The 2008 Biological Opinion by NOAA Fisheries, RPA 40.2 states that the Tucannon River endemic steelhead hatchery supplementation program should be implemented. Following a 10-year evaluation by WDFW of the endemic stock test program in the Tucannon River, the WDFW, Lower Snake River Compensation Program (LSRCP), and the Nez Perce and Umatilla tribal co-managers agreed to implement the endemic steelhead supplementation program in 2010. Concurrent with that decision, releases of Lyons Ferry stock steelhead (a harvest mitigation program under the LSRCP) into the Tucannon River were stopped.  These actions were consistent with, and suggested by, the recent HSRG (2009) and HRT (2009) hatchery reviews. Changes to the hatchery program will require facility modifications and additional rearing space at Lyons Ferry Hatchery.  Actions to modify the hatchery will occur through agreements with LSRCP and BPA.

A primary goal of this hatchery supplementation program will be to increase total abundance of spawning steelhead (of the appropriate stock) and for the long-term conservation of natural origin summer steelhead in the Tucannon River. A second goal is to provide harvest as part of the LSRCP mitigation program in the Tucannon River once the endemic hatchery program is expanded to full production (150,000 smolts annually). As part of that production expansion, and in order to control the number of hatchery origin fish on the spawning grounds, up to two-thirds of the hatchery fish will be marked (adipose clipped for the mark-selective fishery) for harvest mitigation.  This action will then allow these fish to count towards the LSRCP mitigation goal within the Snake River basin, and provide fishing opportunities to an important economic fishery within SE Washington.  The remaining one-third of the hatchery production will remain unmarked for continued direct supplementation of the natural population. These fish will be released in the upper Tucannon River watershed above WDFW's Tucannon Hatchery, and within the prime steelhead spawning and rearing habitat. Since the endemic hatchery program has been developed from natural origin returns and will continue to use natural origin returns in the broodstock (with a portion of hatchery origin returns as well), those fish destined for harvest but escape the fishery, will be of the appropriate stock and may lessen any negative effects on the natural population.

To determine if the supplementation program goals are being met, some level of monitoring and evaluation must occur, hence this project was initiated. An important aspect of the supplementation program is to monitor how/when the broodstock adults are trapped from the Tucannon River, spawned at Lyons Ferry, and how their progeny survive prior to, and at release from the hatchery. Survival goals of summer steelhead at various life stages are typically planned so the program can be monitored and changes made to spawning and rearing conditions if possible to increase survivals.  Results from this monitoring and evaluation will provide managers with the necessary data to make future program changes (i.e, numbers of fish, release locations, harvest rules, etc.). Therefore, the primary goal of this project is to monitor and evaluate the status and trends of both natural and hatchery origin summer steelhead in the Tucannon River.

Based on the recommendations from the Ad Hoc Supplementation Work Group (2008), WDFW will use standardized methodologies as developed by the CSMEP process (2004) for monitoring the status and trends of both the natural and hatchery returns, in-hatchery monitoring/success, VSP parameter monitoring, determining hatchery program success in relation to production goals, and determining stray rates. As part of the status and trends analysis in the Tucannon River using specific metrics, WDFW will utilize data currently being collected by the Asotin Creek Assessment Project (BPA #2002-053-00) as a reference stream (non-supplemented) for comparison. Comparisons between the supplemented and non-supplemented stream will include such metrics as Recruits:Spawner, smolt-to-adult survival, smolt/spawner, age and sex composition of natural fish, and run timing.  Asotin Creek will provide the best comparison as the two streams are similar in size and structure, and geographically located near each other (the headwaters of the two streams are only a few miles apart). Other streams in the region may also be used as references to track regional abundance and productivity trends.

WDFW has identified 4 main objectives for this proposal: 1) Document the change in productivity of natural origin steelhead within the Tucannon River based on estimated adult returns from PIT tags, 2) Estimate total adult steelhead (hatchery and natural origin) returns to the Tucannon River, 3) Estimate distribution of hatchery and wild origin spawners in the Tucannon River, and 4) Document in-hatchery survival performance of supplementation steelhead.  Performance measures (both hatchery and natural origin summer steelhead) that will be monitored as part of this M&E program or the LSRCP M&E program include: a) Abundance and productivity (adult escapement, fish or female/redd, redd counts (above Tucannon hatchery only), % hatchery fraction, Wild smolt abundance (LSRCP funded smolt trap), smolt-to-adult returns, recruit/spawner ratio), b) Distribution within the Tucannon River basin, and outside (stray rates), c) Life History (age structure, age-at-return, age-at emigration, size-at-return, size-at-emigration, condition factors, percent adult female, adult run timing, spawn timing, smolt emigration timing, mainstem arrival timing [Lower Monumental], and d) In-Hatchery (hatchery abundance, life stage survivals, size at release, condition factor, fecundity by age, spawn timing, hatchery broodstock fraction, hatchery broodstock mortality, length of spawners, pre-release mark/tag retention, hatchery release timing).  Not all measures will be possible for both the natural and hatchery origin fish, as sampling limitations within the Tucannon River (i.e. steelhead redd surveys), may limit or preclude the estimates of certain measures during some years.

To date, work that has been completed by WDFW from this project include the installation of three in-stream PIT Tag Arrays at river kilometers 20, 44, and 59.  This is in addition to the PIT Tag Array at river kilometer 2 near the mouth of the Tucannon River.  These installed PIT Tag Arrays are the foundation of the monitoring program for both natural origin status and trends monitoring, and for determining the success of the supplementation program by estimating adult returns and distribution of the hatchery fish within the Tucannon River.  Other work that has been completed  to date include the PIT tagging of endemic hatchery steelhead in 2012 (15,000 fish).   Another BPA funded project (2010-042-00) supplies PIT Tags for the natural origin steelhead monitoring in the Tucannon River.    

Currently, the WDFW operates Lyons Ferry and Tucannon FH’s for summer steelhead, spring and fall Chinook, and rainbow trout production funded under the LSRCP mitigation program. As part of the hatchery program, WDFW has had a hatchery evaluation program in place since 1982. Evaluation staff routinely monitors the hatchery stocks at Lyons Ferry and Tucannon FH’s in meeting LSRCP mitigation goals. In addition, evaluation staff have conducted surveys (creel, spawning ground, snorkel, electrofishing), operated traps (adult, smolt) in the Tucannon River and other streams in SE Washington to monitor the natural production of salmonids. For the Tucannon River steelhead hatchery supplementation program, an increased monitoring and evaluation effort will be required to monitor the status of the natural population in response to the supplementation program, however, the basic infrastructure is present, and will provide a cost savings overall to the program. Additional staff time (biologist and technicians) and materials will be required for a full evaluation of the supplementation program as proposed.

All field work for this project will take place at Tucannon FH, Lyons Ferry FH, and in the Tucannon River. Data from outside those locations will come from coded-wire tag recoveries or PIT tag arrays in other local streams or at mainstem dams. WDFW staff will maintain PIT tag arrays in the Tucannon River, and conduct the spawning ground surveys needed for monitoring the hatchery and natural populations of steelhead above the Tucannon FH. Hatchery production and monitoring goals and techniques will be reviewed annually and changed as appropriate. WDFW will submit annual reports on the progress that this program makes during the implementation phase, and later during the full production phase of the program.