This contract provides for monitoring and evaluation of the Nez Perce Tribe’s Chinook salmon supplementation program in the Lostine River as well as the monitoring of steelhead and bull trout captured at the Lostine River.  Monitoring and evaluation consists of data collection, data analysis, and communication of results.  These activities are coordinated and accomplished cooperatively with fisheries co-managers of the Nez Perce Tribe. The scope of this contract includes monitoring and evaluation of steelhead during the spring, a final summary of the Lostine River Captive Broodstock program, and an ongoing evaluation of Lostine River natural and hatchery Chinook salmon within the Wallowa/ Lostine River River Spring Chinook population area.

Ongoing field work within this contract consists of monitoring and evaluating of releases of juvenile Lostine River hatchery Chinook salmon, summarizing and reporting the catch at the Lostine River weir, maintaining and validating a database of fish captured at the Lostine River weir, assisting co-managers with spawning ground surveys in northeast Oregon, PIT tagging juvenile hatchery Chinook salmon, and collecting stream temperature data from two sites in the Lostine River.  Regionally the program provides the Nez Perce Tribe with technical representation for management of the Lostine and Imnaha river Chinook salmon and database development for the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan (FINS).

Summary and analysis of the data from ongoing field work is used in the Annual Operation Plan for the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan for Northeast Oregon.  Data summaries and analysis are consistent with performance measures outlined in the Monitoring and Evaluation Plan for Northeast Oregon Hatcheries (Hesse et al. 2006).  These performance measures describe juvenile and adult life history characteristics, distribution, abundance, productivity, and survival of natural and hatchery origin Chinook salmon and documented in an annual report as a contract deliverable.