ADMINISTRATIVE SUMMARY:
Organization:  Nez Perce Tribe
Address:  P.O. Box 365, Lapwai, ID 83540
Project Leader:  James R. Harbeck
Telephone:  (541) 432-2501
Address:  500 N. Main St, Joseph Oregon 97846
Administrative Contact: Arleen Henry
Telephone:   (208) 843-7317 Ext. 3833

RECENT PROJECT HISTORY: Two Newly Merged Projects
In the fall of 2018 the Bonneville Power Administration proposed merging two monitoring projects in the Imnaha River Subbasin for the purpose of efficiency. Both the 1997-015-01 Imnaha River Smolt Monitoring Project and the 2010-032-00 Imnaha River Steelhead Status Monitoring Project are contracted with the Nez Perce Tribe and conducted by staff from the Nez Perce Tribe’s Joseph Field Office in northeast Oregon.  This "new" merged project will remain under Project 1997-015-01, and retitled "Imnaha River Juvenile and Adult Salmonid Monitoring and Evaluation."

The Imnaha Smolt Monitoring Project is a long term project. Since 1994 it has operated as part of the Smolt Monitoring by Non-Federal Entities (Project No. 198712700) and is highly coordinated with the Fish Passage Center’s Smolt Monitoring Program (SMP).  It is also closely coordinated with the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan (LSRCP) hatchery evaluation studies in the Imnaha River. The LSRCP program provides cost-share funds which ensures that the collection of essential emigration information continues through the fall and winter periods on the Imnaha River. This allows for comprehensive estimates of Chinook and steelhead smolt production on an annual basis. The Smolt Monitoring Project also provides assessment of juvenile salmonid survival and smolt-to-adult returns estimates to Lower Granite Dam (LGR) and beyond.

Imnaha River Steelhead Status Monitoring Project is a former “Fast Track” project that began in 2010. It provides precision population status and trend information for Imnaha River steelhead. Information regarding Snake River steelhead is considered a high priority for informing managers. Population abundance and productivity data are used by multiple entities in the Columbia Basin (e.g. assessing ESA listing status, harvest season opportunities, and effectiveness of management actions). Most important is the ability to describe a population’s abundance relative to management goals, quasi-extinction thresholds, sustainable harvest, and ecological process. The Imnaha River steelhead population is unique in the Snake River DPS in that it: 1) is physically small enough to conduct sampling of steelhead (mainstem flow and manageable number of spawning/rearing aggregates), 2) has a dendritic structure of spawning areas occurring across the entire range of elevations available to Snake basin DPS steelhead (spawning in areas from 1,000 feet up to 6,000 feet), and 3) has a supplementation program occurring in just one of its spawning aggregates.

CURRENT COORDINATION and SYNERGY:
Given the strong desire expressed from fisheries managers for Imnaha steelhead “fish in/fish out” data, juvenile abundance and adult escapement data, hatchery composition, and age structure information; physical handling of a portion of the run is necessary to enable biological sampling. These formerly separate projects sampled either adult or juvenile life stages. Now this merged project samples multiple life stages and can provide juvenile abundance estimates, juvenile survival and related emigration, adult escapement estimates, hatchery fraction, age structure, age-at-return, size-at-return, age-at-emigration, percent females, adult run-timing, and within population spatial structure and distribution – all under one contract. Monitoring throughout a cohort’s life cycle provides a more complete understanding of the population. In addition, the Regional RM&E Collaboration strategies for Snake River basin steelhead call for high precision estimates of adult abundance in at least one population per life history type per Major Population Group. Priority populations identified included Imnaha River steelhead (Coordinated Anadromous Workshop 2010). In addition, adult abundance data from these populations was identified as necessary to fulfill Federal Columbia River Power System RPAs: 50.5 (CAA/NOAA/NPCC RM&E Workgroup 2009 and Coordinated Anadromous Workshop 2010).
  
This merged project will use a variety of monitoring techniques including rotary screw traps, floating weirs, fixed weirs, PIT tagging juvenile and adult fish and using detection data from the PIT tag arrays throughout the Imnaha River drainage and detection facilities in the greater Columbia and Snake river basins. These detections are relied upon to provide survival, migration timing and escapement to the Imnaha River as well as in specific spawning tributaries.

Characterizing abiotic features of stream habitat has long been part of comprehensive biotic monitoring programs because habitat features influence the distribution and productivity of populations and sometimes serve as limiting factors. Many researchers recommend assessment of stock status in the context of habitat features. Therefore, associated environmental data are also collected to give an ecological context in which to view the both juvenile and adult steelhead data. These data are derived from our own environmental monitoring in the Imnaha mainstem and tributaries and from monitoring sites outside the Imnaha subbasin whose information is made available to researchers and other interested parties.
  
Finally, we’ve maintained our long term relationship with the Fish Passage Center. This merged project will continue to provide real-time, tributary specific emigration data from the Imnaha River. This information is uploaded directly to the Fish Passage Center beginning on February 15 each year. The data provided to the Fish Passage Center can then be used for in-season operational decisions relative to flow and spill management, particularly during periods when spill is available to improve smolt passage.