Lake Roosevelt Administrative History

Mitigation for the Loss of the Salmon Fishery

The most important development for the Lake Roosevelt fishery in the 1970s was initiated by the CCT and the STI as a result of the 1974 Solicitor's Opinion and the Senate Appropriations Committee directing the Secretaries of the Army and of the Interior to discuss with the tribes their interest in production of power from Grand Coulee Dam. In 1976, the CCT and STI stated that the destruction of the anadromous fishery and other sport fishing as a result of the construction of Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams should be compensated by power revenues or by new hatchery facilities. The tribes noted that the federal government built a number of fish hatcheries to aid the anadromous fisheries but had taken only token steps to replace the inland (upper Columbia River) fisheries destroyed by dams on the Columbia. In other words, the mitigation occurred downriver for losses that occurred behind the dam. A Spokane/Colville Task Force recommended in 1980 that a fish hatchery be built on the Colville Reservation and turned over to the tribes to manage, but Congress did not fund this. [34]

In March 1976, the CCT and the STI recommended to Congress the initiation of a four-year comprehensive study of the fish and wildlife resources of Lake Roosevelt. They proposed compiling all existing information, conducting comprehensive fishery evaluations, and determining the best management programs based on the findings. In September, a committee of representatives of a number of agencies, including the Park Service, was formed to determine the merit and scope of such a study. In the end, Reclamation funded a study conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during the years 1980-1983. An Interagency Technical Committee that included the Park Service was formed to make recommendations on managing the fishery. LARO staff felt that the resulting fishery management plan would provide a basis for planning recreational developments in the NRA. [35]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service study found that the fishery could be improved by keeping water levels in April and May as high as possible to maximize water retention time (the time it takes a particle of water to travel from the upstream to the downstream end of the lake) and minimize bottom sediment exposure. In addition, keeping maximum water level elevation three to four meters below full pool every other year would allow terrestrial vegetation to establish in the freeboard zone. The authors recommended waiting to establish kokanee salmon or rainbow trout populations until completion of an evaluation of the effects of reduced creel and minimum size limits on walleye and new water management practices. They cautioned that the new water budget (enacted in 1984) that required hydropower operators to provide increased flows from April 15 to June 15 to improve downstream passage of juvenile salmonids could result in fewer nutrients available in Lake Roosevelt and lower reproductive success of yellow perch, the main forage for walleye. [36]

The study also determined that kokanee were the best suited for coexisting with walleye. The recommendation to provide a dual kokanee/walleye fishery was repeated in several subsequent studies. For example, the authors of a 1986 study recommended improving the fishery by introducing kokanee in the Kettle River, improving habitat and spawning channels, building a hatchery, or rearing in net pens. They emphasized that artificial reproduction should be started soon, rather than waiting to see the effects of new harvest regulations on walleye and new water management practices. Establishing a kokanee fishery in the lake had the additional potential advantage of increasing bald eagle and osprey use of the reservoir. [37]

The Northwest Power Act of 1980 created the Northwest Power Planning Council (NPPC), which was charged with developing a program to protect, mitigate, and enhance Columbia Basin fish and wildlife. This provided a funding mechanism for the desired hatcheries. In consideration of comments from the Park Service and others, the NPPC amended its mitigation goals to allow improvements to the resident fishery of areas such as Lake Roosevelt, where reestablishment of anadromous fish would be impractical as mitigation for the loss of this fishery caused by the construction of Grand Coulee Dam. [38]

The Lake Roosevelt fishery enhancement amendment proposal contained measures to develop a kokanee fishery through hatchery supplementation, improve existing rainbow trout spawning and rearing habitat, and establish a fishery monitoring program. The Park Service, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Upper Columbia United Tribes (four tribes) sponsored the proposal. It was designed to increase harvest opportunities and develop resident fisheries adapted to the altered ecosystems above Grand Coulee Dam. After public review, the NPPC accepted the amendment proposal in 1987. The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) provided funding for two kokanee salmon hatcheries, one at Galbraith Springs managed by the STI and one at Sherman Creek managed by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. [39]

The changes in the annual drawdown regime since 1968 had dramatically reduced the kokanee population by exposing their spawning areas. The water retention time was also reduced, leading to increased losses due to the drawing of young fish through the dam. In 1988 and 1989, kokanee composed only about 1 percent of the gillnet catch. Yellow perch also declined because of increased reservoir fluctuations. Since both kokanee and yellow perch are a food source for walleye, their decline limited the walleye fishery. [40]

The regular stocking of Lake Roosevelt based on the fishery enhancement amendment began in 1988, before the two hatcheries were completed in the early 1990s. These hatcheries stock both Lake Roosevelt and Banks Lake with kokanee and provide rainbow trout for the Lake Roosevelt net-pen program. They were expected to release up to six million kokanee into the lake each year when operating at full capacity. Harvest rates of kokanee and rainbow trout soared from about 3,000 fish per year in 1980-1982 to over 130,000 fish in 1992. [42]

The BPA funded a monitoring program as part of the resident fisheries enhancement project that evaluates hatchery effectiveness. The monitoring includes year-round creel surveys; assessment of kokanee, rainbow, and walleye feeding habits; and a mark-and-recapture study of release locations of hatchery-raised fish. The monitoring program is conducted by several tribes, Eastern Washington University, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. [43]

The hatchery program is generally considered successful, but many may agree with Mike Someday, head of the CCT fish and wildlife committee. He commented that although the tribes appreciate the new hatchery, "If we had our druthers, there would be no dams. We'd rather have salmon than resident trout." [44]

One aspect of the fisheries enhancement program conducted by the tribes and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is the Lake Roosevelt Rainbow Trout Habitat/Passage Improvement Project, which aims to increase the natural production of rainbow trout in tributaries to Lake Roosevelt through habitat and fish passage improvements in the tributaries. The first two phases of this project were completed in 1992 and 1995, and phase three was scheduled to end in 2000. [45]

The NPPC established the water budget as one aspect of its program to protect Columbia River fish and wildlife. The water budget is a block of water released from reservoirs that flushes anadromous fish downriver in the spring, imitating the natural spring runoff that has ended because of numerous dams. LARO, in comments made to the NPPC in 1985 and subsequent years, expressed concern that spring water budget releases from Lake Roosevelt might conflict with the spawning needs of reservoir walleye. [46]

Both the net-pen and hatchery programs suffered setbacks due to entrainment of fish over the dam. Lower water retention times lead to increased flow rates and increased entrainment, plus decreased lake productivity. Since 1984, three million acre-feet of Lake Roosevelt water has been dedicated each year to spring and early summer salmon flushes, depending on yearly water conditions. When Snake River chinook, sockeye, and coho salmon were added to the Endangered Species list in 1991-1992, an additional 3.5 million acre-feet were dedicated to the flushing project. This meant in practice that as much as ten feet of water could be drafted from Lake Roosevelt, mostly in August, to augment flows for downstream fisheries. The tribes, the Park Service, and others were concerned that the impacts of this decision on resident fish of Lake Roosevelt were not being considered. The Natural Resources Committee of the Lake Roosevelt Forum, a group of governmental and private entities and individuals interested in the management of Lake Roosevelt, agreed that thirty days was the minimum water retention time needed to maintain viable populations of zooplankton for Lake Roosevelt fish to eat. The water retention time has increased slightly since 1991, reaching an average of forty days, due to an increased awareness of its importance to reservoir ecology. The BPA funded a study in 1997 to determine methods to prevent entrainment. [47]

LARO Superintendent Gerald Tays submitted comments to the NPPC on proposed amendments to the Resident Fish and Wildlife provisions in 1995. He suggested establishing firm water retention time standards and reservoir elevations for Lake Roosevelt; installing screens at water diversions to prevent resident fish from being transported to agricultural areas; coordinating watershed planning efforts; and coordinating a study sponsored by the five signatory parties of the 1990 Multi-Party Agreement to assess the feasibility of vegetative plantings to enhance the production of several resident game fish species. Tays wrote this letter in support of larger regional concerns of various tribes in Washington and Oregon. [48]

Fisheries biologists have raised several concerns about the hatchery program on Lake Roosevelt. These included disease, impacts on other species, and the genetic impacts of hatchery-raised fish on wild stocks. Because it was found that releases of yearlings did better than releases of fry, in 1995 the hatcheries began to shift from producing fry to yearlings. Fishermen are currently allowed to keep two kokanee (either hatchery or wild). [49]