Event Title

Session C6- Developing fish passage and reintroduction of sockeye salmon at irrigation reservoir

Location

UMass Amherst

Start Date

28-6-2011 3:25 PM

End Date

28-6-2011 3:45 PM

Description

The Yakama Nation, Bureau of Reclamation and other agencies have developed a temporary juvenile downstream fish passage facility at Lake Cle Elum, a major irrigation storage dam in the Yakima Basin in central Washington. This downstream passage has allowed for the reintroduction of sockeye salmon, absent for over one hundred years, back into the basin. In the past two years a total of 3,500 adult sockeye salmon have been collected in the Columbia River and released into Lake Cle Elum above the dam. These salmon have spawned naturally and their juveniles have reared in the lake. The fish smolts will be migrating out of Lake Cle Elum in the spring of 2011. This facility also allows for passage of other salmon species and bull trout (currently listed as threatened) out of the reservoir. This will increase the distribution of Chinook, Coho and steelhead into the pristine headwaters of the basin. It will also restore connectivity of isolated populations of bull trout above and below the dam. Engineering plans have been developed for permanent downstream passage and for upstream passage of adults at the dam. These plans have been incorporated into a larger proposal to maximize benefits from stored irrigation water in the basin while providing for improved passage, reconnecting blocked tributaries, restoring existing habitat and stabilizing flows and water quality throughout the Yakima watershed.

Comments

David Fast is the Senior Research Scientist with the Yakama Nation Fisheries Program. He received his M.S. from the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico, and his Ph.D. from the College of Fisheries and Ocean Science at the University of Washington. He has worked with the Yakama Nation since 1985 on restoration and reintroduction of salmon populations that were historically present in the basin. His research interests include research of supplementation to increase natural populations of salmon, restoring extant salmon populations by reintroduction of hatchery populations into a watershed and allowing natural selection to drive restoration of the species.

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Jun 28th, 3:25 PM Jun 28th, 3:45 PM

Session C6- Developing fish passage and reintroduction of sockeye salmon at irrigation reservoir

UMass Amherst

The Yakama Nation, Bureau of Reclamation and other agencies have developed a temporary juvenile downstream fish passage facility at Lake Cle Elum, a major irrigation storage dam in the Yakima Basin in central Washington. This downstream passage has allowed for the reintroduction of sockeye salmon, absent for over one hundred years, back into the basin. In the past two years a total of 3,500 adult sockeye salmon have been collected in the Columbia River and released into Lake Cle Elum above the dam. These salmon have spawned naturally and their juveniles have reared in the lake. The fish smolts will be migrating out of Lake Cle Elum in the spring of 2011. This facility also allows for passage of other salmon species and bull trout (currently listed as threatened) out of the reservoir. This will increase the distribution of Chinook, Coho and steelhead into the pristine headwaters of the basin. It will also restore connectivity of isolated populations of bull trout above and below the dam. Engineering plans have been developed for permanent downstream passage and for upstream passage of adults at the dam. These plans have been incorporated into a larger proposal to maximize benefits from stored irrigation water in the basin while providing for improved passage, reconnecting blocked tributaries, restoring existing habitat and stabilizing flows and water quality throughout the Yakima watershed.