At the June 10, 2011 request of the Council, the ISRP reviewed a revised proposal for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s project, Grande Ronde Spring Chinook on Lostine/Catherine Creek/ Upper Grande Ronde Rivers (199800704). As described in the proposal, "The purpose of this proposal is to integrate Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) efforts with the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan (LSRCP) in the Grande Ronde subbasin program utilizing Lookingglass Hatchery as the primary rearing facility. These integrated efforts focus on holding and spawning adults, rearing juveniles, fish health, and monitoring natural production (redd counts) for Catherine Creek, Lostine River, and Upper Grande Ronde stocks."
This is the third review iteration for this proposal. The ISRP reviewed the original proposal and requested a response as part of the Council’s RME and Artificial Production Categorical Review. A response was provided, and the ISRP released a review of the response in February 2011 (ISRP 2011-3). In that review, the ISRP asked for more information to justify the project. Subsequently, the proposal was revised and provided for the ISRP’s review.
The ISRP recommends that the proposal meets scientific review criteria with three qualifications that the co-managers of the spring Chinook production projects in the Grande Ronde subbasin funded through the LSRCP and the Fish and Wildlife Program need to address by the next project review: (1) develop an experimental design to evaluate whether supplementation is providing an increase in natural-origin adults in treatment streams, (2) develop a design to evaluate whether there is a "cost" to population productivity from supplementation, including the evaluation of possible density-dependent effects, and (3) develop a decision framework to guide efforts to recover these populations and to develop alternative strategies if supplementation is not working in order to provide fish for harvest obligations.
See the attached memo for details.
