Today we hand delivered a letter from Riggins, Idaho small businesses to Idaho Senator Risch’s staff in Boise.  The letter stressed the economic importance of angling expenditures to small Idaho river communities and the need to recover the endangered salmon and steelhead.  A PDF version is available here.  Click on the image of the letter to read both pages.

April 12th, 2017

Senator James Risch

350 N. 9th St., Ste 302

Boise, ID 83702

Dear Senator Risch,

The town of Riggins, like many small towns along the Snake and Salmon Rivers, relies on tourism for its livelihood.  We live and die by the river conditions.  An evaluation of the 2001 fishing season found that we conservatively benefited from $10 million in angler spending that year, which is 25% to 33% of our economy.  This is likely the difference between a sustainable small town or a dying ghost town.  People spent money on guide services, lodging, food, gas, fishing supplies, and related activities.  Angling supports the economy when other sources of income, like rafting, are unavailable.  Ample water, salmon, and steelhead are the keys to our survival.

Since the 1970’s, salmon and steelhead runs have dwindled, the chief cause being the construction of the four lower Snake River dams.  The dams drove wild Snake River steelhead, sockeye, and spring, summer, and fall Chinook, onto the Endangered Species List.  The four dams and reservoirs alone claim on average 30% of the juvenile fish before they even reach the Columbia River, where they are further decimated by another 4 dams on their journey to the Pacific Ocean.  Predictions for 2017 steelhead returns are the worst in almost 20 years.  Chinook returns are expected to be down too.  Our future, which is directly tied to the fish, is at stake.  Fisheries around the Pacific Northwest are threatened, and we don’t have a guaranteed fishing season.  Recall the 1980 “fish wars” right here in Riggins due to the closed fishing season.  A repeat would be devastating to small businesses up and down the Snake and Salmon Rivers.  Having Endangered Species Act protections on the fish also negatively affect the local farmers and ranchers.  But we understand those protections are entirely necessary to preserve the species.  If the fish were allowed to recover, ESA restrictions would be removed, benefitting our local farmers and ranchers.

Nearly a billion dollars have been spent in futile attempts to recover Idaho’s endangered salmon and steelhead.  The bill for these efforts is passed on to us—your constituents—in our monthly electricity rates.    The Army Corps was right in its 2002 EIS when it stated that breaching has the highest probability of meeting salmon and steelhead survival and recovery criteria and that their preferred alternative (fish passage modifications) would likely be slightly worse than doing nothing.  It’s time to try something new.  It is essential to the survival of Idaho’s wild salmon and steelhead that their diverse genetics be preserved by increasing their rate of survival in the hydropower system.  Increased hatchery fish production and good ocean conditions have masked the failures of current attempts to improve fish passage.  The State of Idaho has worked hard in recent years to improve spawning habitat in the upper reaches of the Salmon River and its tributaries, but the wild fish aren’t returning in substantive numbers because of the dams.

We, the small businesses of Riggins ask you to support breaching the four lower Snake River dams and to discuss  dam breaching with the Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works in Washington DC using the 2002 EIS to save precious time and money. This will provide immediate benefit to the Idaho river communities and promote the entrepreneurial spirit and skills of our local businesses.  One estimate projects that Riggins alone would receive an additional $26 million in economic benefit from a fully recovered salmon and steelhead fishery, and that Idaho as a whole would benefit by $544 million per year.  This is far more benefit than the four lower Snake River dams currently provide to our state.

Breaching the dams would provide us with a reliable fishing season and it would launch the salmon and steelhead in a giant leap towards full recovery.  Riggins can’t afford to wait for the completion of the current NEPA process, which may not result in any action for 10 years.  By then the wild Snake River salmon likely would not have the capacity to recover.  Dam breaching can propel salmon recovery forward to provide Riggins the economic benefit needed to keep us going

Respectfully,

Gary Lane

Wapiti River Guides

 

 

A new report published by Oregon State University (OSU) and funded by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), blames ocean conditions in 2015 for the poor Chinook salmon runs that are predicted by Pacific Northwest fisheries managers in 2017. Ocean conditions, or the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), are NOAA’s newest scapegoat in explaining salmon mortality. In reality, the life and death struggles experienced by the salmon and steelhead returning this year started long before they entered the Pacific Ocean.

The April 2016 report “Survival Estimates for the Passage of Spring-Migrating Juvenile Salmonids through Snake and Columbia River Dams and Reservoirs, 2015 ”, which was prepared by NOAA for BPA, showed just how bad it really was. The data, graphed below, shows only 39% of juvenile Chinook salmon, 36% of steelhead, and 37% of sockeye salmon surviving the downstream journey from their place of birth in Idaho past 8 dams on the Snake and Columbia Rivers. For comparison, survival had been averaging 49% for Chinook and 45% for steelhead. The paper also interestingly points out that fish survival has remained relatively stable since 1999, which is contrary to the propaganda fed to the media by BPA and the Army Corps of Engineers about the “great gains” made (with our tax and rate payer dollars) in fish passage and recovery. Juveniles faced high water temperatures in the slow moving reservoirs, and the reservoirs prolonged the annual migration to the ocean, meaning they arrived after the ocean had undergone seasonal warming. Prior to dam construction, juveniles arrived in the ocean much earlier when it was still cool, which increased their survival.

The funding for the OSU paper is peculiar.  BPA is the federal agency in charge of operating the hydropower system that has forced wild salmon and steelhead to the brink of extinction.  NOAA is the federal agency in charge of recovering them.  BPA provides the funding for many of the research projects undertaken by NOAA. I heard the author David James Duncan describe this relationship as something akin to having meth cooks running the meth addiction recovery program.

I expect we will see more finger pointing at the ocean this year as a means to divert our attention from the dams. Sometimes I wonder if they are spending our money to protect the salmon… or the dams themselves.

As of May 8th, 2017, a total of 92 spring Chinook had passed Lower Granite Dam on the lower Snake River.  By this time last year, 4,814 had passed.  And the 10-year average is 11,254.  I was planning to go fishing this weekend, but I think that would be futile with so few Chinook in the Snake River, and even fewer in the Salmon River.  I may still attend the Sacred Salmon Ceremony in Riggins, ID though.

We are either experiencing a slow start to the spring Chinook run, a very small run, or a combination of both.  River flows have been high and cold this year.  The 2015 juvenile Chinook, many of which are returning this year as adults, experienced extreme levels of mortality in the hydrosystem during their migration to the Pacific Ocean.  You  can read more about that here.

The number of steelhead that have migrated past Lower Granite Dam by May 8th was 7,228.  By this time last year, 5,410 had passed.  And the 10-year average was 8,844.  These are most likely not steelhead that have come up from the Pacific Ocean this year, but fish who wintered in the Snake River.

The 2017 spring adult Chinook salmon and Steelhead migration to the Columbia River basin has begun.  Bonneville dam is the first dam encountered by salmon and steelhead adults as they return to their natal waters to spawn.  Fish destined for the middle and upper Columbia and Snake Rivers will encounter 3 more dams (The Dalles, John Day, and McNary).  Fish entering the Snake will encounter another 4 dams (Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite).  Fish destined for the upper Columbia could encounter an additional 5 dams (Priest Rapids, Wanapum, Rock Island, Rocky Reach, and Wells) .  No fish passage is available at Chief Joseph dam, so that is as high in the Columbia that they can reach.  Prior to dam construction on the Columbia River, salmon migrated all the way into Canada.

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CHINOOOK

As of 5/8/17, the current and recent past counts of Spring Chinook Salmon that have passed Bonneville dam and entered the Columbia River system are:

2017:  23,963

2016:  93,766

10-yr avg:  99,159

The 2017 returns finally took off and are at 24% of the 10-year average!  The urge to spawn couldn’t wait any longer, regardless of high flows and cold water.  You can read more about salmon spawning and the changes they undergo before entering the fresh water of the Columbia/Snake River system here.

It is still not known if this 2017 run is late, small, or a combination of both.  It has been predicted by fisheries managers to be smaller than last year and smaller than the 10-year average.  You can read more about why here.  

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STEELHEAD

The current and recent past counts of Steelhead are:

2017:  2,596

2016: 4,011

10-yr avg:  4,055

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WILD STEELHEAD

The current and recent past counts of Wild Steelhead are:

2017:  898

2016:  1,638

10-yr avg:  1,379

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All data is from the Fish Passage Center website (fpc.org)

While what seem to be impressive numbers of fish return to the Columbia River basin today, be aware that historically 17 MILLION salmon returned to the Columbia River each year.

High river flows can be hazardous for smolts

Debris in bypass system blamed for death of salmon, steelhead young

• By ERIC BARKER of the Tribune

Debris carried by high flows on the Snake River continues to cause fish passage problems at Little Goose Dam, about 70 miles west of Lewiston.

Torn screens in the fish bypass system there led to the death of as many as 5,000 salmon and steelhead smolts earlier this month. The screens were torn by debris and trapped the ocean-bound fish in turbulent water, said U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Bruce Henrickson at the agency’s Walla Walla District.

He said agency officials don’t know exactly how many fish were killed during the incident that was first detected May 1 and took several days to remedy.

“At this point we believe it will be less than that 5,000 (estimate),” he said. “About 10 million juvenile salmon and steelhead pass Little Goose Dam this time of year. Of course every fish and every fish loss is important to us, but these are less than 5,000 out of 10 million.

The corps previously reported a clogged orifice in the fish bypass system killed 2,240 juvenile fish May 3, and 75 more perished in April because of problems also related to high flows and debris.

The latest problem was detected when an inspection with underwater cameras revealed damaged screens at three of the dam’s six hydro-electrical units. Henrickson said the units were dewatered and repaired one at a time. The last unit will come back online Wednesday.

The powerful springtime flows that help young fish navigate through reservoirs and past the dams generally are seen as a benefit to salmon and steelhead. Many of the migrating fish follow currents that take them over spillways, but others are drawn toward the turbines. The fish bypass system is designed to divert those smolts away from turbines and eventually around the dam.

This year’s high flows come at an inopportune time for Little Goose. In 2014, a barrier designed to divert debris away from the turbines and the accompanying fish bypass system at Little Goose was damaged. Henrickson said the 875-foot long structure was removed from the front of the dam but hasn’t yet been repaired and replaced.

“There is more debris in there than if we had our debris barrier in place,” he said. “In the meantime, flows are very high this year and therefore the debris (volume) is very high.”

The need to shut the units down during the repair led to an increase in the volume of water being spilled at the dam. While spill is seen by many scientists as the best way for the young fish to negotiate past the dams, the high volume of water plunging over spillways this year is producing elevated levels of dissolved gas. The work to repair the screens temporarily caused dissolved gas levels to rise even further. Extremely high levels of gas can harm the fish.

The weekly update:  A total of 234 spring Chinook salmon have crossed Lower Granite Dam as of 5/15/17.  In 2016, a total of 29,544 had passed by now.  The ten year average on this date is 25,823.

A total of 7,258 steelhead have crossed as of 5/15/17.  These are fish that spent the winter in-river.  In 2016, a total of 5,456 had passed.  The ten year average on this date is 8,962.

Of those steelhead, only 3,018 are wild.  The rest are hatchery fish.

We are either experiencing a slow start to the spring Chinook run, a very small run, or a combination of both.  River flows have been high and cold this year.  The 2015 juvenile Chinook, many of which are returning this year as adults, experienced extreme levels of mortality in the hydrosystem during their migration to the Pacific Ocean.  You  can read more about that here.

Anemic return leads managers to close salmon fishing on Snake

Area biolgists, hatchery officials monitoring the spring run of chinook

Lewiston Tribune

A new forecast that slashed the expected return of spring chinook to the Columbia River and its tributaries led Washington to close salmon fishing on the Snake River on Tuesday and cast uncertainty on the future of other seasons in the basin.

State, tribal and federal fisheries managers from around the Columbia River basin now expect only about 75,000 spring chinook to make it to Bonneville Dam, about half of the preseason forecast. If the prediction holds true, it could alter or upend future and present fishing seasons.

Fisheries managers had already closed fishing on the Columbia upstream of the dam, and the closure of the modest fishery on the Snake River is the second casualty of the poorly preforming run. Idaho Fish and Game officials are taking a wait-and-see approach before making any decisions about ongoing fishing seasons on the Clearwater, Salmon, Little Salmon and Snake rivers.

Brett Bowersox, a biologist with the department at Lewiston, said agency officials are concerned and will monitor the run based on counts at Columbia and Snake River dams and the detection of tracking tags many of the fish carry. He said no change will be adopted until after this weekend.

“We are going to operate on the reality of what our fish coming over Bonneville tell us,” he said. “We still have Idaho-bound pit tags crossing Bonneville that is increasing the run, but we are operating at a much later run timing than we have ever seen before so it’s much harder to predict what is going to happen.”

Flows on the Columbia River at The Dalles, Ore., continue to be extraordinarily high, and the number of chinook passing Bonneville Dam is well below the long-term average. Monday’s count of about 2,200 chinook brought the season total at the dam to 33,798. The 10-year average is 124,728. Only 234 chinook have been counted passing Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River. The 10-year average is more than 25,000.

Becky Johnson, production manager for the Nez Perce Tribes Fisheries Division, said she and other managers are monitoring the run with an eye toward ensuring enough adult fish will return to meet spawning needs at various hatcheries. She said only one adult chinook has been captured at Rapid River Hatchery near Riggins this spring.

“Typically this time of year we are trapping broodstock,” she said.

Despite the extreme tardiness of the run and the downgraded forecast, some salmon managers still believe large numbers of fish are stalled in the lower Columbia River and could save the run with an upriver surge as soon as flows drop. Ron Roler of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said there is ample evidence to back that theory.

“The recreational fishery, the test fisheries, all the indices say there is fish down there except for (fish counts at) Bonneville. Until the Bonneville counts come up it’s a disastrous run.”

For example, Roler said, most of the 6,900 adult chinook caught by anglers below Bonneville Dam were harvested in the last few days of the season there. The fishing conditions were poor at the time but harvest was distributed over more than 100 miles of river.

“So in order for them to catch lots of fish, there had to be lots of fish,” he said.

If the run doesn’t outperform the latest update, Oregon and Washington will have exceeded their shares of the available harvest even though the states implemented a 30 percent harvest buffer to guard against overfishing when runs don’t live up to preseason forecasts.

Stuart Ellis of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission said there is precedence for an extremely tardy run. For example, in 1952 the peak of the run didn’t hit Bonneville Dam until May 27, and in 1948 it peaked May 12.

“They do kind of point out it is possible for these runs to have some strength in the tails. I hope we get lucky and this run has some strength to it.”

The Snake River fishery in Washington was open for just two days a week, with angling allowed near Clarkston and Little Goose Dam on Sundays and Mondays and at Ice Harbor Dam on Thursdays and Saturdays. Roler said anglers caught 65 fish during the three weekends the season was open. Most of that harvest was near Ice Harbor Dam, and none of it happened in the Clarkston stretch.

As of Monday, Idaho Fish and Game officials had not detected any chinook harvest on the Clearwater River.

Chinook

As of 5/15/17, the current and recent past counts of Spring Chinook Salmon that have passed Bonneville dam and entered the Columbia River system are:

2017:  33,798

2016:  109,650

10 yr avg:  124,691

It appeared that the run had finally started to take off, but then river flows spiked and salmon returns slowed.  Now, Washington State fisheries managers have closed fishing on the Snake River due to low numbers and a slashed forecast for returns.

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Steelhead

As of 5/15/17, the current and recent past counts of Steelhead are:

2017:  2,741

2016: 4,286

10-yr avg:  4,410

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All data is from the Fish Passage Center website (fpc.org)

While what seem to be impressive numbers of fish return to the Columbia River basin today, be aware that historically 17 MILLION salmon returned to the Columbia River each year.

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More info on the fisheries closure

WDFW FISHING RULE CHANGE  
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
http://wdfw.wa.gov

May 16, 2017

Snake River spring chinook fisheries to close

Action: Closes the chinook fishery on the Snake River.

Species affected: Spring chinook salmon.

Effective date: Immediately.

Locations:

1. Below Ice Harbor Dam: Snake River from the South Bound Highway 12 Bridge near Pasco upstream about 7 miles to the fishing restriction boundary below Ice Harbor Dam;
2. Below Little Goose Dam: Snake River from Texas Rapids boat launch (south side of the river upstream of the mouth of Tucannon River) to the fishing restriction boundary below Little Goose Dam. This zone includes the rock and concrete area between the juvenile bypass return pipe and Little Goose Dam along the south shoreline of the facility (includes the walkway area locally known as “the Wall” in front of the juvenile collection facility);
3. Clarkston: Snake River from the downstream edge of the large power lines crossing the Snake River (just upstream from West Evans Road on the south shore) upstream about 3.5 miles to the Washington state line (from the east levee of the Greenbelt boat launch in Clarkston northwest across the Snake River to the WA / ID boundary waters marker on the Whitman County shore).

Reason for action: The spring chinook run size was downgraded from 160,400 to 83,000. This extreme drop in run size requires WDFW to close this fishery immediately.

Information Contact: Jeremy Trump, District 3 Fish Biologist, (509) 382-1005.

Three recent Letters to the Editor in the Lewiston Tribune have supported the breaching of the four lower Snake River dams.  Citizens are having visions of a thriving economy based on a revitalized riverfront, recovered fish stocks, and 140 additional miles of free-flowing Snake River.  Local economic growth has been lagging behind other areas of Idaho and folks have come to the realization that the dams are actually holding them back.  At one time, Lewiston had beaches.  And they could again if the reservoirs were drawn down and the 30-foot high levees removed.  The Lewiston-Clarkston area is world renowned for it’s jet boat manufacturing.  Opening up another 140 miles of shallow, free-flowing Snake River would boost sales and open the opportunity for races all the way to the Tri-Cities area and back.

You can read all 3 letters to the editor here.  Click on the link to view the whole document.

A future sans dams

Liked Twa’s vision

Dams hold region back

IDFG sets chinook season closures

Only fishing in Hells Canyon will remain open

• By ERIC BARKER of the Lewiston Tribune

Idaho’s spring chinook season will end early on the Clearwater, Salmon and Little Salmon rivers but continue on the Snake River in Hells Canyon.

State fisheries officials determined Monday the closures are needed to guard against the uncertainty surrounding the flagging run. Despite a surge of chinook passing Bonneville Dam over the weekend, the run remains dramatically late, and officials fear too few fish may return to fill hatcheries and to spawn naturally in headwater streams.

“We still have concerns regarding the collection of brood at our hatcheries to make fish for the future,” said fisheries biologist Brett Bowersox at Lewiston. “In the Salmon River, the natural chinook abundance and estimate is currently lower than we need to be able to have an incidental mortality buffer on the fishery there.”

Fishing on the lower Salmon and Little Salmon rivers will close Wednesday night. Fishing on the Clearwater and its tributaries, which was approved for Thursdays through Mondays only, will remain closed.

 

Bowersox said the run, as measured at Bonneville Dam, normally is 96 percent to 97 percent complete by this time of year. Through Monday, 50,693 adult chinook had been counted there, compared to the 10-year average of more than 136,000.

Nearly 10,000 of those fish were counted Saturday and Sunday. However, Bowersox said, many of them were destined for other tributaries of the Columbia.

“The Idaho component is a fraction of that total count. Even though the numbers have increased down there the last couple of days, we still have uncertainty surrounding how much longer these (higher count) days will continue because the run is so late.”

He said there is a chance that fishing seasons could be reopened if the surge is sustained.

“We will continue to monitor the counts over Bonneville, and the data we get over the next week or two weeks and see if there are any opportunities to reopen,” he said.

The Snake River between Dug Bar and Hells Canyon Dam is remaining open in part because high flows there damaged a trap that is used to collect hatchery fish, and because there is less concern over the possible impacts to wild fish.

“We expect to have very limited impacts,” Bowersox said.

The closure comes just as fish were starting to reach Idaho in catchable numbers. Counts at Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River climbed from several dozen a day early last week to more than 1,100 Saturday and 600 Sunday. The department estimated 32 adult chinook and two jacks were caught and kept on the Clearwater River over weekend. The department has not documented any harvest on the Salmon or Little Salmon rivers.