About this contract:
Through BPA project #2018-002-00, this contract provides funding for operations and maintenance of PIT array infrastructure within the Okanogan subbasin to complete coverage of the entire Upper Columbia ESU for summer steelhead. This PIT array system is used for a multitude of monitoring and evaluation efforts. Ongoing operations and maintenance of the arrays within the Okanogan subbasin is provided by the Colville Tribes.

WDFW, under this project #2018-002-00 is responsible for all reporting and permitting of PIT-tag activities in the Upper Columbia ESU/DPS. steelhead. This contract also supports installation of new PIT array infrastructure within the Okanogan River Basin as needed. Currently no new installations are planned but we do plan to begin a dialogue with BPA about future PIT-tag array needs.

Project background:
Project 2018-002-00 is part of a standardized PIT-tag operation and maintenance effort in the Columbia River basin funded by Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). Data are uploaded to the PTAGIS database and thus readily accessible for use in many analyses, evaluations, assessments and reporting needs conducted by many different agencies and groups.  Existing M & E activities combined with recent advances in PIT tag technology provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the data generated to make management decisions concerning ESA listed species.

The overall objectives of the project are to:
Operate and maintain PIT-tag arrays sufficient to evaluate adult returns to, and outmigrant's from, each sub-watershed (HUC-12 scale).
In the Okanogan River Basin, two types of PIT-tag arrays are used:
1) permanent arrays are used to enumerate both adult returns and juvenile out-migrants on perennial streams and the mainstem river, and
2) temporary interrogation sites are installed, operated, and removed on a seasonal basis to document distribution extents of adult steelhead, fish passage at barriers or impediments, and to enumerate adult returns and juvenile outmigration in intermittent watersheds.

Over the last 20 years the Okanogan River PIT-tag array infrastructure has expanded using multiple revenue streams from only one intermittent PIT tag array in 2010 on Omak Creek to a HUC-12 scale basin-wide network of PIT tag interrogation systems throughout the  Basin today.