September 23, 2019


Kelly Susewind Tyson Johnston
WA Department of Fish and Wildlife Quinault Indian Nation PO Box 43200 PO Box 189
Olympia, WA 98504-3200 Tahola, WA 98587



Subject: Wynoochee Dam Salmon and Steelhead Trust Fund - Draft Recommendation

Dear Sirs:

Thank you for working through the draft recommendations for the use of the Wynoochee Dam Salmon and Steelhead Trust fund with the co-managers in the Chehalis Basin.

The draft proposal shared with Tacoma Power (Tacoma) dated October 12, 2018 under cover letter signed by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Quinault Indian Nation includes provisions for increased fish production in the basin and upgrades to existing fish facilities.

Tacoma agrees in concept with the proposal except for the provision that requires Tacoma to pay for trap upgrades. Tacoma believes the trust should fund the upgrades to the trap associated with the Wynoochee Hydroelectric Project (Project).

Tacoma operates the Project as a co-licensee with the City of Aberdeen who owns the Wynoochee Dam, constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) in 1972.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued the original Wynoochee Project license to the co-licensees on September 9, 1987. The Wynoochee License has specific fish mitigation requirements adopted from the provisions of the original Corps construction of the dam.

Per the Special Agreement on Mitigation Responsibilities between the Corps and the licensees dated February 18, 1994 (Special Agreement), the licensees are not required to enhance or make additions to existing fish facilities at the Project. FERC adopted the Special Agreement March 5, 1996 by the Order Amending License and Amending Charges.

As mitigation for impacts to anadromous fish, the Corps constructed a barrier dam and fish trap facilities on the Wynoochee River at river mile 49.6. In addition , as mitigation for the reservoir's inundation of former steelhead spawning habitat, the Corps provided
$696,000 to expand the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's (WDFW) Aberdeen Hatchery in 1977.


Susewind and Johnston September 27, 2019
Page 2 of 2


To mitigate the dam's continuing impacts to anadromous fish, the Corps conducted studies under section 1135 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 for a fish restoration project at the Wynoochee Dam. To inform this process, the Corps established a Fish Restoration Technical Committee (Committee) made up of representatives from state and federal fish and wildlife agencies, Quinault Indian Nation, and the Confederate Chehalis Tribes.

As an outcome of this effort, Tacoma Power set aside in trust approximately $1.2 million which was originally intended for the construction, operation, and maintenance of a hatchery at the Wynoochee Dam. Due to permitting constraints by the US Forest Service, the hatchery was never constructed .

This trust is invested in securities permitted by the laws of the state of Washington, and are accruing interest. The trust is available to fund fish restoration activities recommended by the Committee. The current account balance is approximately $2.6 million.

Tacoma looks forward to committing the trust fund account to fish mitigation in the basin. We are willing to discuss this proposal further with the understanding that additional funding outside the trust will not be provided for the trap and haul operation.

If you have questions , please contact me at (253) 502-8196 or via email at KUnderwood@cityoftacoma .org.

Sincerely,
Keith Underwood
Natural Resources Manager


c: Erich Gaedeke, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Portland Office Tyler Jurasin, Quinault Indian Nation
Chris Mattson, Tacoma Power Travis Nelson, Tacoma Power
Larry Phillips, WA Department of Fish and Wildlife Ron Warren, WA Department of Fish and Wildiife

November 27, 2019 Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 888 First Street NE
Washington, DC 20426

SUBJECT: Wynoochee River Project, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission License (FERC) No. 6842, FERC License Article 419 (L)

Dear Ms. Bose:

This letter is a semi-annual report on the progress of the plan for the expenditure of the Wynoochee fisheries mitigation funds (funds) per Article 419, Paragraph L, of the FERC license for the Wynoochee River Project (Project).

Tacoma Power (Tacoma) initiated quarterly meetings with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) in November of 2016 to discuss fish management issues related to the Project with a goal of developing a plan for expending the funds.

Tacoma and WDFW have met eight times since November 2016 to develop a mitigation strategy. The QIN attended the initial meeting, but have not continued to attend the meetings since.

WDFW and QIN have met over the same period outside the quarterly meeting and have recently developed a proposal to expend the mitigation fund. The proposal is focused on fish production in a local hatchery through 2037 when the Project license expires.

Tacoma and WDFW have discussed the proposal and identified potential alternatives to formalize the funding proposal. However, the current proposal includes some actions that are not consistent with the Project license. Tacoma has responded to WDFW to clarify the Project license requirements. WDFW is coordinating with QIN to revise the proposal to align with the Project license requirements.

Once the revised proposal is returned to Tacoma, formal communication from Tacoma to FERC will occur to outline the plan to execute the mitigation-funding plan.



Kimberly Bose November 27, 2019
Page 2


Once the revised proposal is returned to Tacoma, formal communication from Tacoma to FERC will occur to outline the plan to execute the mitigation-funding plan.

If you have questions regarding this letter, please contact me at (253) 502-8196, KUnderwood@cityoftacoma.org or Travis Nelson at (253) 502-8861, TNelson1@cityoftacoma.org.

Sincerely,

Keith Underwood
Natural Resources Manager

TN:mcp Wynoochee_Article_419L_2019

c: Cushman Fisheries Habitat Committee
Erich Gaedeke, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Portland Office Travis Nelson, Tacoma Power

1. Does this mean that the agreement that WDFW and QIN came up with is different from the FERC License so they are asking for the License to be modified? I was under the obviously misguided understanding that the parties agreed to the original License when it was put in place.

2. Any mention of the alternative proposal from the Advocacy?

Well yes but FERC provided the original that basically says WDFW is responsible for the trap. No on Advocacy as that is my brother CM. Yes Larry Phillips said my teams alternate proposal was submitted but it is not showing on FERC's website. You simply go to FERC hit e library then docket search and use file number p-6842. Depending on your date selection a whole bunch of TP reports show but just look for 419 in the description.

Thank you for all your efforts and holiday well wishes..

Nothing is more frustrating than the fish decline I have lived.

Obviously bitching and yelling publicly at meetings and in the local papers doesn't work.

As posting up fishing updates usually has your fishing buddies saying bad things about your Mother we all kinda kept mum. Now the river is blown (big time) so I thought I would throw this into the 2019 mix. In the world of just plain odd the fish are at it again. About 5 days ago a substantial to just plain large movement of fish happened as the weather front began to move in. The fish caught by the few fishing were bright Coho with sea lice. At my house I had Sea Lions and Seals chasing fish up on the gravel bar. OK that was the easy part! Upstream the guys could see the back v's coming off the ripple, fish finders going nuts but then this. Large portion went right to calm water, know as the weeds, and continued on. Fish caught were right where they should be and Coho as stated before.

Now the fun part. The T day Nov Coho coming in late, could be. Massive movement of Late Coho, could be but there were way to many fish from my seat. Then this, the guys caught Coho in normal ways in normal spots so what were all those fish running slack weed water? Behavior says Chum but in late December on the Chehalis ? So what do you all think ?

THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!

Seriously...stop thinking and go catch fish! Lol!

based on what I've seen through the weekend of Dec 7th this doesn't surprise me.

Well it is that time again and this is the Grays Harbor ( and Willapa ) forecast meeting. When I see the full meeting schedule I will post it up as the Adviser meeting schedule I do not have at the moment.


February 27
2020 Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor Salmon Forecasts and Fishing Opportunities

6 to 8 p.m., Montesano City Hall, 112 N. Main St., Montesano.
WDFW presents salmon abundance forecasts for Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor. Fishery management objectives and preliminary fishing opportunities for 2020 are discussed.

March 24
Grays Harbor Fisheries Discussion

6 to 8 p.m., Montesano City Hall, 112 N. Main St., Montesano.
Public discussion for discussion of pre-season forecasts and possible salmon fisheries in Grays Harbor and its associated watersheds.

Can we get a count of dogs and ponies brought to the meeting. Is it an AKC-sponsored show (for the dogs). Or maybe a Field Trial certified show so we can see if those dogs can hunt.

Make sure they are labs that can swim in a lake.

Dam coming.

Well, as one of the few boats still fishing December 1 - until the BIG RAINS took us off the river.....we had fun!!!!

I killed only hatchery males....had all the eggs, I needed from earlier in the season.....neighbors thought I was the greatest guy, smoked fish, fresh salmon in December.....we did see the "close to the bank moving fish".....I swear they were Chum ....tried for a few days to use "wrapped" Mag lips.....tough to get to work in 2-3 foot of water. Best season I've had in many years.

Where I fish, in the old days, the fish staged in the area.....last 5-6 years, no staged fish, so no jump/rolling fish but if you were in the "right track" and had right stuff...you could get fish.

The fish "staged" up river, never went to that area BUT 100's of fishermen were there......

Thanks WDFW for NOT shutting Chehalis River & tribs. down.....the fish were late....mid Nov - until about December 19/20 but this year they came AND THE water was perfect....

Something sticks out in Drifter's post that we need to remember. A simple rule of any fishery is that what spawns is what isn't killed before spawning. They spawned because they didn't die.

Wonder why the hatchery runs of salmon seem to have lockjaw in rivers? When only 5-10 % of the adults make it to spawn, the ones that do didn't bite. They didn't arrive in the river and hold for a few weeks, they didn't advertise there presence, and so on.

If we only killed 5-10% of what comes back there are a lot of behaviors that would remain.

The hunters here know this intuitively. If the animal is not hunted hard they behave a whole lot different than ones that are hunted daily.

The fish change, because in ore to survive they have to.

Although its limited my fishing I have loved the high water.

Hopefully many fish got up the river above man to spawn!!!!

Yea, I'm not really sure "how accurate the spawning surveys will be this year". In Aberdeen the water color is "brown", means that dirt/mud probably covered many of the redds, probably washed out many because of high water flows?


Just checked my punch card....last recorded salmon was 12/18/2019...most people have moved on to fishing steelhead, that's not looking good....

Did you mis-record the date Drifter or is your fishing rig a DeLorean?

Good one.

12/18/2020 hasn't happened yet...he sees into the future????

Here is the NOF for Grays Harbor and Willapa and use the link to get to the complete schedule. The public preseason forecast meetings at Monte City Hall are locked in. The Willapa Adviser meetings are posted but not Grays Harbor .


Hi All,

It’s that time of the year to start talking about North of Falcon for 2020. To start the process off, we wanted to share the North of Falcon public meeting schedule . Our website has now been updated with those public meetings that have been scheduled at this point. There may be additional meetings added as we move through the process that have yet to be added. https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/management/north-falcon/public-meetings



As for the schedule specific to Willapa Bay salmon fisheries discussions for 2020, here is a quick list of meetings.

February 27 – Joint Willapa / Grays Harbor Forecast Meeting Montesano City Hall 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.



March 12 – Willapa Bay NOF Public Meeting Raymond Elks Lodge 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.



March 26 – Willapa Bay NOF Advisory Meeting (not listed on the link above) Raymond Elks Lodge 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.



We will provide the remaining NOF schedule at the forecast meeting on Feb. 27 but the public portions of those additional meetings are listed in the link above. If you have any questions regarding the Willapa Bay schedule, please reply to this email or send an email to WillapaBay@dfw.wa.gov.



Thank you,

Barbara

Lots of people couldn't get their pre programmed minds to look for fish outside of their regular comfort zones. I had a great late season with my last coho hooked the second weekend in Dec. Too many times I heard "they're not there, I've been fishing this spot for 50 years at this time of the year, and they're just not coming" but just smiled and nodded my head because they were there, just not THERE.