Response for project 199801600: Escapement/Productivity Spring
Comment on proposed FY 2006 budget
We desire renewal of our project for Fiscal Year 2006. The identified budget of $880,000 is consistent with our expectations and is sufficient to implement the scope and nature of the activities approved for the project with the following note. This project is divided into two contracts (15113 and 20364). We expect 2006 costs to increase above FY 2005 costs due to agency-wide enacted increases in indirect and other personnel expenses (OPE). These added expenses may increase our needs above an individual contract budget (likely 20364) but not for the total project budget. We expect to require the full $880,000 for the FY 2006 contracts. Our FY 2004/05 contracts totaled $845,000 and were composed of $562,000 in personal services, $125,000 in services and supplies, and $158,000 of indirect expenses.
Accomplishments since the last review
| Produce Annual Report | We completed and submitted annual progress reports for 2002-04. | |
| Install Fish Trap/Monitoring Weir | During 2003 we installed three rotary screw traps (South Fork, Middle Fork, Upper mainstem) to capture and PIT tag spring Chinook (ChS) and summer steelhead (StS) smolts. We are currently negotiating with BLM to install a fourth trap on the North Fork. | |
| Develop RM&E Methods and Designs | We developed the sampling universe, adapted EMAP to select sample sites, and adapted ODFW Aquatic Inventories methodologies to monitor anadromous salmonid habitat and steelhead spawning and juvenile distribution in the John Day basin. | |
| Collect/Generate/Validate Field and Lab Data | Completed habitat surveys of 48 randomly selected, one kilometer survey sections of anadromous salmonid habitat (2004) with accompanying juvenile fish surveys. | |
| Collect/Generate/Validate Field and Lab Data | Completed spawning ground surveys of 48, two kilometer survey sections (2004) and 50 during 2005 for steelhead as well as contributing to annual steelhead index surveys. | |
| Collect/Generate/Validate Field and Lab Data | Completed census and index spawning ground surveys for spring Chinook (2002-04). Proportion of hatchery strays in both the spring Chinook and steelhead spawning populations. Age composition of Chinook spawners (2002-04) and steelhead smolts (2003-04). | |
| Collect/Generate/Validate Field and Lab Data | Completed mark-recapture seining of the Chinook smolt migrants (2002-05). Migrant trap collections of Chinook and Steelhead smolts from the South Fork, Upper Mainstem, and Middle Fork drainages (2004-05). | |
| Collect/Generate/Validate Field and Lab Data | Completed pre-spawn mortality estimates for adult Chinook in selected drainages (2002-04). | |
| Mark/Tag Animals | We PIT tagged 4,000, 6,147, and 4,036 Chinook smolts during 2002, 2003, and 2004, respectively for SAR and abundance estimates. We PIT tagged 3,700 steelhead smolts during 2004. We are near our goals of PIT tagging 5,000 Chinook and steelhead during 2005. | |
| Manage/Maintain Database | We developed and maintained an Access database for habitat, juvenile salmonid, and steelhead spawner surveys on our EMAP contract. Maintained an Excell database for spring chinook spawning ground surveys and smolt abundance including SAR estimates. | |
| Disseminate Raw & Summary Data | Requests of our data are frequent and we have disseminated data to the following groups: CRITFC, USFS, USBOR, ODFW, NOAA Fisheries, USFWS, USGS, CTWSRO, OSU, and private landowners. | |
| Disseminate Raw & Summary Data | Our smolt-to-adult return (SAR) data is used annually by the Comparative Survival Rate Study (CSS) for comparisons to Snake River stocks. Survival, abundance, distribution, age and sex composition data was provided to the NOAA Fisheries TRT. | |
| Analyze/Interpret Data | Synthesized data includes annual estimates of basin-wide smolt abundance from mark-recapture efforts (inc. 95% CL’s) for Chinook (2000-2004) and steelhead (2004). | |
| Analyze/Interpret Data | Beginning in 2004 watershed-specific (South Fork, Middle Fork, Upper Mainstem), out-migrant abundance (inc. 95% CL’s) for Chinook and steelhead from migrant trap captures were estimated. | |
| Analyze/Interpret Data | SAR for spring Chinook (2002-04) were estimated and will soon be estimated for summer steelhead. Spawner escapement for spring Chinook (2002-04) and summer steelhead (2004) were estimated. |
FY 2006 goals and anticipated accomplishments
| Produce Annual Report | We plan to continue to provide detailed annual technical reports of our findings. | |
| Install Fish Trap/Monitoring Weir | We plan to install a fourth migrant trap in the subbasin on the North Fork John Day River. | |
| Collect/Generate/Validate Field and Lab Data | We plan to estimate both steelhead and Chinook outmigrant (smolt)abundance from the South Fork, Middle Fork, North Fork, and Uppermainstem populations. | |
| Collect/Generate/Validate Field and Lab Data | We plan to estimate Basin-wide escapement and redd abundance for both steelhead and Chinook through spawning ground surveys. Subsampling the basin for steelhead (EMAP) and censusing the basin for spring Chinook. | |
| Collect/Generate/Validate Field and Lab Data | Collect age, sex ratio, and fecundity data from spring Chinook carcasses encountered on spawning ground surveys. | |
| Collect/Generate/Validate Field and Lab Data | Continue to measure basin-wide habitat conditions for staus and trend monitoring of anadromous salmonid habitat using a probabalistic sampling approach (EMAP). | |
| Mark/Tag Animals | Continue to PIT tag 5,000 each spring Chinook and summer steelhead within the subbasin for SAR estimates. | |
| Manage/Maintain Database | We will continue to update and maintain databases of our habitat, productivity, and escapement monitoring. | |
| Disseminate Raw & Summary Data | Provide regional managers, modelers, and planners with empirical estimates of abundance, survival, distribution, habitat condition, and status and trends of steelhead and spring Chinook. | |
| Analyze/Interpret Data | Estimate life-stage survival for spring chinook (SAR and egg-to-smolt) and steelhead (SAR). Determine and compare age structure for chinook and steelhead spawners through carcass collections and observations of returning PIT-tagged adults. |
Our goal is to continue to provide basin-wide status and trend monitoring of spring Chinook and summer steelhead and their habitats in the John Day basin. We expect to provide: Chinook and steelhead smolt abundance estimates for the Middle Fork, South Fork, Upper Mainstem, and North Fork populations as well as complete subbasin smolt estimates for spring Chinook. SAR estimates (out-of-basin survival) for both Chinook and steelhead. Egg-to-smolt survival rates (within-basin survival) for each of the three Chinook populations. Basin-wide estimates of steelhead and Chinook redd abundance, adult escapement, and proportion of hatchery strays. Continued basin-wide monitoring of spring Chinook and steelhead habitat providing a baseline of habitat conditions and a database for relating juvenile and adult salmonid status and trend to their associated habitats. Continue to provide population parameters for Chinook and steelhead populations to regional review teams.
Subbasin planning
How is this project consistent with subbasin plans?
This project accomplishes RM&E work associated with two aquatic focal species stated in the plan—summer steelhead and spring Chinook (pages 63, 71-103 in the Plan). These two species are the target species of our studies. Although the draft Subbasin Plan fails to list our project as a current RM&E study in the basin (which I plan to have changed), our data is used frequently within the plan (e.g. see smolt estimates on page 101, Figures 16 & 17 on pages 95-96, Table 33 empirical data on page 99). We are the only project that conducts basin-wide monitoring of the two aquatic focal species, summer steelhead and spring Chinook, and their habitats in the John Day Basin.
How do goals match subbasin plan priorities?
The project accomplishes priority work under the subbasin plan, because we address many of the stated research needs in the management plan. For example, on page 314 the plan states that the decline in spring Chinook populations in Granite Creek should be an area of study. Our monitoring of redd counts in this area has identified this decline in the population. Also, the identification and rate of hatchery straying adults in the basin (page 316) was identified by our surveys. On page 317, the plan states that parameters for evaluating population status and trends should continue. This project collects all of the parameters mentioned on page 317 for two focal species--spring Chinook and Steelhead. We also collect viable salmonids population parameters (page 317, e.g. abundance, age & sex structure, fecundity, survival estimates) that are stated as important for TRT recovery goals and measurements. On page 321, the plan states a monitoring need of incorporating GRTS/EMAP and GIS-based sampling frameworks. Our monitoring efforts for steelhead spawning ground surveys and juvenile rearing habitat are based on this spatially-balanced, probabalistic sampling approach.
Other comments
We are coordinating with regional research efforts including Tier 3 studies. The project leader regularly participates in regional meetings of the RM&E pilot program for the basin and is on the graduate committee of an OSU student conducting Tier 3 research. We are listed as primary RM&E project for the John Day subbasin in the Proposed Action and Implementation Paln of the action agencies. We are coordinating with the pacisifc northwst Aquatic monitoring partnership (PNAMP). Our monitoring reaches and crews will be used in this cooperative study. We provide annual survival rate values to other Columbia Basin-wide projects (Comparative Survival Rate Study) for comparisons to other fish stocks. The EDT model has been the major modeling tool used in the Subbasin Plan to produce quantitative measures of the potential impact of environmental factors on anadromous fish in the basin. The empirical values generated by this project provide data for comparing to the EDT output and for measuring recovery goals for the entire subbasin.