Bull trout in the Columbia River Basin were listed as Threatened by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in 1998 (USFWS 2000).  Bull trout populations are threatened by habitat degradation and fragmentation, past fisheries management practices, poor water quality, and blockage of migratory corridors.  Pend Oreille River and Lake is a core area within the Northeast Washington Recovery Unit of the Columbia Basin bull trout population (USFWS 2002a, 2002b).  Recovery of Pend Oreille bull trout is limited by the fact that dams on the mainstem Pend Oreille River (Albeni Falls and Box Canyon dams) have blocked migration of bull trout between Lake Pend Oreille and spawning/rearing areas (USFWS 2002a, 2002b). Albeni Falls Dam is a federal facility under the responsibility of the action agencies (US Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration, and Bureau of Reclamation).  Albeni Falls Dam created two types of problems for bull trout in the Pend Oreille Basin. First, bull trout from natal tributaries above the dam, that either became entrained or had elected to volitionally pass below the dam, were unable to return to spawn in their natal tributaries. (Source populations could include bull trout spawning in the Priest River, inlet tributaries of Pend Oreille Lake, or tributaries of the Clark Fork River below or above Cabinet Gorge Dam.) Second, adfluvial bull trout that formerly spawned in tributaries below the dam and migrated upstream to a cold water refuge in Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho were no longer able to do so.

The goal of this project is to provide temporary upstream passage for bull trout at Albeni Falls Dam on the Pend Oreille River. We propose to collect bull trout below the dam using boat electrofishing.  Any bull trout captured will be biopsied via hole punch and their DNA sent to the USFWS lab in Abernathy, Washington for rapid analysis within 48 hours. Each DNA sample will be compared to DNA from other bull trout populations in the Priest River drainage, Pend Oreille Lake tributaries, and Clark Fork drainage and an assignment will be made as to its probable region of origin.  Prior to release each fish will be implanted with a combination radio-acoustic transmitter to ascertain if the spawning tributary it selected was the same as its assigned tributary. A system of stationary radio receiving stations and airplane/truck/boat surveys will be used to monitor the movement of the tagged fish. This project provides direct on-the-ground benefits for endangered bull trout in the Pend Oreille Basin because it will allow fish, whose migration corridor has been blocked by a dam without fish passage, to return to their natal streams and contribute their genes (which would otherwise have been lost) to the spawning population.