The Problem: Development of the Columbia River Basin hydropower system has created impoundments throughout the basin, severely restricted movements of white sturgeon and two principal food sources (eulachon and Pacific lamprey), and degraded or destroyed white sturgeon spawning and rearing habitat. As a result, many impounded white sturgeon populations are not as productive as they were before the development of the hydropower system. In some upper Columbia River Basin reaches, the isolated populations may face extirpation.

Project Overview: This project includes a series of closely coordinated and complementary activities that are being implemented in an orderly progression from initial problem scoping to full-scale restoration and mitigation in the Columbia River downstream from Lake Roosevelt, and in the Snake River downstream from Lower Granite Dam. The project has evolved from conducting research on white sturgeon in the Columbia River Basin to implementing intensive population monitoring activities, based on research results, including monitoring the effects of hydropower system operation and habitat fragmentation on reservoir specific white sturgeon population health, expressed in near term and long term trends in abundance, distribution, productivity, genetic diversity, and available habitat.

This project seeks to ensure healthy populations of white sturgeon so that harvest opportunities for tribal and recreational fishers are sustained. To accomplish this, white sturgeon stocks in already productive areas will need to be intensively managed to maintain production, while depressed stocks in other areas will need to be rebuilt through a variety of measures. This project addresses requirements for management of existing fisheries, research to determine factors limiting production in depressed stocks, and implementation of management activities resulting from research on methods to rebuild depressed stocks.  Monitoring of stocks and evaluation of management actions are critical components of this project.

Specific project goals are to (1) ensure persistence of white sturgeon populations, (2) restore and maintain population productivity in impounded reaches to levels similar to that in the unimpounded Lower Columbia River Mainstem, and (3) restore and ensure sustainable white sturgeon fisheries. The objectives for 2016-17 include a range of specific tasks that include mitigation actions, monitoring the effects of mitigation actions, and research. Taken together, the objectives are designed to restore white sturgeon populations in impounded areas so that they can sustain annual harvest or use equivalent to 5 kg/hectare of surface area (Beamesderfer et al. 1995).