Columbia River Basin Wild Summer Steelhead: Season in Review
The Deschutes Fishery Framework - Full Boat or Half-a-loaf?
2022 Comments & Concerns
All of us are heartened by the increase in steelhead abundance after 2021.
Many of us have enjoyed the opportunity to fish, float, hike, and camp on the Deschutes River for summer steelhead – it lifts our heart and spirits – especially after 2021.
Back on the water
However, the story of 2022 Columbia River Steelhead is one worth looking at with a longer lens in terms of data, memory, and the next chapters.
Counting Your Chickens
The total number of hatchery and wild summer steelhead passing Bonneville between April 1 and October 31 is 123,871 adult steelhead. Oregon and Washington begin the “official” count of summer steelhead on April 1 even though there are summer steelhead passing Bonneville Dam (the convenient counting station) in March and end their count on October 31 though summer steelhead continue to pass Bonneville well through November.
The preseason forecast by state managers for 2022 was for 99,700 steelhead to pass Bonneville – no one will complain about the over-forecast of 124% but the inaccuracy of the pre-season forecasts calls into question the metrics and methodology used to make these predictions.
The 2022 return of total marked and unmarked steelhead is 73% of the current ten-year average (2012-2021), which is the lowest 10-yr average in the modern record going back to 1938 - 1947.
Combined Hatchery and Wild Steelhead passing BON in 2021 and 2022 (DART)
The 10-year average for unmarked (or wild) steelhead is 62,760 adults – thus the 2022 actual return of 37,915 fish is only 60% of the current ten-year average. Unmarked steelhead (which includes wild, natural-origin fish as well as unmarked hatchery-origin fish) comprised only 31% of the total steelhead passing Bonneville in 2022 – the lowest percentage since the 2013-2004.
Fin clip – It’s the Law!
Based on past data, approximately 6 to 11% of unmarked/wild steelhead passing Bonneville are actually hatchery fish, which puts the number of hatchery-origin steelhead counted as wild steelhead in the range of 2,275 to 4,170 fish - further weakening the wild or "natural origin" component. The “real” wild steelhead count past Bonneville is closer to 34,700 fish – meaning that the 2022 return is only 55% of the current ten-year average.
Adipose fin-clipped steelhead are meant to indicate to managers and anglers that these fish are hatchery fish that may be retained. It is an important management tool that permits angling for ESA-listed steelhead under regulations approved by NOAA. Unclipped steelhead are likely counted as wild fish on the spawning grounds (at least where spawning surveys are actually done).
Some hatchery steelhead releases have been unmarked in the past, but new Federal law requires that Columbia Basin hatchery salmon and steelhead released from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)-operated or USFWS-funded hatcheries must be marked before release.
An Upper Columbia Wild Steelhead. The adipose fin is the small fin between the tail and the dorsal fin. (USFWS Photo)
Either way, in comparing 2022 to other ten-year periods, and when the percent of unclipped hatchery steelhead are factored in the mix, the current wild steelhead return can only be described as weak and getting weaker.
Circling the Drain – By Year and By Decade – The Ten-year Average Trap
The current ten-year average being used by state managers to compare the 2022 return is 170,275 total hatchery and wild steelhead.
Consider that the ten-year average in use just one year ago (2011-2020) was 199,825 steelhead, and only a year earlier, from that (2010-2019), the ten-year average was 229,719 total steelhead. The 2018-2009 ten-year average was 282,378 steelhead. The region is essentially “losing” 30,000 steelhead every year.
The best ten-year average (representing the most productive ten-year period for steelhead in the Columbia) was during the period 2001 to 2010, when an average of 405,188 steelhead returned during a period from only 12 years ago.
Comparing 2022 with this relatively recent period of abundance and productivity, the current steelhead return is 30.3% of that most productive period.
2022 Wild Steelhead passage at Bonneville compared to the highest 10-yr Avg. (DART)
Cold Water Refugia and Thermal Angling Sanctuaries
As the Columbia River heats up sooner and stays hot longer, the protection of wild steelhead and salmon using cold water refugia as they migrate to home waters continues to be a mitigating factor on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. Creation of Thermal Angling Sanctuaries at Eagle Creek, Herman Creek, and the Deschutes River in 2020 will prove to be one of the most important conservation actions taken to protect migrating wild fish in the warming, polluted reservoirs of the dammed Columbia River.
However, there is more to do.
The Deschutes River plume of cold water is extensive. Photo by Jim Brown
The Columbia River was well above 20 C and the Deschutes was very cool when the Deschutes River Thermal Angling Sanctuary expired on September 15. Wild Steelhead were undoubtedly using the cold water refugia through September 24 when the Columbia River finally cooled. The Columbia River temperatures from John Day Dam to The Dalles Dam were above 70F during the period September 15 thru 24th.
Graph of Water Temps from John Day Dam - Data Graph by USGS
The Deschutes River water temperatures (measured just above Moody Rapids) ranged from a low of 52 to a high 61 F during this ten-day period – clearly providing a welcome cool water refuge for migrating steelhead and salmon. See USGS Graphs below
2022 Deschutes River Water Temps above Moody Rapids - Data from USGS
Past "openers" have resulted in very high encounter rates in the currently closed Deschutes TAS. Given the overall status of wild steelhead in the Columbia River, and the conservation concern for Deschutes River wild steelhead, The Conservation Angler requests that ODFW work to extend the TAS for ten (10) additional days in the future – or until the Columbia River water temperatures drop below 20 C.
The large temperature difference between the Deschutes and the Columbia, and the depressed wild steelhead abundance in 2022 warrant continuing forward with a more precautionary approach.
The impoundment of the Little White Salmon River known as Drano Lake is a critical cold water refugia where fishing should not be permitted.
Lastly, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife continues to “punt” on the need to reduce angler impacts on wild fish residing in cold water refugia. Aside from the Deschutes, Washington is the source of several of the most significant cold water refugia – beginning with the Cowlitz and Lewis and further upstream to the Wind, Little While Salmon (aka Drano Lake), White Salmon and Klickitat Rivers. WDFW staff have questioned the science behind the EPA recommendations and essentially resist taking action despite a worsening situation of earlier arrival of warmer Columbia River water and intense angler effort focused on hatchery salmon in and around these vital refugia.
John Day River Conservation Management Options
TCA understands the rationale for closing the John Day River to angling for and retention of steelhead through Dec. 31. However, we are confused as to why the John Day Arm (river mouth to Tumwater Falls) remains open to steelhead fishing? Wild steelhead enter and often mill around the arm until there is enough water in the John Day to ascend the falls. The current flow at McDonald Ferry is less than 250 CFS – less than half the normal flows. There will be little attraction flow until January - though steelhead will gather in the Arm and anyone choosing to fish the John Day Arm will catch wild steelhead. Closing the John Day Arm area to steelhead "retention" does not prevent angling for steelhead. This rule will not contribute to the conservation measures being implemented above Tumwater Falls aimed at measurably and significantly reducing encounters of wild steelhead bound for the John Day.
In some years, anglers fish the John Day Arm well into the winter. There are few hatchery steelhead in these waters as the John Day does not have a hatchery release. TCA urges that future conservation closures in the John Day include closing the John Day Arm to "angling for and retention of steelhead."
These words matter. It is the only rational decision that matches the difficult, but necessary, decision made to close the rest of the John Day River.
John Day River Above Tumwater Falls
TCA supports closure of the John Day River to angling when run sizes are small, but for the same reasons discussed above, the John Day River should remain closed to angling for and retention of steelhead through Spring of 2023. The current angling closure ends on December 31. If the closure is necessary to protect steelhead during the fall, it is just as critical and even more important to protect John Day River wild summer runs in the winter and spring as they begin to stage near their home streams before and during their time of spawning.
An Issue of Fairness
The current emergency rules set to protect wild John Day River summer steelhead unequally and unfairly limit angling opportunities for those anglers who would fly fish for John Day steelhead. The John Day Arm is not conducive to fly fishing at any time of year and the John Day River above Tumwater Falls is not conducive to flyfishing in the winter and spring.
These two rules, as currently proposed, effectively close the John Day River to flyfishing during the only period during which flyfishing can be practical (October thru December). Flyfishing is as an angling method proven to be the least harmful angling method because of both a low encounter rate and low hooking mortality. The short duration of the season, relatively low effort, and low encounter rate and low rate of mortality associated with flyfishing should be considered as an option to provide conservation and opportunity – and the 2022 angling regulation structure on the John Day Arm and River was unfairly applied when the agencies regularly apply a “balancing” approach between conservation needs and angler opportunity.
Liberal angling regulations in the Arm and in the John Day above Tumwater (once it opens January 1) allow barbed treble hooks and the use of bait which are well known to cause higher rates of hooking mortality. These gear and method regulations are not consistent with protecting wild ESA-listed steelhead. This entire rubric is inconsistent with ODFW's efforts to protect wild ESA-listed John Day River steelhead.
If the John Day must be closed to angling to protect wild steelhead, it should be completely closed - and not closed only in a manner that is a constructive "bar" to steelhead flyfishing.
We miss fishing the John Day, but it is the right thng to do until we change how we do it.
ODFW should take emergency regulatory action to close the John Day Arm to steelhead angling and close the John Day above Tumwater Falls through May 2023. These changes fit the circumstances that are necessary to conserve a low return of wild steelhead to the John Day in 2022 and 2023.
Oregon’s Columbia River Steelhead Framework
Oregon remains heads and tails better in developing fishery management frameworks that protect wild fish and try to provide predictable and reasonable angling opportunity. ODFW’s Deschutes Framework [https://myodfw.com/articles/steelhead-management-columbia-snake-river-basins] is a starting place for providing guidance to managers and anglers. However, its reliance on meeting the lowest threshold criteria provides very little room for error and uncertainty. Using the Critical Abundance Threshold (CTA) of 625 wild steelhead as the low bar for allowing open fisheries will do nothing to rebuild wild steelhead in the Deschutes River over time.
Should fishing seasons be based on meeting the red or the green line? ODFW Graphic
Conservation and Closures
The Conservation Angler has advocated for fishing closures for non-tribal and Tribal fisheries in multiple instances. Typically, the agency fishery season setting process leaves no time to develop a more creative, flexible, and accountable fishery regime that could provide conservation benefits while also angling opportunity.
Closures need not be the only tool in the toolbox. Anglers need only look at hunting regulations to find mechanisms to match effort and impacts on declining species. Examples abound in bird and mammal hunting – varietal seasons depending on gear-type (bow verses rifle), limited entry areas and draws depending on demand, and mandatory reporting (check stations, wing, or tooth drops, etc.) – all which limit impacts and provide managers with vital information.
Fisheries for ESA-listed fish depend on having enough wild fish to support a fishery without jeopardizing the species. They do not depend on the presence of hatchery fish. For example, last year the Deschutes closed even though hatchery fish were present. It is inaccurate to imply that fisheries will be open simply because there are hatchery fish.
To further illustrate the point, this year, the Deschutes was closed for two and a half months and then opened because wild passage over Bonneville Dam was estimated to bring the Deschutes above its critical threshold.
The John Day did not open this year because it has a higher threshold for opening a fishery and there is less certainty about the number of wild steelhead returning to the river (e.g., no long-term in-season data points like Sherars Falls). As the John Day is a wild fish stronghold, it makes sense that a conservative approach is applied here to protect what managers and anglers alike recognize as a wild steelhead watershed. However, what does not make sense is that the John Day will actually be open to steelhead fishing on January 1st – something that is still within the power of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission to change.
The rivers in the Upper Columbia provide a further example where there is a relative abundance of hatchery steelhead – but because of poor returns of wild steelhead to the rivers in that region – these rivers have mostly been closed to fishing over the past decade.
So, in all three cases, fisheries were closed or opened depending on the health of the wild population.
The same will be true in the future, which means that anglers are paying for hatchery fish that they will not have access to unless the wild fish are healthy enough to sustain fishery impacts. Given all the negative genetic and ecological impacts hatchery fish have on wild fish, and the declines in wild stocks due to climate and other effects (e.g., dams), it makes sense to start conserving wild fish now if you want to fish in the future.
While fishing-related mortality and hatchery production are only two factors limiting productivity of Columbia-Snake wild steelhead – they are both within our immediate control and influence. And they can be managed to increase escapement for the returning adults – these are the “best and brightest” of the returning adults after all – displaying awesome survival and migratory traits - so let us do what is best for these wild fish (and the sport of fishing) by giving them the best chance to reproduce.
Lessons:
1. Run forecasting needs an overhaul in methodology and metrics.
2. Managers use specific dates to describe the difference between winter and summer which affects fishing seasons and regulations. The arbitrary dates result in diminishing important life history diversity by subjecting the “tips” and “tails” of the winter and summer steelhead returns to fishing and harvest regimes that may not match run-size or escapement needs.
3. By communicating to anglers and the general public that Columbia Basin steelhead are doing well because they are coming back in numbers above the original forecast, we are falling prey to the declining baseline syndrome – which occurs when managers reference a shorter period, one that strays far from historic data, to present a rosier picture.
4. The Deschutes Cold Water Refugia protections need to be extended ten days to September 25, and the area must be enlarged to protect the 25% of the Deschutes River plume that is unprotected by the current regulatory scheme.
5. Washington should designate Thermal Angling Sanctuaries at the Cowlitz, Wind, Little White Salmon, Big White and Klickitat Rivers to protect migrating wild steelhead.
6. State agencies must develop limited entry angling opportunities on rivers requiring conservation regulations in order to maintain opportunity and to secure conservation needs.
7. Funding for this work, and for the administration, monitoring and enforcement must be established in the very next legislative cycles.
8. All Pacific States must set river-specific numeric management criteria for adult steelhead spawning escapement and egg deposition.
9. All Pacific States must adopt conversation angling regulations requiring the use of artificial flies and lures only with single barbless hooks and prohibit angling from boats and with bait in all tributaries of the Columbia and Snake Rivers.
10. Continue to examine your decisions, assumptions and actions and be open to modifying your practices and opinions with an eye towards the next decade and not just the next season.
