*Finding a summer steelhead on a dry fly - photo by Bill McMillan*

Looking Forward with The Conservation Angler

We are very excited to welcome our old friend and long-time wild steelhead advocate John McMillan to the TCA Team. Welcome aboard John!

It has been a strange couple of years, but this last one takes the cake.

Wild winter steelhead have dramatically declined in my home waters on the Olympic Peninsula (OP), and this past summer, the Columbia River basin experienced its lowest return of wild summer steelhead on record.

The pattern was, unfortunately, almost universal across much of the western North Pacific, including the famed Skeena River, where summer steelhead essentially bottomed out to an unprecedented level of abundance.

In addition, older, larger life histories seem to have taken the brunt of the impact. On the rivers of the OP, the fish this year were notably smaller than I have observed in my previous 25 years on the same rivers. A reduction in older females is concerning because smaller fish carry fewer eggs, and our escapement goals were set under the assumption that we had a normal proportion of larger females carrying more eggs. Hence, even if escapement is achieved in terms of numbers of steelhead this year on the OP, the total number of eggs could be less than expected if larger, older females remain under-represented.

*OP steelhead photographed in their river - photo by John McMillan*

Being a life-long steelheader, I’m typically optimistic about the resilience of wild fish. However, the rapid, large-scale shifts in abundance and distinct reduction in older life histories have struck a more somber chord.

It has made me reconsider my conservation strategy and priorities.

After two decades of living on the OP, I’m feeling a pang for fresh observations and exploration. And given the state of our wild steelhead, I wanted to recharge my spirit and mind by visiting some of the last, best wild steelhead rivers on the planet.

Equally as important, fresh observations have always helped me look at old problems in new ways.

This is one reason I took the position as Science Director for The Conservation Angler (TCA). With Trout Unlimited and Wild Steelheaders United I was able to visit watersheds in California that I had never seen before, and I became more familiar with the Southern Oregon Coast. At TCA I will broaden those horizons even further. Part of my job will be conducting research steelhead on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, in conjunction with scientists from Moscow State University (MSU). While the conflict in Ukraine puts that on hold, my patience is steeled for the eventual adventure and collaboration with scientists that have been studying the populations for decades.

*Young of year Oncorhynchus mykiss - photo by John McMillan*

The move to TCA is not an unfamiliar one. I worked with Dave Moskowitz and Pete Soverel when I was employed by the Wild Salmon Center in the 2000’s, where we helped identify and protect important salmon habitat in the Hoh with Western Rivers Conservancy and conducted extensive fish and habitat surveys to better understand the ecology of steelhead and other salmon species. Together, we will use the best available science to shape management policies that better prioritize rebuilding the life history diversity and other evolutionary tools that wild steelhead (and salmon!) need to persevere through climate change and hopefully, continue to provide the fisheries that so many of us love.

*James Starr, John McMillan and Dave Moskowitz on the Hoh River - by Bill McMillan*

Kamchatka and OP Steelhead Science

I want to visit Kamchatka to evaluate the genetic and ecological fabric of truly wild steelhead populations and determine if there are specific questions and observations that will help us recover our imperiled stocks.

For example, wild steelhead in Kamchatka display substantially higher rates of repeat spawning than our populations in North America, and we know from research that repeat spawners are important to populations because they are more productive than one-time spawners (Here and here). Further, the populations exhibit greater diversity and more complex age classes, and they still produce individuals that are remarkably fat for a given length. They would apparently more closely resemble the body shapes of steelhead that formerly existed in the Columbia River (Here). I’m excited to gain more intimate knowledge of these populations and try to determine which traits they still retain that our populations have lost.

*Professor Kirill Kuzishchin with a Kvachina steelhead - photo by Bill McMillan*

That said, I’m not changing much else in the scope of my work. I will continue to conduct research and remain deeply entrenched in conservation of wild steelhead on the OP and in other stronghold watersheds. Much work remains to help conserve wild steelhead in the USA, particularly if we want to leave something meaningful behind for the next generation.

Managing our Wild Steelhead

Though my scientific focus will remain similar, I will expand my playbook from a policy perspective. No more three yards and a cloud of dust every play. Things need to change, urgently, which may include providing scientific opinions on “break in case of emergency” legal challenges to policies that are not well supported by the existing body of scientific literature.

One reason we need greater urgency is because of climate change, the effects of which are altering marine and freshwater environments more rapidly than initially predicted. This is occurring in part because we have likely underestimated the amount of fossil methane being released in the arctic through "methane chimneys", explosions and thawing permafrost.

We won’t stop climate impacts immediately, even in the best-case scenarios. But we can change the way we manage wild steelhead to better account for their biological attributes that make them unique among salmonids, which in turn improves their ability to keep pace with and adapt to climate change. We can, in essence, try to “climate proof” our fish populations to the extent possible by maximizing their life history diversity.

The clock is running, though. On the OP for example, glaciers have retreated significantly since 1980, while peak flow frequency has increased and summer low flows are predicted to decrease and remain at lower levels for longer periods.

Fortunately, salmon and steelhead have the raw genetic material to persist through great variation in freshwater habitat and ocean conditions, as evidenced by their evolutionary past and long-recorded history of use by Native Americans.

Through an ebb and flow of extinction and subsequent recolonization, wild fish have essentially “out-lived” everything from volcanism and the formation of mountain ranges to glaciation and glacial floods.

This wasn’t by chance, however. The environment and competition for habitat sculpted wild steelhead so that they can enter freshwater any month of the year, spawn more than one time, and display male and female freshwater resident life histories that serve as genetic repositories during periods of poor anadromous survival. It is this diversity that underpins their resilience and productivity.

*Elwha River spawning winter steelhead - photo by John McMillan*

These traits are likely to help them be more successful in a warming climate than some other species with less thermal tolerance and life history plasticity.

Nonetheless, for steelhead to realize and test their potential, we need bolder and more strategic actions that allow them to display the diversity they need to adapt. On the OP for example, early timed wild winter steelhead are depleted, and their demise coincides with the onset of modern hatchery and fishery programs and the logging of important spawning habitats.

Early entering life histories not only increase diversity and spread risk, but they are also important to climate change, because winter steelhead will need to enter freshwater and spawn earlier on the OP to keep pace with shifting temperatures and stream flows in spring and summer. Early fish may also strategically select and spawn in habitat that is not otherwise accessible when flows are lower later in the season, helping distribute their offspring more broadly across a watershed. For these reasons and others, it is time to identify and conserve their preferred habitats over the long-term and modify fishery and hatchery practices to reduce immediate impacts in the short-term.

Declines in repeat spawning rates could also hinder recovery of coastal populations of wild steelhead. Historical data, such as that for wild steelhead in Tillamook Bay (Study here), suggests repeat spawning rates were much higher than currently are. Interestingly, the historic repeat spawning rates are close to what has been documented in wild steelhead on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

*Over the horizon in Kamchatka - Photo by Matt Harris*

Finding ways to rebuild these critical components of their biology seems particularly important to recovering as much of their original evolutionary fabric as possible, which is exactly why I need to better understand the relatively pristine populations of steelhead in Siberia.

A Different Threat and a Hopeful Example

There is another issue that could be contributing to region-wide declines in steelhead, particularly for more northerly stocks. Since the 1980’s the number of hatchery pink and chum salmon being released out of Alaska, Japan, and Russia has increased sharply and research indicates they suppress the survival and size of other salmon species and stocks in the North Pacific. They have also been correlated with declines in wild steelhead in the Keogh and Thompson Rivers and declines in growth and survival of Chinook salmon. For example, a presentation by scientist Greg Rugerrone and co-authors found that Puget Sound Chinook survival was 62% lower when they migrated during even years when juvenile pink salmon were present from 1984-1997.

While we may not think of pink salmon as direct competitors with wild steelhead, it’s likely older maturing steelhead (e.g., 3- and 4-salt adults) from the OP migrate far enough northeast to overlap with the distribution of pink salmon. If they are negatively impacting Chinook salmon in the Columbia and Puget Sound, they may be having a similar effect on wild steelhead on the OP. This is a question we want answered, because we are investing billions of dollars to recover salmon and steelhead and their habitat in the lower-48, it would be unacceptable to have our hard-earned attempts thwarted because the ocean is being over-stocked.

Despite what may seem like an overabundance of bad news, that isn’t the case everywhere. The Elwha River and its fish are dancing to the beat of their own drum. Last year, for instance, while the other OP populations were struggling, the Elwha experienced one of its largest winter steelhead returns since dam removal.

This shows us what is possible when salmon, steelhead (and here), bull trout, and Pacific lamprey are provided access to high quality habitat and allowed to respond and rebuild. I applaud the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, National Park Service, USFWS, NOAA, and WDFW for taking a collaborative approach with a vision for the future. More work remains before victory is claimed, but so far, the project is a shining example of what is possible when people and science come together.

*Juvenile steelhead - photo by John McMillan*

Our Opportunity

Changes in the ocean and rivers, dams, habitat degradation, and huge releases of hatchery fish may seem overwhelming to the point where one asks: Can we really save wild steelhead?

I say yes.

Humans have shown capacity for adaptation when the chips are down and in my short life, we have taken big actions to greatly reduce acid rain and the hole in the ozone layer. We’ve also rebuilt populations of peregrine falcons, bald eagles, and brown pelicans. Whooping cranes have even made a small comeback. The examples may seem somewhat obscure to those who didn’t grow up in the 70’s and 80’s reading and seeing the horror stories, but I assure you, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) greatly helped those birds and as a life-long nature lover, they represent hope in the same way that the Elwha River does. Their futures look stronger than when I was a boy, which is a rarity nowadays.

The list of threats to wild steelhead is long but changing management policies that rebuild their natural, inherent diversity, rather than erode it, is an important step towards sustaining the fish and their fisheries into the future. We can stop managing steelhead like salmon and start accounting for repeat spawners and rainbow trout and everything in between to ensure they can take advantage of all possible habitats and avenues to survival.

Recovery is not easy. It never will be.

It will require short-term sacrifice, and although that may be painful, it is also an opportunity.

An opportunity to put out collective shoulder to the wheel in the coming years so that we can pay something forward to future generations. Because despite our worst tendencies as humans, it’s also clear we are compassionate and when sufficiently motivated, we have demonstrated an ability to right the ship before it sinks to the bottom.

I’m going to lean into that positivity over the next few years as we work to rebuild steelhead and create more sustainable fisheries.

I hope you will join us on that journey.

*Fishery Biologists never take a day off! Photo by David Moskowitz*

John McMillan

New Horizons