Draft March 2005
Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery Monitoring and Evaluation Project
Statement of Work and Budget FY2005

BPA Project Number:  1983-350-03
BPA Project Title: Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery - M & E
Contract Number:  000004414
Contract Title: Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery - M & E
Performance/Budget Period:  01/01/05 - 12/31/05

Technical Contact Name: Sherman Sprague/Bill Arnsberg
Project Leaders
Nez Perce Tribe
3404 Hwy. 12
Orofino, ID 83544
208-621-3585 & 208-621-3578 Fax: 208-476-0719
shermans@nezperce.org & billa@nezperce.org


Contracting Contact Name: Jay Hesse
Director of Biological Services
Nez Perce Tribe
P.O. Box 365
Lapwai, ID 83540
208-843-7145 ext. 3552 Fax: 208-843-9184
jayh@nezperce.org

Financial Contact Name: Thomas Rickman/Arleen Henry
Interim Finance Director/Grant and Contract Accountant
Nez Perce Tribe
Street Mailing Address P.O. Box 365
Lapwai, ID 83540
(208) 843-7317 ext 2353/2437: FAX (208) 843-7319
tomr@nezperce.org & arleenh@nezperce.org










Contract Background Section:

A. RELATIONSHIP TO THE COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN FISH AND WILDLIFE PROGRAM AND NMFS 2000 FCRPS BIOLOGICAL OPINION:

The justification for the development and construction of Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery (NPTH) and supplementation of Chinook salmon stocks in the Clearwater River basin is addressed in Measure 7.4M of the 1994 Northwest Power Planning Council's Fish and Wildlife Program (NPPC 1994).  NPTH is also covered under Measure 7.5.B.1, which recommends supplementation of Snake River fall Chinook, and is identified as one of 15 high priority supplementation projects listed in Measure 7.3.B.2.  NPTH also relates, in general, to measures 2.1, 2.2A, 4.1, 7.4C.1, 7.4F of the Council's Program.

The need to monitor and evaluate NPTH supplementation activities are addressed by Measure 7.4B, which calls for application of a Regional Assessment of Supplementation to evaluate supplementation projects in the Columbia River.  The objectives, tasks, and activities of the NPTH Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Program as outlined in the M&E Action Plan (Hesse and Cramer 2000) address critical uncertainties, and performance standards identified in Sections 3.2, 4.3, 4.3.B, 4.3.C, 5.5, 5.5.A, 7.1, 7.1A, 7.1B, 7.1C, 7.1G, 7.1H, 10.5, 10.6, and 10.6.A of the Council's Program.

In relation to the NMFS 2000 FCRPS Biological Opinion, RPA 184, this project will monitor the Snake River fall Chinook ESU adult return timing and spatial distribution and will determine hatchery contributions to natural spawning through carcass collections, genetic monitoring and analysis.  This project will monitor fall Chinook released by NPTH in natural spawning environments and will monitor juvenile growth, emigration timing and survival, and monitor adult returns to the spawning areas to evaluate reproductive success.  In relation to RPA 190, this project will continue to monitor the wild Snake River fall Chinook ESU in the Clearwater River by studying life history strategies, growth, emigration timing and survival, and genetic characteristics.

B. COORDINATION:

The Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery M&E Program and Chinook salmon supplementation research activities have been developed in coordination with the Bonneville Power Administration, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, and the U.S. Forest Service.  The project is also a cooperative with BPA's Idaho Supplementation Studies (ISS) Project.  The M&E Action Plan, describing the goals, objectives, tasks and activities of the NPTH M&E Program has been reviewed and approved by the Independent Scientific Review Panel, and calls for continued coordination with regional co-managers.  


SUMMARY OF PROJECT:

In June of 2000 the Northwest Power Planning Council approved the construction of the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery.  NPTH was scheduled to begin rearing and releasing spring, fall and early-fall stocks of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytcsha) starting in 2003 as part of the Nez Perce Tribe's overall goal to restore self-sustaining Chinook salmon to their ancestral habitats in Clearwater River Subbasin.  

The Monitoring and Evaluation Program for NPTH is designed to provide adaptive management guidance at multiple life stages for both hatchery and natural fish segments as outlined in the M&E Action Plan (Hesse and Cramer 2000).  Supplementation benefits to be evaluated under the proposed M&E program include increases in the distribution, abundance, and harvest of hatchery and natural Chinook salmon populations in the Clearwater River Subbasin. To measure these benefits, changes in the abundance of Chinook salmon in the mainstem Clearwater River and its tributaries will be monitored over the next 15 to 20 years.  In addition to measuring project related benefits, the M&E Program is designed to provide information on the capacity of the natural environment to support Chinook salmon production, give early warning of adverse impacts caused by the project on resident biota, and track trends in environmental quality, management, and policy that may affect the project's success.  

Changes in fish populations in the main-stem Clearwater River and its tributaries over the next 15 to 20 years will be used to determine whether desired results are being achieved, and to enable adaptive management. The M&E program examines the performance and status of hatchery and natural fish, species interactions and impacts to non-targeted fish populations, sustainability of harvest, and will communicate its findings to enable adaptive management of NPTH.  The action plan covers multiple aspects of Chinook salmon life history in all treatment streams.  Treatment streams are Meadow Creek (Selway River), Lolo Creek, and Newsome Creek for spring Chinook salmon, the lower reaches of the South Fork Clearwater and Selway rivers for early-fall Chinook salmon, and the main-stem Clearwater River below the Lolo Creek for fall Chinook salmon.  Outcomes in these treatment streams will also be compared to those in similar non-treatment (reference) streams and other hatchery programs to help distinguish treatment effects from environmental variation between years.

The M&E Program assesses which NPTH supplementation strategies are best for supplementing natural, depleted, or non-existent spring, early fall, and fall Chinook salmon populations and what effect supplementation has on these and resident fish populations.  The program will identify which of the supplementation strategies employed are beneficial in terms of increasing adult returns (to harvest and spawning streams) and the level of supplementation necessary to sustain specific levels of adult returns.  Biological evaluation points include parr density, summer and winter survival to stream mouth, survival to Lower Granite Dam and other downstream dams, adult returns to weirs, spawning escapement, and pre-smolt and smolt yield from both treatment and control streams.  Genetic monitoring of the treatment and reference populations will also occur.  

Although NPTH did not start releasing fish until 2003, the NPTH Program has actively been involved in supplementing a number of streams in the basin since 1993.  The M&E Program has been actively assessing the effects of trial supplementation efforts in order to:
  
1) evaluate the effectiveness of supplementation,
2) monitor changes in the environment that are causally linked to supplementation,
3) provide information on the capacity of the natural environment to assimilate and support supplemented salmon populations, and
4) to detect early warning of changes in environmental quality and management policy that may affect the project's success.

Field activities for the NPTH M&E Program in 1993 began with the outplanting of approximately 100,000 fingerling spring Chinook in Meadow Creek.  Habitat use and species interactions were monitored using snorkeling to evaluate the effectiveness of various release strategies and impact on resident fish.  Fish migration out of Meadow Creek was also measured to assess survival, growth in the natural environment, and emigration timing using a rotary screw trap.

In 1994, 400,000 spring Chinook were outplanted in Meadow Creek.  Again habitat use, species interactions, growth, survival and emigration behavior were monitored in order to evaluate release strategies and ecological implications.  In addition to Meadow Creek, a number of other streams in the Clearwater River Basin were outplanted.  Orofino Creek received 48,000 fish, Lower Selway River 117,000, White Sands Creek 166,000, Warmsprings Creek 19,000, Weir Creek 5,000, and Boulder Creek 76,000.    Baseline data was collected in streams identified as "treatment" streams in the Basin (ISS 1992).  Fish densities and spawning activities were measured by snorkeling and surveying redds.  Outmigration was also assessed in Lolo Creek using a rotary screw trap.  

In 1995 and 1996, monitoring continued in the "treatment" streams, including Lolo Creek, Newsome Creek, and Meadow Creek.  Data collected in these streams provided information on species composition, abundance, life history characteristics, survival, and species interactions within these streams.  

In 1997, M&E activities included: the operation of screw traps (upper and lower Lolo Creek, Meadow Creek and Newsome Creek), snorkel counts, operation of adult salmon weirs (Lolo, Meadow, and Newsome creeks), and redd counts.  The M&E activities were used to evaluate various performance variables that included: abundance, density, life history attributes, survival, escapement, distribution, and reproductive success.  Outplanting of eyed eggs and adult Chinook salmon occurred within the year.

In 1998 through 2001, baseline M&E activities continued in "treatment and control" streams (Steward 1996).  An additional adult weir was operation in Eldorado Creek.  Digital aerial photographic stream coverage of Newsome Creek, Lolo Creek spawning grounds and the digital conversion of Meadow Creek photographs were completed.  The photographs provide a permanent photographic benchmark from which to: 1) delineate existing stream channel geomorphology, riparian vegetation, spawning redds, and existing or potential fish barriers, 2) locate and identify fisheries survey points while providing a tool for project work planning and M&E, and 3) permit both on and off site analysis by resource specialists.  In the spring of 1999, approximately 75,000, 150,000 and 300,000 Chinook smolts were outplanted to Newsome, Lolo, and Meadow creeks, respectively.  Later in the summer, Newsome, Lolo, and Meadow creeks received 50,000, 250,000 and 180,000 parr, respectively.  In 2000, in each Newsome and Lolo creeks, 500 adult Chinook salmon were outplanted.  Meadow Creek received 150 adult Chinook salmon.

From 2000 through 2004, spring Chinook escapement to the Clearwater River Basin was relatively high.  Escapement (adult counts at the weirs) to Newsome and Lolo Creek exceeded that of previous years.  In Newsome Creek from 2000 through 2004 the escapement was,  49, 263, 201, 355, 160, respectively.  In Lolo Creek from 2000 through 2004 the escapement was, and 97, 1074, 107, 121, 256, respectively.  Outplants of surplus hatchery adults occurred in 2000 and 2001 years.  Redd surveys in 2000 in Newsome, Lolo and Meadow creek identified 51, 109, and 18 redds, respectively.  In 2001 these numbers were surpassed when 234, 437, and 159 redds were counted in Newsome, Lolo and Meadow creeks.  In 2002 the numbers still remained high when 52, 206, and 12 redds were counted in Newsome, Lolo and Meadow creeks. In 2003 the numbers still remained high where 69, 69, and 9 redds were counted in Newsome, Lolo and Meadow creeks.  The 2004 spawning ground surveys have not been compiled.  Natural production of juveniles (parr densities) in 2001 and 2002 was also high, reflecting the success of both natural returning and outplanted adults.  In 2001, in addition to natural instream production, Meadow Creek was outplanted with approximately 180,000 parr and 90,000 presmolts. In 2002, Meadow Creek was outplanted with approximately 400,000 parr and 290, 000 smolts.  In 2003 Meadow Creek was outplanted with approximately 400,000 parr and 300,000 smolts.   In 2004, Meadow Creek was outplanted with approximately 310,000 parr.  Smolts also were released in Newsome and Lolo Creeks in 2001 and 2002.  They each received over 155,000 smolts in 2001.  In 2002 Newsome Creek received over 75,000 smolts and Lolo Creek received over 150,000 smolts.  In 2003 and 2004 Newsome Creek received over 75,000 smolts and Lolo Creek received over 150,000 smolts.  Sub-groups of the outplanted groups were PIT tagged to assess survival to the Lower Snake River dams.  Screw traps were used to capture and tag natural and hatchery fish to yield smolt estimates from the study streams.

Plans for 2005 include acclimated pre-smolt releases in Lolo, Newsome, and a parr release for Meadow Creek.  In 2005 the M&E program will continue to monitor and evaluate outplanting activities (i.e. the operation of adult weirs and screw traps, snorkeling, and spawning ground surveys).

For early fall and fall Chinook, the Nez Perce Tribe has been monitoring naturally spawning fall Chinook (listed under ESA in 1992) in the lower Clearwater River since 1988 when the Lower Clearwater River Study (Arnsberg et al. 1992) was initiated and funded by the BPA.  This was a four-year study to examine current fall Chinook use and to document spawning habitat quality and quantity using IFIM techniques.  The main findings of this study were that spawning habitat was considered excellent and quantity was not a limiting factor for fall Chinook recovery.  This study recommended that the Lyons Ferry Hatchery fall Chinook stock (Snake River) would be the best candidate for supplementation to enhance natural production and to aid in recovery of the ESA listed Snake River fall Chinook.  An experimental design to measure early fall Chinook egg incubation survival will be investigated in the upper Clearwater subbasin during the fall 2004 (see attached experimental design) contingent on the availability of early spawning fish.

In 1994, further fall Chinook research studies included habitat assessments in the upper Clearwater River and lower reaches of major tributaries.  Tributaries included the mainstem Clearwater from the North Fork up to the Middle Fork Clearwater, the entire Middle Fork, South Fork Clearwater, Selway and Lochsa rivers.  This work included spawning habitat quality and quantity assessments in those reaches and supplementation research in the lower mainstem as part of a follow-up study from previous work.  Spawning habitat in the upper Clearwater subbasin was found to be comparable in quality to the lower Clearwater River, however fall Chinook spawning has only occurred infrequently in the South Fork.  Time and size at release studies using Lyons Ferry Hatchery fall Chinook subyearlings started in 1997 in the lower Clearwater and five consecutive years was completed in 2001.  Preliminary results from this study indicated that fall Chinook released earlier in the summer and at a larger size have higher survival through mainstem dams than smaller fish released later in the summer during lower flows and higher water temperatures.  

Fall Chinook supplementation activities began in the lower Clearwater River during 1997 at the Big Canyon Acclimation Facility using Lyons Ferry Hatchery fall Chinook yearlings. Although not the dominate life history strategy, larger yearling fall Chinook have been shown to return at a much higher rate than subyearlings back to Lyons Ferry Hatchery. In some years when there is an excess yearling production, subyearlings have been available for release in the Clearwater River.  Results thus far have been positive and adult returns have been encouraging for both yearling and subyearling releases in the Clearwater River.  

For 2003, the first year for fall Chinook production, the NPTH reared and released slightly over 500,000 fall Chinook subyearlings.  Releases were direct stream releases at NPTH and North Lapwai Valley Acclimation Pond.  During 2004, fall Chinook broodstock fell short in the Snake Basin with one group of 169,596 subyearlings being released on-station into the Clearwater River.  The two upper Clearwater acclimation facilities (Lukes Gulch on the South Fork Clearwater River and Cedar Flats on the Selway River) programmed to release 200,000 subyearlings each were not operational as planned in 2003 or 2004.  

During 2004, a record total of 3,062 wild/natural ESU fall Chinook subyearlings in the lower Clearwater were captured by beach seine and 2,029 PIT tagged to monitor growth, emigration timing and survival through the hydro-system (RPA 190).  Fall Chinook adult return monitoring included aerial redd surveys and carcass collections to determine hatchery contributions and to monitor genetic characteristics between hatchery and natural spawning components (RPA 184).

Plans for 2005 include releasing fall Chinook subyearlings from NPTH and North Lapwai Valley Acclimation Pond.  It is anticipated that the Selway and the South Fork Clearwater Acclimation sites will not be operational until 2006.  However, we may test the South Fork Clearwater River weir in the fall of 2005 to test site selection and overall operations during a range of fall flows.  A small-scale experiment is included for 2005 (Attached:  Experimental Design to Measure Early Fall Chinook Salmon Egg Incubation Survival in the Upper Clearwater River Subbasin) if there are enough early-fall Chinook eggs available from the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery to conduct the study.