Plan Status (1999-2001)

"We have a spiritual duty to these salmon. We want to see them some home to the rivers and streams of their ancestors." said CRITFC's Executive Director Donald Sampson. The Spirit of the Salmon makes 23 major recommendations for institutional and technical changes that the tribes believe could do just that-return healthy and harvestable salmon to the Columbia River basin.

Most recommendations described in the Spirit of the Salmon extend beyond the means and control of the tribes--changed in hydroelectric system operations and ocean fishing regulations, for example. These changes will require collaboration by a multitude of public and private entities. Depending on the issue, as many as five states, over 25 tribes, and two countries are involved. While this cumbersome political process has been engaged, progress is usually slow and the outcomes uncertain.

The tribes however are not waiting. While participating in regional and basin-wide discussions and decisions, they are also pushing forward on their own and within their local communities. They are accomplishing what is possible, protecting what remains, and steadily building tribal capacity for the assumption of greater responsibility and control over the management of Columbia River salmon.

Current achievements range from putting hundreds of thousands more young salmon back into their natural habitat, obliterating miles and miles of unstable streamside roads, to securing an international agreement on chinook management.

In 2001, Nez Perce crews oblitereated nearly 60 miles of unstable roads in the Lochsa and Lolo drainages of the Clearwater River subbasin. Unstable roads cause erosion that brings sediment pollution into streams. In the Yakima, Clearwater, and other subbasins, the tribes have added miles of fencing to prevent livestock from destroying streambanks and other riparian areas. On Satus and Toppenish creeks, the Yakama tribe completed road relocations, added culverts at several stream crossings, replanted vegetation, and built fences. With help from Bonneville Power Adminstration's fish and wildlife mitigation funds, the Warm Springs tribe purchased the 30,000-acre Pine Creek Ranch to further the tribes' watershed restoration work in the John Day River subbasin. Salmon Corps was again instrumental in much of the tribal habitat work.

As habitat restoration methodically proceeds in the thousands of miles of streams in tribal ceded areas, salmon are slowly being returned to rehabilitated streams and into other river locations that have been without spawning salmon species. In the Hood River subbasin, the Warm Springs Tribe completed and dedicated its Parkdale Fash Facility. It releases spring chinook and steelhead from several trapping and acclimation sites. The new Yakama Hatchery at Cle Elum released its first spring chinook into the Yakima River last year. The Yakama Tribe continued the re-introduction of coho in the Yakima River. Because of the work of the Nez Perce Tribe, fall chinook and coho are being released from sites on the Snake and Clearwater rivers. The Umatilla's hatchery complex continued chinook, coho, and steelhead releases in the Umatilla River.

The tribes completed more juvenile acclimation and release facilities in a variety of ceded-area watersheds. The Yakama Tribe finished facilities on the Klickitat, Wenatchee, and Yakima Rivers. The Umatilla Tribe completed another juvenile acclimation and release facility on the Umatilla River near Pendleton. On the Walla Walla River, the Umatilla tribe installed new ladders and screens to re-create passage for migrating salmon at Burlingame Dam and Canal. The tribe also completed acclimation and juvenile release facilities in the upper Grande Ronde and at Catherine Creek. The Nez Perce Tribe completed similar facilities on the Lostine River, which is also in the Grande Ronde subbasin. Acclimation and release facilities allow young salmon to adjust to natural stream conditions and imprint the location in their sensory memories before they start their downstream journey to the ocean. These salmon will return as adults to spawn naturally in the stream or river where they were released.

Maybe the biggest news in salmon production was the northwest Power Planning Council's decision to approve the Nez Perce Tribal Fish Hatchery, a facility the tribe proposed, planned, and advocated for more than 13 years before the December 1999 decision. The tribe will construct incubation and rearing facilities near Cherry Lane on the lower Clearwater River. The Cherry Lane hatchery and as many as 11 satellite trapping, acclimation, and release facilities will assist in rebuilding wild spring and fall chinook and coho. With the help of Bonneville Power Administration mitigation funds, the tribe also acquired hatchery facilities, land, and water rights at Sweetwater Springs hatchery, which will be one of the largest satellites of the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery.

1999 was an especially good year for Columbia River fall chinook. By the end of October, some 242,000 fall chinook had passed Bonneville Dam, which amounts to 136 percent of the past 10-year average. The strong fall chinook run included some 6,500 Snake River fall chinook, with counts at Snake River dams well above the 10-year average. For example, at Ice Harbor Dam, the count was 180 percent of the 10-year average.

With this relative abundance, tribal and non-tribal fishers had a better than usual harvest. Tribal catch totaled over 76,000 chinook, 4,000 coho, and nearly 16,000 summer steelhead. The fall season harvest took fewer of the listed Snake River fall chinook than anticipated. The wild portion of the Snake River run is listed under the Endangered Species Act.

The Nez Perce Hatchery Program contributed to this strong return of Snake River chinook. Since 1994, the Nez Perce have borrowed rearing space from federal and state hatcheries and subsequently released millions of juvenile chinook into the Clearwater and Snake basins. Some of these fish are now beginning to return.

The tribs' vision and tenacity are paying off in other ways, too. The array of tribal restoration projects has also strengthened the connection between salmon and the people. When the Yakama Tribe returned water to a side channel of Toppenish Creek and replanted vegetation alongs the banks, tall, lush stands of native tule (hard-stemmed bulrush or Scirpus acutus), quickly re-established themselves. For generations, tules were woven into mats for house and floor coverings among other uses. Tule mats will have use today; in fact, they are required in the proper burial of the deceased.