Improved Hatchery Actions for the Columbia River Basin Fish

A well-run hatchery program can be one tool to help support wild stocks and provide fish for harvest. It is also very important that our hatchery investment make sense in the context of our overall goals for ESA-listed fish. To help achieve these goals, the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) action agencies will implement improved hatchery actions, including those listed below.

New actions to reform existing hatcheries and reduce effects on wild salmon and steelhead
NOAA's Hatchery Scientific Review Group completed its review of federal hatchery programs in the Columbia River Basin in March 2009, and the USFWS Hatchery Review Team is nearing completion of its review of USFWS managed hatcheries in the Basin. These reviews will ensure that hatchery operations and programs will use best management practices to help conservation and recovery of ESA-listed salmon and steelhead.

Hatchery reform actions in the FCRPS Biological Opinion Reasonable and Prudent Alternative (RPA) include:

• Review the John Day Hatchery Mitigation Program.
• Transition the Tucannon River and Touchet River steelhead supplementation programs to use of local broodstock in order to protect wild steelhead.

New safety net programs to reduce extinction risk and preserve genetic resources
Safety net programs are used to prevent extinction and preserve the genetic integrity of a fish species that is endangered. Most notable among the Columbia Basin listed fish protected by a safety net program is the Snake River sockeye salmon. We will implement the following safety net actions in the FCRPS hatchery RPA:

• Begin or continue programs for steelhead kelt reconditioning for steelhead in the Entiat, Methow, Okanogan, Yakima, and Snake River Basins. Kelt reconditioning is the process of nurturing steelhead that have already spawned so that they can spawn more than once, increasing productivity.
• Use local broodstock in Okanogan steelhead hatchery operations to help protect wild fish.
• Expand the Snake River sockeye program to release between 500,000 and 1 million smolts.
• Explore options to transport returning adult Snake River sockeye from Lower Granite Dam to spawning grounds.

New hatchery actions to assist in promoting recovery
If they use best management practices to protect wild stocks, hatcheries may also help "jump start" recovery. Some of the newer hatcheries in the region funded by the hydro system, such as the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery and the Cle Elum Hatchery, are already state-of-the-art facilities. Additional facilities and programs will be designed at existing hatcheries, following best management practices, so that the new hatchery stocks will help promote recovery of targeted fish. We may also build new hatcheries if rigorous scientific review shows that doing so can help to advance recovery goals for ESA-listed salmon and steelhead. Actions in the hatchery RPA of this type include:

• Build the Northeast Oregon Hatchery, contingent on a NOAA-approved management plan, for Snake River spring/summer Chinook.
• Reintroduce spring Chinook into the Okanogan Basin, consistent with NOAA's Upper Columbia River Salmon Recovery Plan.
• Develop local broodstock of Upper Columbia River steelhead from the Okanogan Basin.
• Develop steelhead local broodstock from wild returning fish in the East Fork Salmon River.
• Assess habitat potential and conduct pilot project to explore reintroduction of Columbia River chum salmon below Bonneville Dam.

To learn more, visit the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program website at www.cbfish.org. The site provides access to the current portfolio of projects designed to protect and rebuild fish and wildlife populations affected by federal hydropower development in the Columbia River Basin.