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The Nez
Perce Tribe has combined traditional knowledge with state-of-the-art science
to create an innovative hatchery in the heart of their reservation
by
Jeremy FiveCrows, CRITFC
 The
new Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery near Cherrylane, Idaho, is an elegant
blend of state-of-the-art science and traditional tribal culture.
The teepees pitched at the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery are the
first sign that this isn't an ordinary salmon facility. There isn't
a straight concrete rearing pond in sight; instead, you find ponds
that mimic the swift Idaho rivers and streams that flow throughout
the Nez Perce reservation. The ponds are just one part of this state-of-the-art
facility that embodies the once-radical idea that hatcheries can be
used to restore naturally reproducing salmon in the wild. While this
idea seems more like common sense than a radical innovation, it has
taken the Nez Perce Tribe more than 25 years to convince federal agencies
that it was feasible and worth funding. Now that it is finished, the
true test of the idea has begun. This fall, 600,000 fall chinook salmon
smolts will start their lives at this hatchery. After a quarter century
of waiting, the Nez Perce are anxious to get underway.
Back in 1976, the Nez Perce Tribe first expressed its desire for a
hatchery that would serve to restore salmon rather than provide fish
for harvest. During the next 25 years, its goal has had a circuitous
existence. Before this, almost all the hatcheries built in the Columbia
Basin were below Bonneville Dam and provided salmon for harvest. While
benefiting ocean fisheries and the lower Columbia, these hatcheries
did nothing to rebuild salmon in Idaho's rivers and streams. For a
meaningful rebuilding of the salmon stocks in Idaho to take place,
they knew they needed a hatchery in Idaho.
Once federal agencies decided to study the feasibility of a new hatchery
in Idaho, the planning took on a life of its own. One study after
another was ordered and funding was continually deferred year after
year. At one time, the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery even had the distinction
of dueling independent scientists, as the Independent Science Review
Panel lost track of who was reviewing the measure. Requirements and
studies were continually added during the entire study period, each
one performed in the hope that it would finally convince the funding
agencies that their project was worthwhile.
 Tribal
drummers and color guard, lead by Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee
member Wilfred Scott, open the hatchery dedication ceremony.
Despite all these years and all these setbacks, the hatchery
goal never changed. What did change, though, was the science and technology
of hatcheries. "This hatchery evolved over the years to fit the
changing views of science and move from traditional hatchery practices
to the more state-of-the-art views of supplementation techniques,"
says Bonneville Power Administration administrator Steve Wright. "Leadership
at the tribe led the science development, focusing on the concept
of gravel-to-gravel management." With the constant demands for
further studies and requirements, the Nez Perce were able to fine-tune
the details of their hatchery program. FishPro, a fisheries and aquatic
engineering firm, was asked to design a hatchery that incorporated
their NATURES (NATUral Rearing Enhancement System) technique of mimicking
a natural river system for the juvenile salmon. This was an entirely
new method--and largely untested, but seeing the successes that the
Yakama Nation was having at its Cle Elum Hatchery using mimicking
techniques, the Nez Perce decided to go one step further.
Salmon develop camouflage similar to their surroundings; wild juvenile
salmon, raised in streambeds, are much more difficult to spot by predators
than hatchery-reared salmon with no markings. The Cle Elum facility
features rearing pond walls painted in a camouflage pattern and floating
camouflage on the water's surface. The result was much more variegated
markings, which allowed these hatchery-reared fish to blend into the
rivers and streams when it was time to be released.
If mimicking the streambed benefits the juvenile salmon, why not try
and mimic an entire stream in the controlled hatchery environment?
"This idea of a natural rearing pond is confirmed by Nez Perce
culture and its understanding of the needs of the salmon," says
Ed Larson, production manager for the Nez Perce Fisheries Department.
Instead of the straight, concrete pens where salmon are raised in
most hatcheries, the architects took a lesson from nature. Now, deep
in the Clearwater River valley, this "cultural science"
is ready for a trial run.
 "We
will treat these fish with the respect they deserve," says Dave
Johnson, Nez Perce Tribe Fisheries Department manager. On October
9, 2002, after more than 20 years of work and built with a budget
that had been cut in half, the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery at Cherrylane,
Idaho, was officially dedicated. Several hundred tribal members, elected
officials, representatives from state and federal agencies, and other
well wishers finally toured the hatchery that had taken so many years
to complete. Many of the fisheries staff and fish and wildlife commissioners
acted as proud guides, showing visitors all the features of the facility.
"Today isn't the end of our journey, it's the first day on the
long journey back to restoration," declared Nez Perce Tribal
Executive Committee Chairman Sam Penney. "This facility is for
the entire region--for the tribe, for non-Indians, for sports fishermen,
for environmentalists, for conservationists. Its one purpose is to
bring back wild salmon to the Northwest." What strikes many is
how different this hatchery is from any they had ever seen before.
Today, teepees stand between the S-shaped ponds; they remind the visitors
that this is a tribal project and a tribal effort. They won't be there
for long, however; soon they will give way to native trees and shrubs.
"Hatchery workers are going to be busy planting trees and grass
for the first few years," says Larson. "We didn't have the
budget to pay for landscaping, so we'll do it ourselves." The
plants are just one part of these unique ponds. The broad ponds have
river rock bottoms where aquatic insects and plants are encouraged
to grow. Distinct water currents create swift and slow areas within
the pens, acclimating the young fish to a life in a flowing river.
"Our fish will, in a sense, undergo marathon training,"
says Larson. The trees and shrubs that will soon be planted will mimic
a healthy riparian area next to a stream. Sunken logs in the ponds
give the smolts hiding places, which they will definitely need, as
these fish won't be protected from predators like kingfishers or mergansers.
This will hopefully teach them to avoid predators when they're on
their own. The overall design attempts to prepare the juvenile salmon
as much as possible to live in the wild. "We took our lead from
Mother Nature," explains former Nez Perce fisheries manager Jaime
Pinkham.
The Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery is just one part of the Nez Perce Tribe's
supplementation efforts to restore salmon to the Clearwater River
Basin. It also will be releasing salmon into the wild throughout the
Clearwater River Basin. The fish will imprint on natural stream water
so they will return to that location to spawn. The sites were selected
based on habitat that can support spring or fall chinook and are in
areas where tribal fishing traditionally occurred. These sites are
shown in the map above.
Why all the attention on training these juvenile salmon to
live in the wild? There are two reasons. The first is that salmon
that know how to avoid the dangers in the open river are much more
likely to survive their trip to the ocean. "When hatchery fish
are released, they often experience tremendous mortality rates, some
as high as 50 percent within a few hours," Larson says. Former
Nez Perce Fisheries manager Silas Wittman explains, "The fish
that come out of traditional hatcheries are like shiny nickels when
they're released into the river. They've never seen a predator in
their life, they have no camouflage, and they've been trained to only
eat from the water's surface." The Nez Perce hope they can increase
the number of smolts that reach the ocean, and in turn increase the
number of returning adult salmon. The second reason to put such an
emphasis on mimicking the natural environment is to minimize any differences
they might have with their wild cousins. This becomes important because
the salmon that are reared in the Nez Perce Hatchery are not expected
to return; rather, they are expected to spawn in the various rivers
and streams throughout the Clearwater River basin where they are outplanted.
Chairman Penney explains, "Our goal is simply not to rebuild
depleted stocks for harvest--it is to reintroduce enough returning
adult salmon spawning in the natural environment to create a self-sustaining
population here in the Clearwater River Basin." This is perhaps
the most controversial aspect of the new facility, although the Nez
Perce see it as the only way to restore a sustainable population of
salmon in Idaho. They would like their hatchery to one day be unnecessary.
The true test of this hatchery will be in five to 10 years, when salmon
are returning to the Clearwater Basin and spawning naturally in the
rivers. There is much work left to do, but the Nez Perce feel it is
their duty to accomplish it. "We will treat these fish with the
respect they deserve," says Dave Johnson, Nez Perce Tribe Fisheries
Department manager. "They are not ours to do with what we will.
Rather, they are a part of us; they share our world."
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