WALLA WALLA BULL TROUT / SUMMER STEELHEAD RADIO TELEMETRY

PROJECT COMPLETION REPORT for OWEB Grant #200-160 (1/5/01 to 5/30/04)

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Collaborative Effort

Original Study Questions

Map of the Study Area

Fish Telemetry Teamwork

In-Depth Results Provided by CTUIR Fisheries Program Staff

Changes to the Project from the Original Application

Volunteer Participation

Links

Collaborative Effort

The Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council secured a grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) in order to facilitate expansion of telemetry efforts and joint cooperation among many fish research efforts in the Walla Walla basin including: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation's Fisheries Program, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council, Hudson Bay District Improvement Company, the Walla Walla River Irrigation District, Gardena Farms Irrigation District 13, and The University of Idaho. In addition, project support, review, and technical assistance was derived from Bonneville Power Administration, the US Army Corps of Engineers, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, US Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA-Fisheries, US Forest Service, local landowners, sports fishing groups, and volunteers.

Radio telemetry is a proven scientific method for tracking the distributions of fish in complex watershed systems. Telemetry work has been used in North Eastern Oregon to study bull trout distributions in the Umatilla Basin, Grand Ronde Basin, John Day Basin and Mill Creek within the Walla Walla Basin. Protocols for this study followed those used by the ODFW Native Trout Program. This study provided critical information to managers regarding the movement of steelhead and bull trout and the effectiveness of fish passage in the Walla Walla Basin to develop effective strategies for fisheries and flow enhancement. The information gained from the project has been used to facilitate adaptive management efforts in the basin and identify fish passage barriers remaining to be addressed. Data from CTUIR has been provided to the partner entities on a monthly basis, informing Subbasin Planning, HCP and other planning efforts.

Understanding of the seasonal spatial distribution of native bull trout and wild steelhead populations is being used to help prioritize habitat improvements, assess the efficacy of recent passage improvements, assist in difficult water management decisions, and gain more knowledge of our listed fish populations.

Antenna at Nursery Bridge Fish Ladder entry

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Original Study Questions

The overall objective of this study was to determine the seasonal distribution of two ESA-protected fish species in the Walla Walla basin (steelhead and bull trout). The main objective was divided into the following questions:

1. Evaluate fish passage efficiency at new passage facilities on the Walla Walla mainstem for both fish populations.

2. Evaluate fish passage efficiency at fish passage facilities off the mainstem Walla Walla River (i.e.; Mill Creek Dam) for both fish populations.

3. Identify priority steelhead spawning locations and monitor temperature at those locations.

4. Monitor downstream habitat utilization for bull trout both spatially and temporally.

5. Determine genetic mixing (from spatial association) between bull trout sub-populations that occur in the Upper Walla Walla, Mill Creek, and Touchet River. (This was an issue of concern with our multi-agency bull trout limiting factors analysis.)

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Map of Project Vicinity and Location of radio-telemetry stations

Click here for a PDF version with a key (56 KB)
 

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Fish Telemetry Teamwork

For tasks on the Oregon side of the border, CTUIR and ODFW did the work of securing necessary take permits, installing the tags and the monitoring equipment, and tracking the fish. WWBWC convened the partners several times each year and assisted with coordinating all the various efforts. The Fish Telemetry team is really a subgroup of the Bi-State Technical Work Group (TWG) but it filled a very specific need to catalyze joint efforts and provide a forum to review specific items like placement of screw traps, concerns about fish ladder operation, and telemetry tagging and monitoring logistics coordination. The group also became a point of contact for several new fish studies that began in the basin during the grant period. The Fish Telemetry meetings often catalyzed the Monitoring and Evaluation meetings hosted by CTUIR since the Telemetry meetings brought the relevant people together. A very positive benefit from the grant funding was the improved collaboration and the development of better relationships among the partner entities. WWBWC did not receive specific funding for this coordination work through this grant, but felt it was a vital contribution to the overall research effort.
 

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In-Depth Results Provided by CTUIR Fisheries Program Staff

Brian Mahoney, Tribal Fisheries Program, Department of Natural Resources, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, prepared a progress report  "Summer Steelhead and Bull Trout Radio Telemetry Study: The Walla Walla Basin Natural Production Monitoring and Evaluation Project" for October 2002-December 2003, for the Division of Fish and Wildlife, Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Department of Energy. It contains accomplishments and findings for the period October 2000, through December 2003. Results reported are cumulative covering the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 migration years. The following four paragraphs were taken from the report and summarize the fieldwork and results discussed in the report. The report is available for download at http://www.umatilla.nsn.us/database/fishdata/download/2002_Final_Telemetry_Report.pdf  (PDF format, +1MB).  A final CTUIR project report is expected in April 2005.

Radio telemetry was used to evaluate the movement and passage of adult bull trout and summer steelhead in the Walla Walla River subbasin between May 2001 and December 2003. Fish were collected and radio tagged in four stream drainages: lower Walla Walla River, upper Walla Walla River, Touchet River, and Mill Creek. Radio transmitters were surgically implanted in 91 bull trout and gastricly implanted in 143 steelhead. Tag loss in pre-spawning fish ranged from roughly 45% in bull trout to 27% in steelhead due to: study effects, harvest, and predation, tag shedding, movement of fish from the study area, and tag malfunction. During 2001-2003, 73 (n=91, 78%) radio tagged bull trout and 105 steelhead (n=143, 73%) survived, retained the transmitter and were located upstream by aerial and ground based mobile tracking while simultaneously being monitored at fish passage facilities and along major migration routes by up to 11 automated data logging stations.

Bull trout movement was typically low and site fidelity high except during fluvial migrations into and from the headwater-spawning area; typically between June and November. Seasonal distribution, critical habitat (rearing, spawning, and migratory corridors), and ladder passage were documented. This study did not document movement of bull trout into the Columbia River or among the three local bull trout populations in the subbasin: the Touchet River, Mill Creek, and upper Walla Walla River. Sample size and or study design may have been insufficient to detect such movements or possibly physical (flow and temperature) or behavioral adaptations limited fish movement as effectively to isolate the populations.

Steelhead movement, run timing, critical habitat, and ladder passage were documented for both Middle Columbia River (natural) and hatchery origin (hatchery) steelhead. Typically, hatchery fish were recorded in the subbasin sooner, moved less distance, and departed sooner, than natural steelhead; the principal exception to this being the Touchet drainage. Natural and hatchery fish were spatially and temporally mixed in the lower Walla Walla River, Mill Creek and Touchet River; while generally segregated within Dry Creek, (Washington's Dry Creek), and upper Walla Walla River. Upstream passage delay was documented at a number of irrigation and flood control diversions including: Bennington Lake Dam, Burlingame Dam, Hofer Dam, Gose Street, Nursery Bridge Dam and upper Yellowhawk Creek; passage delay or blockage ranged from less than 15 minutes to no passage. The relationship between facility operations, stream flow, temperature, fish origin and condition was not correlated to passage. Roughly 56% of the steelhead that retained the transmitter and moved upstream later escaped back downstream to the Columbia River; their final fate as kelts was uncertain.

Additional radio-telemetry work is needed to: further evaluate passage and correlate factors effecting fish passage at the diversions and ladders; document steelhead passage in the Mill Creek flood control channel through Walla Walla, Washington; further document Yellowhawk Creek as both a major steelhead migration route and subsequent spawning area; document the spatial and temporal distribution of steelhead kelts as they leave the subbasin; further quantify (through further field observation of currently tagged fish and literature research) the causes and significance of tag loss (e.g. study effects, post-spawn mortality, predation, and harvest); and finally, document the diel movements and micro-habitat use of bull trout currently radio-tagged in the study.

No genetic mixing between the three sub-populations (spatially) of bull-trout was documented. This concern has been identified as a continued information need, possibly to be studied using different techniques. More discussion of this will come in the final report/analysis by CTUIR at the end of their project period.

Antenna mounted on plane for tracking flights
 

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Changes to the Project from the Original Application

Funding was not received under this grant for fish ladder video equipment (as requested in the grant application). However, NBD video equipment was purchased for the Nursery Ladder under CTUIR's Fish Passage Monitoring Project funded by BPA. Ben Tice from USACE has borrowed video equipment and is running it at the Bennington Diversion Ladder on his own personal time.
 

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Volunteer Participation

The Tri-State Steelheaders (TSS) provided the majority of the volunteer labor on activities including securing permission to operate the Yellowhawk Weir, preparing the weir for use (cleaning weir, repairing weir, site prep.), installing the weir in Yellowhawk Creek, operating the weir (cleaning debris from weir, adjusting weir), assisting Brian Mahoney with the tagging process, removing the weir from Yellowhawk Creek, and completing written reports of fish counted through weir. Also included in the total were the hours spent by TSS volunteers fishing with hook and line for steelhead to be tagged by Brian. TSS volunteers donated their mileage and were pleased to be asked to fish as part of the study. Of all the volunteers, Wib Wagoner was "the man". Wib cared for the Yellowhawk trap from Feb. 3rd through May 31st. He also did some repair and cleaning on the trap prior to it being placed in Yellowhawk. Wib was featured in a newspaper article in the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin. Other TSS volunteers were Mike Taylor, Jeff Gwinn, Bob Fox, John Royse, John Biagi, Bob Becker, and Rick Johnston, Steve Gwinn, and John Geidl. The hours provided were reported as 281. In addition to TSS-recruited volunteers, Paul Cilvik, Dale McKean, Ed Chesnut, Todd Davis, and Brian Wolcott assisted with fish capturing and tagging, and accompanied Brian Mahoney on telemetry float trips and flights. The hours provided are estimated at 216.

CTUIR Brian Mahoney and volunteer tag steelhead
 

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Links

October 2002 - December 2003 Report by Brian Mahoney, CTUIR (PDF format, +1MB)
Article published in the Milton-Freewater Valley Herald, December 14, 2001
 

Click here to see a picture of a bull trout being tagged.  The photo is of Tim Bailey and Brian Kilgore in the process of making the incision for a radio tag.  The Bull Trout was 20" long.  It was caught between Harris Park and the bridge 1/4 mile above Harris Park.  (All rights reserved.)