Draft May 2005
Idaho Steelhead Monitoring & Evaluation Studies
Statement of Work and Budget FY2005

BPA Project Number:  1990-055-00
BPA Project Title: Idaho Steelhead Monitoring & Evaluation Studies
Contract Number:  
Contract Title: Idaho Steelhead Monitoring & Evaluation Studies
Performance/Budget Period: January 1, 2005 through December 31, 2005

ADMINISTRATIVE SUMMARY
This project was originally titled the Idaho Steelhead Supplementation Studies (SSS) and it was designed to assess the effects of supplementation and to gather life history and genetic data from wild steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss populations.  The experimental design was submitted to BPA in December, 1992 and field work began in 1993.  The small scale supplementation experiments were completed in 2003.  The project was renamed Idaho Steelhead Monitoring & Evaluation Studies (ISMES) to acknowledge that wild steelhead population dynamics, life-history, and genetics has always been the primary goal of this project.
ISMES cooperates with and complements the other projects in the Idaho Anadromous Natural Production Program (Idaho Supplementation Studies and Idaho Natural Production Monitoring & Evaluation Project) as well as research conducted by other resource management entities operating in areas upstream of Lower Granite Dam (LGR). This Statement of Work is for the project fiscal year 2005 (January 1, 2005 through December 31, 2006).

RELATIONSHIP TO SALMONID RECOVERY PLANNING & MANAGEMENT

     Current mandates for research and monitoring directed at natural production of anadromous salmonids are derived from two sources: the Northwest Power & Conservation Council (NPCC) and the 2000 National Marine Fisheries Service Biological Opinion on the operation of the Federal Hydrosystem (BIOP). These are further explicated and directed by Interior Columbia Basin Technical Recovery Team (ICBTRT), the Federal Caucus Basinwide Salmon Recovery Strategy (FCBSRS), Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program (CBFWP), NPCC subbasin assessments, and the draft Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation (RME) plan. Specifically, the Reasonable and Prudent Alternative (RPA) Action 180 of the NMFS BIOP calls for the development of hierarchical basin wide monitoring programs to collaborate with regional agencies, such as IDFG, to determine population and environmental status. Agencies have primary responsibility for data collection (BIOP p 9-165). On the state level, the IDFG 2001-2006 Fisheries Management Plan also identifies monitoring and evaluation as crucial to conservation and management of anadromous fish populations.

     ISMES has produced data relevant to evaluation of downstream passage, population status, and life-history charcterisitics of wild steelhead in Idaho. Performance of the RPA is evaluated in terms of population growth rate, abundance, genetic and life history diversity, and spatial distribution within ESU. This is addressed in the draft Tributary RME plan and uses

the types of data ISMES has gathered. RME programs should address at least 2 of 3 tiers of detail: population (Tier 1), life cycle (Tier 2), and site-specific (Tier 3). ISMES currently addresses Tier 1 and Tier 2 goals under this system. The draft RME plan calls for continuing trend monitoring while developing more statistically-defensible probabilistic study designs. The Independent Scientific Review Panel (ISRP) recommends a thorough exploration of current data prior to such efforts. ISMES is uniquely positioned to do so for steelhead populations within Idaho.

     In summary, ISMES has been of great benefit to steelhead assessment and management efforts. Much of the status information on wild steelehad in Idaho that was presented in the BIOP was developed from data gathered by ISMES.  With appropriate evaluation, and planning, ISMES will continue to develop relevant data for steelhead management in Idaho.

COORDINATION

     ISMES uses data from a variety of sources from the Snake River drainage that is upstream of LGR and accessible to anadromous salmonids. Collection of these data requires coordination and cooperation among numerous agencies and projects, e.g. the the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the United States Forest Service (USFS), the Nez Perce Tribe (NPT), the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes (SBT), and the United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS).  

Internal IDFG cooperators include the Idaho Supplementation Supplementation Studies (ISS, projects 198909800, 198909801, and 198909802), Lower Snake River Compensation Plan Evaluation, and Idaho Natural Production Monitoring & Evaluation Project (INPMEP project 1991-073-00), and IDFG regional fisheries biologists and managers.

     ISMES provides data to cooperators. Project data is uploaded to the Columbia Basin PIT tag database (PTAGIS). This project manages and maintains a long-term juvenile steelhead denisty database from its summer snorkel surveys, a stream temperature database, an aging database of adult and juvenile steelhead, and is in the processs of completing a statewide genetic analysis of 72 wild steelhead popualtions.  These data track historical trends and current status of steelhead populations in Idaho, as well as populations of resident fishes and Chinook salmon parr. Data generated
by this project are used to assess annual migrations and the effect of the federal hydrosystem upon them. However, there are many other potential applications for ISMES data. For example, data collected by this project has been used in recent status reviews of westslope cutthroat and bull trout.

PROJECT HISTORY & CURRENT STATUS
The experimental design for this study was submitted to BPA in December, 1992 and field work began in 1993.  This project has outplanted hatchery adult steelhead in Beaver and Frenchman creeks from 1993 - 2003 and has estimated parr and smolt production for each brood year.  We stocked hatchery fingerlings in the South Fork Red River each fall from 1993 - 1996 and estimated summer parr abundance from 1993 - 2003.  We stocked hatchery smolts in Red River and estimated smolt survival and travel time to Lower Granite Dam from 1996 - 1999.  We operated the Red River weir to count returning adults from these stockings from 1999 to 2002.  All adults from the fingerling and smolt stockings have returned hence, the Red River weir has not been operated since 2002.

This project has collected considerable data from wild steelhead populations and has developed several databases for wild steelhead in Idaho.  We have done yearly snorkel surveys of key indicator steelhead streams and have assembled the information into a database.  We have monitored wild adult escapement, sex ratios, and age at hatchery weirs sites (Rapid River, Clear Creek, Pahsimeroi River, and Salmon River at Sawtooth Hatchery) and Fish Creek.  Juvenile steelhead age, length, condition factor, growth rates, migration patterns, and number of migrants has been documented yearly at 6-12 streams using screw traps.  We have PIT-tagged over 85,000 wild steelhead parr and smolts since 1993 and created databases with number tagged, length, weight, and other relevant information.  We have detected over 22,000 wild steelhead smolts at the mainstem dams and have developed a database with tag site, release date, release length and weight, detection site and date, and travel time into a database.  

We have a wild steelhead age/length database based on scale analysis, for adults and juveniles collected from indicator streams in the Salmon and Clearwater drainages.   We began a long-term stream temperature database in 1993 and are monitoring temperatures in 40 indicator streams in the Salmon and Clearwater drainages.

In 2000, we collected nearly 5,000 juvenile fin samples from 72 wild steelhead populations and the five hatchery stocks reared in Idaho.  Dr. Jennifer Nielsen (Alaska Biological Science Center Molecular Ecology Laboratory, Anchorage, Alaska) is analyzing the fin samples using microsatellite markers as a sub-contractor  to IDFG.  A statewide baseline genetic database of Idaho steelhead will be created upon completion of her analysis.  This analysis will be completed in 2005.  The results of the genetic analysis will be published in a peer-reviewed fisheries journal. Upon completion of the juvenile steelhead genetic analysis, we propose to begin a DNA analysis of the wild adult steelhead samples collected in Rapid River and Fish Creek from 1998 to 2004.
In addition to gathering and providing information on wild steelhead status, this project has provided managers with bull trout escapement at Rapid River, resident trout abundances in tributaries of the Clearwater and Salmon drainages, migration timing of resident trout, and has PIT-tagged chinook parr, juvenile bull trout and cutthroat trout at Rapid River and Fish Creek
In 2005, we plan to continue running screw traps in Fish Creek, Lick Creek, and Rapid River.  We propose to install a screw trap in the lower Secesh River (near Lick Creek).  We will coordinate the placement and operation of this trap with the Nez Perce Tribe (NPT).  The NPT operates screw traps in the upper Secesh drainage (upstream of the prime steelhead rearing area) and placement of a trap in the lower Secesh River, in addition to collecting steelhead, will allow a more accurate assessment of summer chinook parr production from the Secesh River drainage.  Operating screw traps in Rapid River, Secesh River, and Lick Creek will allow us to gather important life-history data such as: length and age of smolts, smolt migration patterns, and number of migrants.  This juvenile and smolt life-history data is similar to the data collected at Fish Creek, allowing comparisons among the streams.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

Objective 1:   Assess the performance of hatchery  brood sources to reestablish steelhead in streams where extirpated.  This objective is being done in Beaver and Frenchman creek, tributaries of the Salmon River upstream of the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery.  We are estimating the number of age-1 parr produced from hatchery adults that were outplanted in these streams the previous spring.  The last hatchery adults were stocked in 2004 and the last age-1 parr assessment will be done in 2005.

Objective 2:Evaluate the ability of returning adults from hatchery smolt and fingerling releases to produce progeny in natural streams.  The last adults returning from the smolt stockings in Red River and fingerling stockings in the SF Red River occurred in 2004.  We will continue to monitor juvenile fish densities in these streams in 2005.

Objective 3:  Assess the abundance, habitat, and life history characteristics of existing steelhead populations in the Salmon River and Clearwater River drainages.  We have put most of our effort on this objective and will continue to do so in 2005.  We monitor the juvenile steelhead densities in streams using snorkel surveys, enumerate wild adult steelhead escapement in Fish Creek and Rapid River, operate screw traps to PIT-tag juvenile steelhead, collect tissue samples for DNA analysis, calculate growth rates, and determine the age of juvenile migrants

Objective 4:  Information transfer.  Provide information, data, and analysis to IDFG regional and Fishery Bureau staff as requested to help in management decisions regarding Idaho steelhead.