Done.

Parker is now a member of the CCA. You'll have to find someone else to pick on now.

Please reply back to this thread when you have renewed your WSC membership.

I say we gang up and get Todd to join!

I can't find info on when the next SSA is being held. Has a date been set yet?

I just joined both CCA and WSC. Now I am an educated person but not nearly to the level that I need to be regarding the overall issue of protecting and increasing the runs of Wild Steelhead and Salmon in this state. You will see me volunteer, at meetings and actually doing something other than just throwing a couple of dollars around to a few groups. Ill tone down my BS posts and try to contribute something meaningful as well on the boards but I still think KingPoolaza would be fun:)

I look forward to meeting those of you who are active participants and I am wide open to whoever wants to sit down and bring me up to speed on the details of the real issues and where my energy can be utilized the best...Its a beautiful day, I know a few streams around Seattle still have some native steel swimming in them and I am headed out to go try and catch one...cheers

Where'd Todd go?

I join WSC, AuntyM renews, and Parker joins CCA, then Todd goes missing?



---- Irish

The last SSA meeting was held this past weekend in Portland, OR. I offered the agenda in the CCA thread that got locked down. The next SSA meeting will be in May in Seattle, and if your organization is interested in attending future events email me and I will get you on the distribution list.

Aunty, Parker, Irish, summerrun, and many other on the board, thanks for supporting the WSC

Coop, here was the agenda from the last SSA, which was well attended:

Steelhead Summit Alliance

Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center

721 NW 9th Avenue Portland , Oregon

Saturday January 12th, 2008

8:00AM – 4:30PM

8:00-8:30 World Cup Coffee and pastries provided


8:30-9:35 Wild Steelhead Conservation: Production and Harvest U.S. v. Oregon

Steve Sanders, Assistant Attorney General, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife


9:35-10:40 Hatchery Issues- Overview Hood River Native Broodstock Experiment

Rod French, District Fish Biologist Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife


10:40-11:00 Break


11:00-12:05 Nass River Watershed, British Columbia Steelhead Management

Richard Alexander, Nisga'a Tribe Fisheries Stock Assessment Biologist,


12:05-1:00 Lunch provided- Hot Lips Pizza


1:00-2:00 Steelhead reintroduction, Little Sandy River, Oregon

Gordie Reeves, Visiting Scientist, Wild Salmon Center


Strategies and Opportunities for Steelhead Conservation

Guido Rahr, President, Wild Salmon Center


2:00-2:15 Break


2:15-3:15 Emerging opportunities-challenges in Oregon

Moderated by David Moskowitz, Confluence Consulting


3:15-3:45 Northwest Steelhead litigation update

Kate Miller, Trout Unlimited


3:45-4:30 Washington State Steelhead Management Plan update and emerging Washington issues

4:30 Wrap up

I spoke with Heather Bartlett (WDFW Fish Program Manager)at the meeting Saturday in Vancouver and she said that the decision to close the Skagit/Sauk hasn't been made yet as there are still decussions going on between WDFW and the co-managers about the situation.

Word I've heard is that it's a done deal.

I think the discussions between the WDFW and the co-managers is just to determine how bad they are going to screw us..JMHO.

This is why I don't hardly fish any more.

ISO

I think once the WDFW saw that I had joined the CCA, they started to reconsider their decisions.

I've kept silent on this one thus far feeling it best to let resonate a bit before allowing complete emotional blubbery... Done, new week/new world.

Seeing as I have been on this system at least once a week eleven months out of the year for many years, (except for a lighter schedule the last two, due to Seattle City Light's crappy fish killing practices and WDFW's $hitty management) I say the fish deserve a break more than I.

Personal reasons for being on the water can still be lived and fish still be veiwed so I say... whatever's clever.

Joe,

I'd be really interested in knowing about Seattle City Light's "crappy fish killing practices." SCL operates under license conditions intended to produce survival rates that equal or exceed those that would occur in a no-project condition. If something else is happening, I need to know about it.

Sg

Heather said that the run will be under escaped and that the ESA status will up the % above the 80% of escapement we have used in the past.

Sg,

Last year SCL failed to lower the water level at the end of March like they were supposed to...within a week there were redds up on the beaches that should have been dry ground.

The Skagit stayed at that very high level all month, presumably to protect the redds up on the beaches that shouldn't have been there to begin with, had they dropped the water level like they are supposed to.

As soon as the CnR season closed, they dropped the water level several feet, dewatering all those redds.

Fish on...

Todd

Todd,

SCL ran higher than normal flows because there was an above average water supply. There was enough water to keep redds covered through fry emergence. Had they not run higher flows in March and April, spawning flows in May (the peak period) would have been even higher, resulting in significant redd dewatering prior to emergence. If you or Joe want the documentation on what SCL did, and why, and the results, I'll connect you to it.

Sg

Then why did they drop the water down on May 1? There certainly was no fry emergence, and all those redds I told you about that were on the beaches were out of the water...and that's how they stayed.

I know that peak spawning time is in May, but what about all the April spawners? That's a significant part of the pie there, especially considering that by the end of April you can see the fish and their redds in all the shallow areas...shallow areas that were mostly, or completely out of the water the day after the CnR season ended.

Fish on...

Todd

Salmo g. -
Has the Skagit Flow group been able to explain why in the last 15 years the portion of the wild winter steelhead using the main stem Skagit above the Sauk for spawning has declined in comparison to the rest of the basin? The last time I look the decline in steelhead production in that reach relative to the rest of the basin was shocking.

Any new insights in to how flow management by the Seattle City Light dams might be affecting the over-winter habitat of the steelhead parr in that reach of the river? How about how the daily flow flucations may be affecting the insect produciton in that reach of the river?

Our river systems are complicated ecosystems and it does not seem far fetched to me that if we alter flow regimens to favor a specific life history or rearing strategy (fry production) that such regimen might be less than favorable to alternate rearing strategies (yearling or older smolts).

In other words flow management strategies that favor Chinook could easily be less than favorable for steelhead. I'm not say that such decisions are necessarioly wrong but it would be refreshing to acknowledge that there maybe resource costs to such decisions.

Tight lines
Curt

Todd,

The protocol inventories every visible redd between a point upstream of Bacon Ck downstream nearly to Rockport. Since very few, if any, mainstem spawners spawn in less than 0.5' of water, it's unlikely that even one April steelhead redd was dewatered. Are you saying you observed multiple redds dewatered by the May flow reductioin? I'll try to check with Dave and Stan this week and see what the records indicate.

The flow drop in May was due to anticipated spring runoff beginning that month that would increase the gage height at Marblemount. Had SCL not run higher than normal flows during March and April, more likely than not the project would have gone into uncontrolled spill in May with the onset of spring runoff, resulting in the peak spawning occurring at high flow such that subsequent incubation flows couldn't be sustained through the fry emergence period. Each year the flow committee weighs the water supply with the forecast and tries to schedule a flow regime to maximize survival. While perfection is hard to hit, it's pretty easy to improve on the natural regime of high spring runoff flows during the peak of spawning, and the natural rate of redd dewatering that occurs after the runoff, but prior to peak emergence.

Smalma,

The question of decreasing spawning in the Marb-Rock reach remains unanswered. The basin-wide redd counts are generally down the last 15 years, which seems tied to the reduced marine survival. The disproportionate reductiion in the Marb-Rock reach doesn't jive with the flow management measures that should facilitate higher egg to fry survival than say the impressive Sauk Darr-Benn reach. We've yet to examine any variables that may be affecting other life history stages, since flows so dramatically affect the spawning to emergence stage.

Generally, over winter survival of juvenile steelhead should benefit from the same flow measures used to protect chum salmon spawning and incubation. That doesn't mean that it does, but intuitively it seems like it should. Aquatic invertebrates are affected by hydro flow fluctuations as documented by the Skagit studies of the 70s and others. No invertebrate studies of consequence have examined the most recent flow agreement, but all parties to the discussion have felt that significant reductions in flow fluctuations should benefit invertebrates as well. The point is noted, however, that the invert. population is most likely less dense and robust as on the unregulated tributaries.

I agree about the complexity of ecosystems, and I freely acknowledge that it's complex enough to prevent me, you, and others from having figured this out yet. The flow program is not intended to favor one species over another. If you examine the flow agreement, the protection levels are expected to exceed 98% for all affected species, except chum in the event of a cold spell that coincides with peak chum spawning, which is why SCL funded all the off-channel chum habitat projects.

There are resource costs to the decisions made every day. The flow agreement was intended as a decision that provides resource benefits instead of costs. That's not to say there haven't been unintended costs, however.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

"Are you saying you observed multiple redds dewatered by the May flow reductioin? I'll try to check with Dave and Stan this week and see what the records indicate."

No, because I didn't float the river after April 29th...river was blown on the 30th, and the season was over.

I can think of two spots off the top of my head, though, where adult steelhead were spawning during the last two weeks of April where the water was barely covering their backs...and not covering the backs of a few pretty large speciemens...

These weren't even in side channels, though one of the areas was in the tail of a small gravel island, in water too shallow to cover their backs...a few redds were observed in this area.

This area gets its water from a spill over the little island...I'm reasonably certain that this area was high and dry on May 2. The other area I'm 100% certain was high and dry on May 2.

Not one to quickly buy into conspiracy theories, but I find the timing of the drop to be interesting...the day after there is no one on the river to see it, the river is dropped after not only being kept high for two months, but after a large flood episode...seems an odd time to drop the river to stop letting water out due to high levels in the reservoir...that flood event had to replace a week or more of the water that had been let out previously.

There may be a perfectly reasonable explanation for it, but like I said, if they needed to keep it running high for two months to let the excess water out, allowing wild steelhead to spawn up on the beaches, why drop it not only the day after there won't be anyone there to see it, but the day after a significant flood event?

Fish on...

Todd

Todd,

Please don't take this wrong as I'm not implying that dessicating redds is a good thing. However, at this stage, the eggs can withstand being de-watered for up to 8-10 hours as long as they are recharged afterward. Often there is substantial water under the redd where the eggs are deposited that would appear to be de-watered on top.

I don't know what the procedure is for PSE and whether they have time constraints to recharge redds at certain elevations. That would be a good question to ask.

I do know that several years ago, a fairly well known flyfisherman (and biologist) moved to Concrete and documented the de-watering of chum redds when there was some miscalculation of available water to be release that left chum redds high and dry.