This contract is specifically designed for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration (NOAA) personnel in the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to work collaboratively with the CTUIR fisheries monitoring and evaluation staff in the design, implementation, data collation, and reporting of radio tagged steelhead in the Umatilla River.  This project's field work will be minimal but will include some tagging at Three Mile Dam and site visits to each diversion to ensure a good understanding of the research design, methods and particulars so that NMFS can assist CTUIR in collating and summarizing telemetry data.

Upstream migration and passage of summer steelhead in the Umatilla River past potential passage impediments created by irrigation diversions is a critical uncertainty in the basin that affects how managers operate and monitor passage facilities and fish passage flows in the Umatilla River. There are also considerable uncertainties regarding the spawning location of hatchery origin spawners in the headwaters and mainstem reaches of the river basin.  Radio telemetry methods will be used to evaluate both passage and spawner distribution of hatchery and wild origin endemic summer steelhead returning to the Umatilla River.  Steelhead will be captured and tagged at Three Mile Falls dam and released back into the river.  Mobile tracking and fixed site receivers at each diversion dam and major tributary will be used to document passage timing, delays, and impediments.  Tagged steelhead that pass the dams will be radio tracked to their spawning location which will be recorded with GPS equipment and mapped in a GIS layer.