Backgroud/Historical Context

FY 2008-2010
The Hood River, Oregon Salmon Production Program is co-managed by the Confederated Tribes of the Warms Spring Reservation (CTWSR) and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) for supplementation of spring Chinook salmon in the Hood River system.  The Master Plan for the Hood River Production Program (March 5, 2008 Draft) called for a comparative hatchery release study designed to "provide co-managers with the best available information for determining a long term biologically sound and cost effective spring Chinook salmon production strategy for the Hood River Basin that balances harvest needs with ecological considerations".  Rearing facilities, both inside and outside the basin were evaluated for long-term use in the Hood River spring Chinook salmon supplementation program.  The objective of the evaluation was to conduct a multi-year (2008-2018) comparative study of Hood River spring Chinook reared at three different hatchery facilities prior to being moved to the West Fork Hood River for final acclimation and release.  The facilities include, Round Butte Hatchery/Pelton Ladder (RBH) on the Deschutes River, OR; Columbia Gorge Hatchery (CGH) a.k.a. Carson National Hatchery on the Wind River, WA; Parkdale Fish Facility (PFF) on the Hood River, OR.  Each year, starting Fall 2008, returning adults were collected in the Hood River, artificially spawned at Parkdale Hatchery, and gametes were distributed to each of the respective hatchery facilities for long term-rearing to the parr-smolt stage.   The Hood River Master Plan calls for monitoring fish health, size at release, specific growth rates, rates of precocious male maturation (age-2 minijacks, age-3 jacks) and ultimately smolt-to-adult returns (SAR's) for each brood year/release group.  SAR's for all adult year classes from all brood years were available in Fall 2015 and the results were described in a pair of peer reviewed publications (Spangenberg et al. 2014, 2015).

Spangenberg, D.K., D.A. Larsen, R. Gerstenberger, C.Brun, D.L. Harstad, S. Nance, L. Rohrbach and B. R. Beckman (2015) Stock differences in growth, smolting, and early male maturation in hatchery Spring Chinook Salmon: a common-garden experiment, North American Journal of Fisheries Management, 35:6, 1090-1100.

Spangenberg, D. K., D.A. Larsen, R. Gerstenberger, C. Brun, B.R. Beckman.  2014.  The effects of variation in hatchery rearing conditions on growth, smolt quality and minijack rate in spring Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha: a hatchery scale experiment in the Hood River Basin, Oregon.  Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.  143:5 1220-1230.

The Hood River, Oregon Production Program co-managers have made some programmatic decisions based on results from this project to focus Hood River spring Chinook salmon rearing at Pelton Ladder, Parkdale Fish Facility with potential for longer term in basin rearing at the recently completed Moving Falls Acclimation Facilty on the West Fork of the Hood River.  Rearing of Hood River spring Chinook at Carson hatchery was discontinued.

FY2011-present:  We have continued to monitor the Hood River spring Chinook salmon reared at Parkdale (HR-Park) and at the Moving Falls Acclimation site on the Hood River (HR-MF) and Round Butte/Pelton Ladder (HR-Pelt) on the Deschutes River.  Data from these release groups will ultimately be correlated with adult return data collected over the course of this project.  

In FY 2015  we prepared and submitted two peer reviewed publications
1)  a third manuscript from this hatchery evaluation project focused specifically on the comparison between these three rearing groups and the relationships between smolt physiology, early male maturation and smolt to adult return rates (SARS) entitled: Beckman, B.R., Harstad, D.L., Spangenberg, D.K., Gerstenberger, R., amd Brun, C. In review. The impact of different hatchery rearing environments on adult survival of spring Chinook Salmon.  Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.

2)  a manuscript focused on quantifying  steelhead residualism rates in the Hood River.  This manuscript is currently being revised following review from the journal Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.  This manuscript is entitled: Larsen, D.A, Middleton, M.A., Dickey, J.T., Gerstenberger, R.S., Brun, C.V., and  Swanson, P.  in review.  Using physiological indices to estimate residualism rates in hatchery reared winter-run steelhead trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, in the Hood River, Oregon.  

In FY2016 as of the writing of this SOW we are preparing a draft manuscript tentatively titled: The interaction between early growth, physiological development and jack rates in Hood River spring Chinook salmon.

In FY2017 Planned RME (current SOW)

1) In FY 2017 we will conduct data analysis, graphics and manuscript preparation for a fifth manuscript from the Spring Chinook salmon hatchery evaluation project incorporating data from both this Hood River project and related work conducted with White River spring Chinook salmon from the Lake Wenatchee basin, WA: Potential title:  "Relationships among winter growth, lipid reserves and early male maturation in hatchery reared spring Chinook salmon."

2) Hood and Deschutes River spring Chinook salmon comparative evaluation.
In FY2017 we will conduct a comparative physiological evaluation of brood year 2015 Hood River spring Chinook salmon reared at Parkdale Hatchery, Moving Falls Acclimation site and Round Butte/ Pelton Ladder on the Deschutes River and released in the Hood River as well as Deschutes Stock spring Chinook salmon reared under a Hi (Standard Deschutes Stock regime) and Lo (Hood River at Pelton regime) growth regime at Round Butte/Pelton Ladder and released in to the Deschutes River in spring.  The Hi growth treatment will be reared in one Pelton Ladder cell at 8 fish/lb with 80,000 fish.  The Lo growth treatment will be reared in two cells (Lo1 and Lo2)  at 15 fish per pound with 150,000 fish.  So, the density in biomass will be equivalent, but the number of fish will vary significantly.  Fish will be sampled from all 6 treatments (HR-Park, HR-MF, HR-Pelt, Des-Hi, Des-Lo1, Des-Lo2) in Oct 2016, Jan 2017, Mar 2017, Apr 2017.  This experimental construct will allow us to differentiate between differences in stock, rearing location, and growth regime and release location in order to better understand and refine rearing protocols for Hood River spring Chinook salmon as well as other hatchery spring Chinook salmon programs throughout the Columbia River Basin.  This represents the first year of monitoring of six proposed release years.  It should be noted that each of the rearing cells at Pelton Ladder presents a different rearing environment for each release group because some cells are downstream from others potentially affecting the water quality in downstream cells.  So, each year the treatment groups will be moved to different cells and the analysis over replicate years will allow us to isolate the effect of cell position in the results. Furthermore since the Des-Lo treatments are replicated the variable position of the cells can be evaluated throughout the investigation as well.