November 29, 2005
Bull Trout Assessments in Bonneville Reservoir
Statement of Work and Budget 2005

Old Contract Number:  22537

Technical Contact:  Steven W Gray, Project Manager
Washington State Dept. of Fish and Wildlife
2108 Grand Blvd., Vancouver, WA. 98661
(360) 906-6726, grayswg@dfw.wa.gov

Contracting Contact:  Ted Nelson, Deputy Contracts Officer
Washington State Dept. of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way N., Olympia, WA 98501-1091
(360) 902-2401, nelsotfn@dfw.wa.gov

Financial Contact:  Karen Southwell, Fiscal Services
600 Capitol Way N., Olympia, WA 98501
(360) 664-4993, southkjs@dfw.wa.gov

BPA Project 200306500 General Description and Statement of Work for FY 2006

The USFWS issued a Biological Opinion (BiOP) on the effects of operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) on bull trout and Kootenai white sturgeon in December of 2000.  The Biological Opinion prescribes a sequential approach for implementing measures that protect listed bull trout from FCRPS operations in the Lower Columbia River:  1) determine whether "significant" or "substantial" numbers of bull trout use the mainstem areas affected by the FCRPS, and if so, 2) determine the effects that those operations have on the bull trout occupying those areas.  The 1994-95 Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program (Program) listed specific amendments to address those measures outlined within the BiOP.  Amendments 10.5A, "study and evaluate bull trout populations", and 10.5A.6, "fund a study of the life histories and limiting factors for bull trout populations residing in the following Bonneville Reservoir tributaries: Wind, Little White Salmon, White Salmon and Klickitat rivers".  

The Klickitat Subbasin Plan's vision calls for healthy self-sustaining populations of indigenous fish and wildlife that support harvest and other purposes.  Species-specific biological objectives were not adopted due to insufficient data and the lack of confidence within the planning committee to identify adequate quantitative measures.  Instead, a matrix was developed for fish species and organized geographically (Upper, Middle, Lower Klickitat and Little Klickitat), within which, primary and secondary tier action areas were identified.  Within these action areas, certain actions and strategies were identified that would best benefit the largely unspecified species within the geographic areas.  In short, a conceptual design was developed to address geographic areas with overarching strategies that would benefit the respective species within.  Seldom are fish species specifically linked to strategies and it is assumed that benefits will be realized for all.  With the NPCC's adoption of the new 2000 Program and the failure of adequate species specific objectives and strategies outlined in the Klickitat River subbasin plan, it would appear that the directive for bull trout would be to maintain the status quo of knowledge in the Province.  This is not believed to be the intent of either document nor their respective authors.

With the development and adoption of the new Program, document 2000-19, and the adoption of the provincial subbasin plans (48 of 59 as of Nov 2005) to guide the Program, specific directives, objectives, and strategies for bull trout research have been drastically altered or omitted altogether.  Only one Washington subbasin plan within the Columbia Gorge province, the Klickitat River, currently lists bull trout as a focal species.  The Columbia Gorge subbasin lists bull trout as a "Species of Particular Significance".  The Hood River subbasin in Oregon is the only other plan in the Province that specifically lists bull trout as a focal species.  Within the Klickitat River subbasin, Focal species were chosen with the following considerations: 1) the status under the Endangered Species Act (ESA); 2) Ecological significance; 3) Cultural significance; 4) U.S. v. Oregon guidance.  The first of these considerations, inclusion under ESA, is a common consideration among nearly all plans yet only two of the eleven plans adopted bull trout as a focal species.

BPA project 2003-065-00, Determine Origin, Movements and Relative Abundance of Bull Trout in Bonneville Reservoir, was implemented in March 2004 and was borne of project 1999-024-00, Columbia Gorge Bull Trout Investigations.  Initial fiscal year (FY) 2004 funding was at $293,116.  Fiscal year 2005 was $305,000.  Due to a severe WDFW budget shortfall in FY 2004, project personnel were not hired until August.  As such, the primary window of bull trout migration was missed and much of the first year's sampling efforts for bull trout capture evaluations were incomplete.  Trap modifications to the Lyle Falls fish ladder were completed in June 2004 with the trap becoming fully operational in July.  As a result of the personnel shortfall and incomplete work, $82,114 dollars were returned to BPA for fiscal year 2004 under contract 16701.  The first full year of evaluations will be completed under BPA contract 22537, in February 2006.  Monitoring of salmonid passage at Lyle Falls has proven to be successful for Spring Chinook monitoring.  Preliminary mark recapture data analysis was able to support the re-opening of the recreational fishery as it was determined sufficient hatchery broodstock recruitment would be obtained.  Daily monitoring of passage has resulted in the first real-data temporal and spatial model of anadromous species in the subbasin.  Scale analysis will result in the age composition and associated run timing for all anadromous salmonids.  With respect to Wild ESU Mid-Columbia Steelhead, DNA and scale samples have been taken to evaluate the actual run timing and genetic baseline.  YKFP will use the DNA analysis as a measure of the contribution of Skamania Hatchery steelhead plants to the wild spawning genetic composition.  The joint effort between WDFW and the Yakama Nation has been very beneficial to both entities.  This working relationship and joint management endeavor should be continued and is looked upon favorably by both parties.

It was not until the second fiscal year of funding (2005) that capture methodologies were first explored within Drano Lake.  Initial capture methodology evaluations were unsuccessful in their attempts to capture any bull trout within Drano Lake.  However, between March and June of 2005, there were three documented captures of adult bull and one visual sighting within and adjacent to Bonneville Reservoir.  Bonneville Pool's capacity of 537,000 acre feet of water allows for significant spatial separation of this unknown bull trout population. The most recent captures within the Lower Columbia system began April 14th, 2005 by an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) Northern Pikeminnow sampling crew near the mouth of Drano Lake.  Another capture was documented by a Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) sampling crew just below Bonneville Dam on May 23rd, when a 13" (33 cm) bull trout was caught in a beach seine at the mouth of Hamilton Creek.  An additional report came from a WDFW employee near Cascade Locks, Oregon, which involved a visual sighting of a salmonid looking fish with distinct white lateral spotting swimming in the shallows along the shoreline.  A third capture was documented at Bonneville Dam smolt by-pass facility, 15.4 inch (39 cm), on March 21, 2005 (Dean Ballinger, PSMFC, Personal Communication, 2005).

It is recognized that bull trout are difficult to monitor in such an extensive area.  In an effort to minimize expansion of the current project yet increase geographic coverage and potential results, numerous non-financial partnerships have been fostered between WDFW and other agencies, including the USACE, ODFW, USGS, USFWS, PSMFC, University of Idaho, and the Yakama Nation.  USACE has granted access to FCRPS facilities at Bonneville, The Dalles, and John Day Dams in the event of any incidental bull trout handles during the smolt outmigration monitoring being conducted at these sites.  ODFW operates three electroshocking boats as part of BPA project 199907700, Northern Pikeminnow Management Program.  This project encompasses an area from the mouth of the Columbia River upstream to River Mile 353; preseason coordination between WDFW and ODFW has fostered an agreement that any incidentally captured bull trout will be held and made available to WDFW for study.  It was this cooperation in April 2005 that resulted in the first radio tagged bull trout in Bonneville Reservoir.  USGS has agreed to hold and notify WDFW of any incidental handles from a screw trap being operated on the Big White Salmon in conjunction with their fall Chinook production evaluations during 2006.  USFWS has made available personnel and portable PIT tag detection equipment for use as needed; in turn, WDFW has agreed to make available incidental captures of native fish during the Drano Lake operations for inclusion within the USFWS's National Wild Fish Health Survey.  PSMFC has agreed to hold and make available any incidental bull trout captures as a result of their operations directly below Bonneville Dam during the fall Chinook and chum spawning evaluations under project 199900301.  This project captured one adult bull trout in May of 2005 at the mouth of Hamilton creek, a Washington tributary to the Columbia River.  The Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, graciously offered the use of their fixed-station radio-telemetry receivers and personnel time for monitoring of the radio tagged bull trout within Bonneville Reservoir.  In addition to the cooperative efforts at Lyle Falls, the Yakama Nation operates several screw traps within the Upper Klickitat River basin and has agreed to assigned protocols for handling any incidentally captured bull trout from these screw traps.  The Castile Falls screw trap recorded two bull trout captures in September of 2004.  

It is difficult to quantify these relationships but of greater importance is the fact that a lead entity for bull trout research, WDFW, has been identified within the Columbia River main stem of the Columbia Gorge Province.   It is hoped that future incidental captures may be capitalized upon thereby increasing the knowledge base of this ESA species without increasing the projects associated costs.

Fiscal year 2006 will only be the second full year of operations for Project 2003-06500 to monitor bull trout within Bonneville Reservoir and the Klickitat River.  Jeffrey Chan, USFWS, Lacey, WA., presented information at the 2005 Salvelinus confluentus Curiosity Society meeting that evaluated 121 Core Areas with over 600 local populations.  Klickitat River was one of the core areas identified, however, one criteria for inclusion within the analysis was a minimum of 5 running years of data.  This data set does not exist for the Klickitat River subbasin and therefore the local population is identified as an "unknown".  Washington State produces a Salmonid Stock Inventory (SaSI) and monitors 80 bull trout stocks within the Puget Sound, Coast, and Columbia River.  Of these, 58 (72%) are listed as "unknown" status.  The data gap identified by these two lead management entities, and, the authors of the Klickitat Subbasin Plan, is believed to be the greatest limiting factor that exists today with regards to bull trout recovery within the Columbia Gorge Province.    

For fiscal Year 2006, WDFW, working as a cooperative partner with the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, proposes the following objectives in support of the USFWS 2000 Biological Opinion, the newly adopted 2000 Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program and incorporated Klickitat River subbasin; 1) Continue operations to monitor bull trout and anadromous salmonid movements between Bonneville Reservoir and Klickitat River at Lyle Falls #5; 2) Develop baseline population estimates for bull trout and anadromous salmonids within the Klickitat River, and, for bull trout, on a larger scale, Provincial and Columbia River Basin level; 3) Continue capture methodology evaluations within Drano Lake at the mouth of the Little White Salmon; 4)  Continue development of an updated genetic baseline for bull trout; 5)  develop communication/coordination network for all research operations within and adjacent to, Bonneville Reservoir, including all tributaries .

Objective 1 will involve the year round monitoring of upstream passage of all salmonids through the fish ladder at Lyle Falls #5.  Trap construction was completed in June 2004.  Although bull trout have proven difficult to capture at the facility, WDFW and the Yakama Nation have continuously monitored passage and gathered significant biological, genetic and temporal data for anadromous salmonids including Fall and Spring Chinook, type-N coho, and ESU MCR steelhead.  This monitoring will continue during FY06.  As a result of the first year of sampling, the first biological and temporal data set for all salmonids has been developed.  All data gathered during the implementation of Objective 1 will be shared equally between partner entities.  In addition, contacts with StreamNet and Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority's Collaborative Systemwide Monitoring Program have sprouted in hopes of making research data available to the public and coordinating sampling efforts across a larger geographic footprint.

Objective 2 will use a mark-recapture methodology to estimate baseline populations for all salmonids in the basin.  This is an item often cited in ISRP comments as being absent from project proposals/designs and more specifically, not having been adequately addressed in Appendix F, Klickitat Fishery Anadromous Master Plan, of the Klickitat River Subbasin Plan.  All bull trout and salmonids will be biologically sampled and marked with an opercle punch and species-specific colored floy tag; wild steelhead will only be opercle punched with the tissue being used for genetic analysis by the Yakama Nation.  Creel data, Yakama Nation spawning ground surveys, hatchery recruitment and other secondary observation methods will be employed to gain mark-recaptures for population estimates and intra- and inter-specie variations of ladder use.  Spring Chinook population estimates were completed for 2005.  Fall population estimates have been hampered by the difficulty in recovering carcasses due to varying flow regimes, stream size and water competence, geographic area of spawning, predator removals, and post-spawn behaviors of the different species involved.  Continuation of this objective will further increase the baseline database for more accurate management.

Objective 3 will continue within Drano Lake during the summer of 2006 and will include the evaluation of various methodologies to capture bull trout that are known to exist in the areas as evidenced by the ODFW incidental capture just east of Drano Lake in April 2005.  These operations will be carried out at night during an April-July work window when bull trout are most active and are beginning pre-spawn preparations.  The nocturnal sampling schedule should diminish the potential for any negative recreational and Tribal fishery interactions.  Gear types to be implemented include, small-mesh gill nets, stationary Merwin and O'neida traps, mid-water minnow traps, beach seining, hoop nets and video monitoring.  ESA implications preclude the use of hook-and-line sampling, however, creel data gathered through PSMFC's Coded Wire Tag (CWT) project will be available during the spring Chinook fishery within Drano and will be summarized to evaluate this gear types' potential for incidental bull trout captures.

Objective 4, an updated genetic baseline, when complete, will prove to be the most influential aspect of bull trout research within the Province.  As highlighted earlier, bull trout are found throughout most if not all the Provinces and within many of the subbasins, however, each research project has worked independently towards their own goals of genetic evaluations.  Avenues of communication have now been paved between the various projects within the Columbia Gorge Province and their expressed willingness to cooperate and coordinate toward a mutual goal will greatly increase genetic sample size and geographic coverage at little or no cost of sample acquisition.  During 2005, coordination between all genetic laboratories performing bull trout analysis in the Northwest has culminated with the development of standardized protocols and updated microsatellite DNA markers for bull trout (Denise Hawkins, WDFW Genetics Laboratory, Personal Communications, 2005).  Therefore, all previous samples and newly archived samples should be reprocessed under the new protocols using the updated microsatellite DNA markers in an attempt to develop a comprehensive Provincial, and on a larger scale, Columbia River Basin, baseline database.  At a minimum, stocks for inclusion should include Klickitat, Hood, Deschutes, John Day, Umatilla, Lewis, and Willamette/Mckenzie rivers.

Objective 5 involves coordination of sampling and research efforts within and adjacent to Bonneville Reservoir, including all tributaries.  Numerous studies have been, and continue to be, conducted throughout the region.  A coordinated effort is needed to assure that these research and monitoring projects are cognizant of the importance of bull trout incidental captures.  WDFW, acting as bull trout lead entity, has begun communications with multiple Federal, State, Educational, and local municipalities regarding any incidental bull trout captures through the efforts of their research.  Communication and handling protocols have been developed and provided to research groups in the hopes that all future bull trout captures may be capitalized upon.

The importance of bull trout as a threatened species has led to the drafting of a Bull Trout Recovery Plan for the Lower Columbia River Basin and is included as chapter 20.  This plan was developed through a task force headed by the USFWS with participation of WDFW, PacifiCorp, and the USFS.  This plan was completed 11/29/2002 and is currently in Draft form for review and public comments (http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plans/2002/021129.pdf).  By providing basic information on life history, ecology, and genetics of bull trout, this BPA funded study will contribute to management, preservation and restoration of bull trout populations throughout the Columbia Basin.  It also augments other bull trout recovery programs on the Willamette/McKenzie, Hood, and Northeast and Central Oregon sub-basins.  This proposed project would implement the following actions required by the December 2000 USFWS FCRPS Biological Opinion for bull trout:  

10.A.2.1:  Determine the extent of bull trout use of the Lower Columbia River affected by the FCRPS.

11.A.2.1.c:  …estimate the annual population size of bull trout migrating to and from the Lower Columbia River reservoirs, and develop abundance trends over time.

11.A.2.1.d:  …cooperate in studies to determine the movements of bull trout from the Hood River and other tributaries into Bonneville Dam reservoir.  This project also supports the objectives and strategies as outlined within the Klickitat River Subbasin plan.

References

Ballinger, Dean.  Pacific Marine Fisheries Commission, Smolt Monitoring Program. 2005.  

Hawkins, Denise.  WDFW Genetics Laboratory, Personal Communications.  2005.