A recent article in the Sacramento Bee reports on the National Marine Fisheries Services and Bureau of Reclamation’s plans to truck winter-run Chinook above Shasta Dam in an attempt to create population redundancy and improve adult returns.
On Thursday, federal fisheries officials laid out an ambitious and complex plan to provide emergency habitat for the Sacramento Valley’s population of winter-run Chinook, whose numbers have plummeted to critical levels during California’s four-year drought.
Under the plan, biologists in 2017 would begin trucking the offspring of winter-run Chinook raised at Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery at the base of Shasta Dam to the cold waters of the McCloud River.
(Click here to read the full article.)
CalTrout has followed the development of the plan closely and, in general, has been supportive of National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Bureau of Reclamation (BoR) efforts to investigate the potential for reintroduction of salmon above Shasta Dam. We remain skeptical, however, of the ultimate feasibility of a trap and haul operation to create a self-sustaining population above the dam. Trap and haul operations are expensive to sustain and often don’t meet fish abundance and protection objectives.
While trap and haul of juvenile salmon below dams has been used somewhat successfully in the Columbia River basin, there are far fewer examples of successful two-way trap and haul programs (i.e., moving both juvenile and adults around dams) and the viability of such a method to sustain or even increase the relative population density of winter-run Chinook from the Sacramento River is questionable. The most successful operations are able to move abundant adult salmon above dams and then efficiently capture large numbers of juveniles in reservoirs as they migrate downstream. Capturing juvenile out-migrants, however, has proven to be extremely difficult.
Important questions remain about reintroduction methods including the short and long-term costs of those methods, the ecological conditions of recipient habitats and their ability to support winter-run Chinook, potential ecological changes to recipient habitats associated with such a program, and the effects to donor winter-run Chinook populations.
We feel strongly that the cost and feasibility of reintroduction efforts should be compared to other potential projects to benefit these species. Further, two-way trap and haul should not move forward exclusive of other projects aimed at improving other integral parts of winter-run Chinook life history. Examples of other projects include:
Improving Habitat Conditions on the Sacramento River
We recommend examining current limiting factors on adult and juvenile winter-run on the mainstem Sacramento River below Shasta Reservoir. Spending the time, effort and money to trap-and-haul will be wasted if conditions below the dam are not conducive to the juvenile salmon making it to the Pacific and/or the returning salmon making it back to Shasta Dam.
Restoring Battle Creek
Winter-run were extirpated from all spawning sites within their historical range. All of the approximately 200 miles of historical winter-run spawning habitat in the Upper Sacramento, McCloud and Pit rivers are cut off behind Shasta Dam. The only independent Central Valley population downstream of Shasta Dam was Battle Creek. Accordingly the NMFS 2014 recovery plan states, “watershed restoration actions associated with the Battle Creek Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Project are expected to restore conditions that will allow for successful reintroduction of winter-run Chinook salmon to Battle Creek.” Dam removal and restoration of Battle Creek should be the highest priority action for winter-run Chinook.
There is no question winter-run Chinook salmon are in a tough spot. CalTrout will continue to work with the agencies to find creative ways to maintain the long-term survivability of this unique run of salmon. Critical to such a plan is a holistic restoration vision that encompasses the entire life cycle of winter-run Chinook.
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Peter Moyle is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and Associate Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, at UC Davis. He is author or co-author of more than 240 publications, including the definitive Inland Fishes of California (2002). He is co-author of the 2017 book, Floodplains: Processes and Management for Ecosystem Services. His research interests include conservation of aquatic species, habitats, and ecosystems, including salmon; ecology of fishes of the San Francisco Estuary; ecology of California stream fishes; impact of introduced aquatic organisms; and use of floodplains by fish.
Robert Lusardi is the California Trout/UC Davis Wild and Coldwater Fish Researcher focused on establishing the basis for long-term science specific to California Trout’s wild and coldwater fish initiatives. His work bridges the widening gap between academic science and applied conservation policy, ensuring that rapidly developing science informs conservation projects throughout California. Dr. Lusardi resides at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences and works closely with Dr. Peter Moyle on numerous projects to help inform California Trout conservation policy. His recent research interests include Coho salmon on the Shasta River, the ecology of volcanic spring-fed rivers, inland trout conservation and management, and policy implications of trap and haul programs for anadromous fishes in California.
Patrick Samuel is the Conservation Program Coordinator for California Trout, a position he has held for almost two years, where he coordinates special research projects for California Trout, including the State of the Salmonids report. Prior to joining CalTrout, he worked with the Fisheries Leadership & Sustainability Forum, a non-profit that supports the eight federal regional fishery management councils around the country. Patrick got his start in fisheries as an undergraduate intern with NOAA Fisheries Protected Resources Division in Sacramento, and in his first field job as a crew member of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Wild and Heritage Trout Program.
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[…] above Shasta Dam. The removal of dams on Battle Creek will help, which is currently underway. In an earlier post we talked about the complex issue of trucking winter-run around Shasta Dam into the McCloud. And […]