Lake Roosevelt Administrative History

Net-Pen Program

Lake Roosevelt's net-pen trout rearing program began in 1984. Win Self, owner of Seven Bays Resort, started the program after he was advised to establish and document hatchery-raised fish survival and normal growth patterns to aid in his campaign for a fish hatchery on the lake. This was the first time a net-pen program had been established in a part of Washington where winter ice was a factor, although it had been successful in western Washington. Self raised fingerling rainbow trout, supplied by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, in the bay at Seven Bays Resort. The fingerlings were put in the pens in October and were released into the lake at catchable size in May or June. By 1986, 80 percent of the rainbow trout caught within ten miles of the resort had been reared in net pens. The idea caught on, and by 1989, a total of fifteen net pens were operating at various places around the lake, some run by LARO concessionaires, totaling about half a million trout per year. Volunteers operating the net pens formed the non-profit Lake Roosevelt Development Association. Because state and federal hatcheries did not have the ability to raise enough fish for the program, space was included in the BPA kokanee hatcheries for raising rainbow trout for the net pens. [50]

By 1988, the CCT was requiring each of its concessionaires to participate in the net-pen program. LARO's staff began to schedule interpretive programs at the Kettle Falls net-pen facility. The net-pen program resulted in a dramatic increase in the rainbow trout fishery throughout much of Lake Roosevelt. By 1996, net-pen rainbow trout accounted for roughly 40 percent of the fish in Lake Roosevelt. [51]

Volunteer efforts for operating the net pens were flagging by 1994, however, and funding for the net-pen program had become a problem. In 1995, the BPA partially funded the program as mitigation for the loss of anadromous fish species as a Resident Fish Substitution Project. The BPA paid for a coordinator, through the Lake Roosevelt Forum, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife provided fish feed. By 1999, forty-five net pens located on the lake between Keller Ferry and Kettle Falls were raising both rainbow trout and kokanee salmon for release into the lake. [52]

LARO Management of the Fishery, 1980s and 1990s

Most fisheries management activities on Lake Roosevelt are developed and administered by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the CCT, and the STI. Park Service staff provide support for native and introduced fisheries projects through monitoring, enforcement, interpretation, consultation, and logistical support for research activities. In short, the Park Service serves as an advocate for the resident fishery and for the interests of recreational fishing on Lake Roosevelt. LARO's efforts have often been limited, however, by the lack of Park Service funding for fisheries management research.

White sturgeon are native to Lake Roosevelt, and as the pressure on these fish has increased, so has LARO's interest in understanding and managing this particular fishery. Kettle Falls district personnel in 1984 began informal surveys of the sturgeon fishery, calculating the angler time required to catch one fish. Sturgeon fishing was growing on the lake because of little enforcement of sturgeon fishing regulations by the state and the thrill of landing a large fish. Local experienced fishermen concentrated on the waters north of Marcus Island. Poaching of sturgeon was a concern by the late 1980s, and LARO began advocating a reduced limit of one sturgeon per season. The LARO surveys found that in 1985-1987 it took an average of 167 hours to catch one sturgeon that was kept. Today, Lake Roosevelt sturgeon are catch-and-release only. [53]

In 1985 and subsequent years, LARO submitted requests for funding for a baseline study of Lake Roosevelt white sturgeon. In the late 1990s, the BPA funded a study on the sturgeon population of Lake Roosevelt that was conducted by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the STI, and the CCT. The sturgeon were found to be concentrated primarily in the Kettle Falls and Marcus Island areas and to be composed primarily of adults. [54]

A fishery management plan for LARO itself has not been prepared. Park management and the Resource Management staff do not believe it is a high priority due to the CCT and STI's extensive fishery management program funded by BPA. The tribes' emphasis on native species, where feasible, is compatible with Park Service policy. [55]