chinook salmon and steelhead for the Nason Creek watershed within the Wenatchee Subbasin in 2004 and 2) describe the temporal variability of outmigrating spring Chinook and steelhead within Nason Creek.  Knowledge of this temporal variability will facilitate the development of adaptive rules for more efficient allocation of sampling effort in future years (e.g. 2005 and beyond) so that future-year sampling will simultaneously serve the needs of USFWS and BPA at little or no additional cost to BPA.

These work elements expand upon existing monitoring work being conducted by the YN and will help insure that future YN monitoring work will be compatible with Project needs.  These work elements are interrelated with other Project components including: 1) smolt production estimates of other species at other locations.  While the completion of work elements within this SOW is not dependent on the implementation of interrelated Project components, the completion of this SOW will provide the context for, and facilitate the interpretation of, data collected in other Project components.  
Background Details:  Smolt Production Monitoring

As part of the Coho Reintroduction Feasibility Study funded by BPA (project #1996-040-000), the YN operated a 5-foot rotary smolt trap in Nason Creek in 2001, 2003, & 2004. The rotary smolt trap has been operated for the specific purpose of evaluating predation by hatchery and naturally reared coho on spring chinook fry (2001 & 2003), and to monitor the spring migration timing of naturally reared coho in Nason Creek (2004). The current trap funding and purpose for funding does not allow for spring chinook and steelhead smolt production monitoring and limits the duration of trap operation to three months per year.
Little is known about the life history strategies and outmigration timing of fish using this stream, despite the fact that approximately one-third of the UCR spring chinook and an unknown proportion of UCR steelhead in the Wenatchee Basin may originate from Nason Creek.  In addition, it is not known how anthropogenic habitat alteration and artificial production operations might influence this potentially important natural production region of the Wenatchee River basin.  Landscape-level attributes of Nason Creek (e.g. hydrology, topography, temperature regime) have been altered through highway and railway construction and development on private lands.  Hatchery activity in Nason Creek includes the BPA funded coho reintroduction efforts, CPUD funded hatchery steelhead direct plants, and GCPUD spring chinook captive brood program (2004 marks the first captive brood release in Nason Creek).  The altered landscape and hatchery influence suggests that additional knowledge of life history strategies, survival rates and emigration timing of fish in Nason Creek will significantly assist with project effectiveness monitoring, by increasing the understanding of how Nason Creek contributes to production of spring chinook and steelhead in Wenatchee Subbasin.

Without additional funding, the existing monitoring work would take place for approximately three months in 2004; from mid-March through mid-June, and would not include population estimates for spring chinook and steelhead.  Monitoring in future years will be dependent upon the evaluation needs of the mid-Columbia coho reintroduction feasibility study, and funding.  

Limitations in existing program:  Outmigration of spring chinook and steelhead likely takes place throughout the nine month period from early-March through early-December.  The existing program will only sample three of these nine months and will likely miss significant outmigration of target species, especially steelhead.  If significant outmigration is missed due to the short duration of this sampling, production estimates generated by this work would not meet that reliability standards set by other smolt monitoring funded as part of this BPA Project.  Furthermore, emigration of the same species in other river systems has been shown to be sporadic in nature, with short-duration spikes or peaks in numbers occurring on the order of one to three days.  The existing YN program will only sample a maximum of three months per year, some years the trap may not operate (due to funding or monitoring needs), leading to poor precision in production estimates.  Under the current YN monitoring program, spring chinook and steelhead would not be the target species, the trap efficiency spring chinook and steelhead will remain unknown and population estimates will be not be generated. Due to the permitting process and incomplete data set for brood year (BY) 2002 (since the existing YN program only samples three months of the year), only count data will be collected for spring chinook and steelheads juveniles in March, April, and May, 2004.  All mark group releases during these months will be conducted with hatchery coho smolts.  Mark group releases specific for juvenile chinook and steelhead will likely occur with the subyearling emigrants in late summer or early fall.   Beginning work in 2004, with species specific mark group releases in late summer /early fall will allow researches to capture emigrant data from a complete brood year (BY 03).  For BY 2002, count data for spring 2004 is sufficient because the trap was not operated in summer/fall 2003 therefore BY 2002 emigration data is incomplete and regardless of the permitting delay, a complete production estimate would not be possible. Brood year 2003 will represent the first complete production estimate.
The existing YN monitoring program will not generate enough data from a broad enough time-frame to significantly improve our understanding of life history strategies and outmigration timing of spring chinook and steelhead in Nason Creek.  Therefore, reliance on this existing monitoring program would not allow Nason Creek to conform to the Project's design of a proper watershed-scale effectiveness monitoring studies.

Improvements to existing program through BPA funding:  Additional funding from BPA under this SOW would expand the existing YN monitoring program to sample 7 nights per week throughout the complete 9-month sampling period in 2004.  This expanded effort will 1) allow smolt production estimates of spring chinook salmon and steelhead to be generated for the Nason Creek watershed within the Wenatchee Subbasin in 2004 and will 2) enable us to understand, for the first time, the temporal variability of outmigrating spring chinook and steelhead within Nason Creek.  Knowledge of this temporal variability (i.e. life history strategies and outmigration timing) will facilitate the development of adaptive rules for more efficient allocation of sampling effort in future years (e.g. 2005 and beyond) so that future-year sampling, will simultaneously serve the needs of YN and BPA.

Technical methodologies for all work conducted under this SOW will follow protocols specified in the following document unless changes to these methodologies are mutually agreed to by RTT and YN:
Hillman, T.W.  2004.  Monitoring strategy for the Upper Columbia Basin: Draft report February 1, 2004.  Prepared for Upper Columbia Regional Technical Team, Wenatchee, Washington.

An appendix to this Hillman (2004) document is being created by NOAA-Fisheries and the RTT which describes the specific inter-relationships between several monitoring elements to be contracted and implemented in 2004.  While this appendix is not finalized, a draft version that covers all Project components is being developed.  This draft document, and eventually the final appendix, provide additional context for this SOW (but does not constitute a contractual element of this SOW).  
BPA support for this monitoring beyond 2004 is conditioned, in part, upon BPA receiving an acceptable plan that clearly identifies the monitoring and analytical framework, timeframes (i.e. expected schedule across years), and collaborative contributions for data collection and analysis by partner entities.

In order to coordinate among Project elements, the need for any changes in scope that may arise during the implementation of this SOW will be communicated to NOAA Fisheries and RTT (by contacting Chris Jordan (206-860-3423) and Mike Ward (509-486-2426)).  Actual changes to this SOW must be approved by BPA.