Yakima/Klickitat Fisheries Project Monitoring and Evaluation, Final Report For the Performance Period May 1, 2008 through April 30, 2009.
- The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation
The Yakima-Klickitat Fisheries Project (YKFP) is a joint project of the Yakama Nation (lead entity) and the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and is sponsored in large part by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) with oversight and guidance from the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NPCC). It is among the largest and most complex fisheries management projects in the Columbia Basin in terms of data collection and management, physical facilities, habitat enhancement and management, and experimental design and research on fisheries resources. Using principles of adaptive management, the YKFP is attempting to evaluate all stocks historically present in the Yakima subbasin and apply a combination of habitat restoration and hatchery supplementation or reintroduction, to restore the Yakima Subbasin ecosystem with sustainable and harvestable populations of salmon, steelhead and other at-risk species. The original impetus for the YKFP resulted from the landmark fishing disputes of the 1970s, the ensuing legal decisions in United States versus Washington and United States versus Oregon, and the region's realization that lost natural production needed to be mitigated in upriver areas where these losses primarily occurred. The YKFP was first identified in the NPCC's 1982 Fish and Wildlife Program (FWP) and supported in the U.S. v Oregon 1988 Columbia River Fish Management Plan (CRFMP). A draft Master Plan was presented to the NPCC in 1987 and the Preliminary Design Report was presented in 1990. In both circumstances, the NPCC instructed the Yakama Nation, WDFW and BPA to carry out planning functions that addressed uncertainties in regard to the adequacy of hatchery supplementation for meeting production objectives and limiting adverse ecological and genetic impacts. At the same time, the NPCC underscored the importance of using adaptive management principles to manage the direction of the Project. The 1994 FWP reiterated the importance of proceeding with the YKFP because of the added production and learning potential the project would provide. The YKFP is unique in having been designed to rigorously test the efficacy of hatchery supplementation. Given the current dire situation of many salmon and steelhead stocks, and the heavy reliance on artificial propagation as a recovery tool, YKFP monitoring results will have great region-wide significance. Supplementation is envisioned as a means to enhance and sustain the abundance of wild and naturally-spawning populations at levels exceeding the cumulative mortality burden imposed on those populations by habitat degradation and by natural cycles in environmental conditions. A supplementation hatchery is properly operated as an adjunct to the natural production system in a watershed. By fully integrating the hatchery with a naturally-producing population, high survival rates for the component of the population in the hatchery can raise the average abundance of the total population (hatchery component + naturally-producing component) to a level that compensates for the high mortalities imposed by human development activities and fully seeds the natural environment. The objectives of the YKFP are to: use Ecosystem Diagnosis and Treatment (EDT) and other modeling tools to facilitate planning for project activities, enhance existing stocks, re-introduce extirpated stocks, protect and restore habitat in the Yakima Subbasin, and operate using a scientifically rigorous process that will foster application of the knowledge gained about hatchery supplementation and habitat restoration throughout the Columbia River Basin. The YKFP is still in the early stages of evaluation, and as such the data and findings presented in this report should be considered preliminary until results are published in the peer-reviewed literature. The following is a brief summary of current YKFP activities by species.
- Research Organization:
- Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), Portland, OR (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- 42445
- OSTI ID:
- 965258
- Report Number(s):
- P112744; R&D Project: 1995-063-25; TRN: US200920%%528
- Resource Relation:
- Related Information: document submitted July 31, 2009
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Yakima/Klickitat Fisheries Project; Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Policy/Technical Involvement and Planning, 2002-2003 Annual Report.
Yakima/Klickitat Fisheries Project; Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Policy/Technical Involvement and Planning, 2001-2002 Annual Report.