The monitoring and evaluation of the Colville Tribes' Resident Fish Hatchery (CRFH) provides feedback that helps guide future stocking and management strategies as part of an adaptive management process. The hatchery was created because federal hydropower projects, as well as private power utility systems, had and continue to have devastating impacts upon anadromous and resident fish resources that once flourished in the Columbia River and its tributaries. Historical fish migrations were blocked by dams and their habitat was altered, destroying the primary food resource (fish) for many native people. To replace these lost resources, many native people now rely heavily upon stocked fish. Artificial production at CRFH seeks to provide some mitigation for the loss of fish resources in the Upper Columbia Sub-Region within the "blocked area" created by the construction of Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee Dams through hatchery supplementation and harvest augmentation (i.e., in-place, out-of-kind mitigation). This artificial production program is part of the Northwest Power and Conservation Councils resident fish substitution policy identified in their Fish and Wildlife Program. Specifically, this project monitors and evaluates resident fisheries and CRFH stocking strategies within the Colville Confederated Tribes' Reservation portion of the Upper Columbia, Sanpoil, and Okanogan Sub-Basins.

The primary goals of the 2015-2016 performance period:

1. Monitor and evaluate the stocking strategies implemented on all Reservation lakes and streams. Evaluation will be based on specific goals and objectives defined for each waterbody.
2. Monitor water quality/habitat in stocked lakes.
3. Construct and install a trash rack and fish screen at the Twin Lakes Dam to keep hatchery harvest augmentation in lakes.
4. Monitor Rainbow Trout and Brook Trout movement between North and South Twin lakes through a continuing PIT tag study to aid fisheries evaluations of the individual lakes.
5. Finalize the Brook Trout carrying capacity study on Owhi Lake with recommended stocking plan based on results.
6. Continue to collect data for Kokanee and Rainbow Trout carrying capacity study on Buffalo Lake.