At the Council’s July 24, 2012 request, the ISRP conducted a Step Two review of the Yakama Nation’s Klickitat River Anadromous Fisheries Master Plan (project 1988-115-35) and supporting documents. The Yakama Nation proposes to improve the existing Klickitat Hatchery near Glenwood, Washington and build a hatchery and acclimation facility at Wahkiacus at river mile 17. These proposed actions are intended to build upon completed project activities including improvements made to the Lyle Falls Fishway and broodstock collection facility as well as the Castile Falls Fishway and escapement monitoring facility. The facilities are intended to support programs for spring Chinook, fall Chinook, steelhead, and coho. The Yakama Nation believes that the location of the Wahkiacus facility will allow release of hatchery coho and fall Chinook to the lower river and thus limit adverse impacts to native fish species. In addition, a potential acclimation site for summer steelhead has been identified for McCreedy Creek, but the Yakama Nation states that these facilities will be built only if steelhead are unable to naturally re-colonize stream habitat above Castile Falls. In addition, the Master Plan explains that habitat improvements occurring in conjunction with the proposed project are expected to benefit bull trout and Pacific lamprey as well as steelhead and spring Chinook.
The ISRP completed its Step One review of the Klickitat Master Plan in 2008 (ISRP 2008-6; also see ISRP 2005-7). Overall, the ISRP found that the 2008 Master Plan was a well-balanced, relatively thorough plan that included a number of progressive and positive attributes. The ISRP recommended that the Master Plan met ISRP scientific review and Three-Step review criteria with a qualification that elements of the steelhead and spring Chinook natural and artificial production plans need a more detailed explanation.
In the Council’s decision memo on Step One (Letter from Tony Grover, Council, to Bill Maslen, BPA, August 15, 2008), the Council identified the following items from the ISRP’s review that needed to be addressed in Step Two:
1. A decision tree that would function as a tool to guide management actions based on monitored results and actions
2. Detail regarding steelhead recruit analysis and harvest
3. Detail regarding the determination of spring Chinook release sizes, recruits-per-spawner, and harvest
4. Information regarding balancing broodstock collection, hatchery smolt yield, and anticipated SAR with the harvest and stock conservation
5. Summary and synthesis of ecological benefits
6. Confirmation of study design and statistical validation of tagging rates and tag recovery
7. Information addressing the conditions of termination of supplementation above Castile Falls should also be outlined in the requested "decision tree"
The ISRP reviewed the Yakama Nation’s Step Two submittal and requests a response. Specifically, the ISRP found that qualifications identified in the 2008 Step 1 review were not sufficiently addressed. In order to complete Step 2, the ISRP recommends that responses are needed to further address the 2008 qualifications and to provide specific information related to three production components in the Master Plan. These production components are (1) Segregated Steelhead Harvest Program, (2) Integrated Steelhead Supplementation/Conservation Program, and (3) Integrated Spring Chinook Harvest Program.
