Values of Fish Hatcheries
Columbia River Basin
Interviewee
Ralph Steiner
Rapid River Fish Hatchery – Idaho Fish and Game
Interviewers
Barbara Folger
NWNL Snake Basin Expedition Member, Photographer
ZOOM meeting from Riggins, Idaho, on May 17, 2014
Introductory Note
The Wild and Scenic Rapid River with its high canyon walls is a roadless area including the Little Salmon River system and Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. Per the Treaty of 1855, this watershed was historically ceded to the Nez Perce Tribe with “the exclusive right of taking fish in all the streams….”
Nez Perce tribal members continue to share stories and the tradition of dip netting for fish on the Rapid River. [Dip netting involves using a bag net with a handle to scoop fish from the water.] They continue their traditional fishing practices to protect their right to fish at their “usual and accustomed places.”
Dotted with prehistoric sites, old mining sites and deserted homesteads, the steeply-graded Rapid River Basin is dedicated “critical habitat” for three listed fish: spring/summer Chinook salmon, steelhead, and bull trout – and also the Columbia spotted frog.
Outline
RAPID RIVER’S DRAMATIC LANDSCAPE
RAPID RIVER HATCHERY
CONTROLLING RIVER FLOWS for FISH
PURPOSE OF RAPID RIVER HATCHERY
HATCHERY ROLE of INCUBATION & TAGGING
PROCESSES for HARVESTED EGGS
HATCHERY MAINTENANCE of “RAPID RIVER FISH”
WEATHER IMPACTS ON FISH
A “TO-DO” WISH LIST
EDUCATION & COMMUNICATIONS
A WHOLE-ECOSYSTEM FOCUS
LICENSING & FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS
ADULT SALMON SUPPORT
Key Quotes The ceremonial and religious importance of salmon to the Northwest is partly because it was a time to come together, celebrate and harvest fish together. This region is not an “I’m going to go out to be by myself in my country” kind of fishery. It never has been. — Ralph Steiner
Our message is that we’re all in this together and our efforts support our Northwest community and the US at large. Our shortcoming is that we’ve not done enough to explain we’re not here just because people like to go fishing…. This facility has a beneficial value that is as critical as our water quality. — Ralph Steiner
All images © Alison M. Jones, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
RAPID RIVER’S DRAMATIC LANDSCAPE
NWNL How many fish from the Rapid River system do you have at this facility?
RALPH STEINER While the Rapid River’s drainage goes up to 11,000 feet, we trap adult fish from up to a 2400’ elevation. Houses come up to a 2188’ elevation. The Rapid River’s raceways are at about 2100’ and. This mountain is the very bottom “toe” of Cannonball Mountain. [ED Note: Cannonball Mountain is northeast of Fairfield, Idaho and south of Liberal Mountain.]
You can’t really see the top because it goes up by step. Just beyond is the Seven Devils Mountains where there is a Recreational Area. A 17-mile drive on Highway 95 goes to the top to an overlook of Hells Canyon. That portion of Hells Canyon is the deepest canyon in North America – deeper than the Grand Canyon.
NWNL I’ve read it is half a day’s drive into that Recreation Area.
RALPH STEINER No, it’s about 17 miles on a very good gravel road. They run enough logging and other equipment over it to compress it; and they maintain it well. It goes from 1500-2000’ to 9000’ in 17 miles, so they do recommend that your car has a working cooling system; but vehicles don’t require a high clearance. People take their cars up all the time.
NWNL What is the experience like?
RALPH STEINER You pass the Hells Canyon Overlook and Heaven’s Gate Lookout which have views all the way down to the Snake River. As the road rises to 9000-10,000’ you can see Oregon, Idaho, Washington and Montana to the east.
NWNL Montana too? Wow! How often are there clear days? I’ve noticed haze everywhere.
RALPH STEINER Well, with the Seven Devils Mountains here, we often get quite a bit of mixing. In another month, these hills will be brown. They are pretty now; but it will all dry out soon.
NWNL Last night the higher hills were covered in haze.
RALPH STEINER That was probably just air pollution flowing in. You know, the world is encompassed in air pollution. When we have a storm or other weather systems coming through, it mixes. And then, we can have nice clear days like this.
We also have periodic forest fires. Two years ago, a forest fire burned here for 2 months, making it very smoky down here. The Forest Service fights those fires in some places, but not in others, such as when protecting our new meadows. This part of the drainage is very high above timber line, so Forest Service lets that burn back to being a natural ecosystem. Because of the steep nature of this canyon, smoke does come down the canyon.
Since the Rapid River Basin is protected under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, it’s not subject to perturbations like logging and mining. Consequently, the Rapid River provides pretty good water for raising the salmon – most of the time. The drainage goes 20+ miles; and because it’s so long and so steep, we do get the occasionally violent run off. As you drive in and turn up on the highway, you see the snow up high.
NWNL Yes, I’ve heard that.
RALPH STEINER We call that “Green Acres.” When there’s no snow there, you can plant tomatoes. Until there’s no snow, there is a threat of flooding anytime ta thunderstorm comes through. That snow is always going to go by here eventually. We’re just starting to see the “chocolate” peek through the “vanilla” up there. That means we’re starting to see runoff from the high country. And if we get a rainstorm, that high country’s logs, debris and whatnot will all go by our door.
RAPID RIVER HATCHERY
RALPH STEINER You can easily see that our hatchery operates on 100% gravitational flow, and thus we don’t need to use pumps or surface water. This is one of the few facilities that still uses 100% surface water, whereas others use water from wells or springs. So, there are fish in our drains. The number one rule in running fish hatcheries is don’t put fish in your headwaters because of any disease they might have. Yet we have 20-mile range, and so there are fish in our headwaters.
This river goes up and down. It runs up to 100 CFS [cubic feet per second] at best at its January low point. The water we use on our fish goes down to 33º. In the springtime, our flow gets close to 2000 CFS and our peak temperature is just about 60º. So, we have great water for raising fish most of the time — and sometimes not.
CONTROLLING RIVER FLOWS for FISH
RALPH STEINER You can see the river’s a little bit murky. This is a 5-foot-high diversion here that surprised hydraulic heads when they saw we use gravity for water. supplies This type of dam was a popular design in the 1800s. Those tempered aluminum boards go down the slot between the I-beams so we can control water levels in this little pond by adding and subtracting them from these dams. As the river comes up this time of year, we pull the boards out and keep the river in the riverbed.
When high water hits here, depending upon water and temperature, those posts serve as pockets in a concrete sill that crosses there. We’ll remove the posts to allow the logs and whatnot to go by. It’s labor intensive and somewhat dangerous when we’re out there, so we must be careful. We use a big hook to pull and replace those stop logs — and that’s probably the single most dangerous thing that we do here. We try to keep anyone from being out there alone and rely on the experience of people who work here to keep us safe out there. I wouldn’t want to be pulling one of those and have a log come down the stream at a high velocity.
NWNL How large are those “stop logs”?
RALPH STEINER The “stop logs” are 3”x 6”x 5’ long. After being in the water for a year, they’re waterlogged and heavy. The hooks we use on them are 30 pounds apiece. So, it takes upper body strength and practice to get them in and out. Pulling and replacing those posts is even worse and requires skill and practice with 2000 CFS of water passing over it. It’s a challenge.
On the other side is a fish ladder that runs 24/7/365 so that any fish that comes up this river can go around the dam. Every year we put radio tags in some of the fish. They don’t even slow down when they go by this dam. We then release them in our fish trap that’s a mile and a half downstream from here. The next day they’re up in the drainage.
NWNL How do they know to do that?
RALPH STEINER It’s their job! We don’t buy them TVs, so they got nothing better to do! They go up that little channel off to the side and just ride around this dam. At this time of the year, a steelhead or a salmon – the big migratory fish – can swim up that stream of water that’s coming out of the dam. But when the water’s lower and that’s more of a waterfall off our dam, they just go right around.
NWNL That’s interesting!
RALPH STEINER This is part of a diversion designed to keep residents and small fish fry from ending up in our hatchery. They either go down that pipe or they get into this wedge water filter. The bypass for the pipe at the bottom that you can’t see is where that water becomes diluted. The concept is that leaves, pine needles and resident fish come out right below the dam.
We have big logs that come down the river that are 50-60 feet long and as big around as a truck tire. Sometimes they come down in fleets. The big trash rack here is to keep big debris in the river. For employee safety, we put in rails so nobody falls in. The safety issue is the whitewater and the boards.
RALPH STEINER We’re part of the Greater Metropolitan area of Riggins (population, 430) people. . But out here, we’re kind of in the fringe. Idaho Power is very proud of the parks they own and maintain for public use.
Fish and Game operates this facility. It was put here in response to the construction of Brownlee, Oxbow and Hells Canyon Dams. When this a 3-dam complex was built, there were 900 feet, plus vertical feet, between the three dams. Fish cannot negotiate that; and there are no fish ladders since, at that time, there was no technology to build them.
NWNL There’s probably no technology to build a lock that big either.
RALPH STEINER Exactly. The original plan was to truck them around the dams, but that never worked well. So, Idaho Power was required by the Federal Energy Commission to mitigate for the loss of those fish runs. The final historical barrier to anadromous or migratory fish in the Snake River was Shoshone Falls and Twin Falls – a long way upstream from Hells Canyon. Having migratory fish runs go that far means that the major river systems – the Boise, Owyhee, Weiser, Payette and other large river systems – used to have migratory fish in them. With the construction of the three-dam complex, those runs were effectively eliminated.
PURPOSE OF RAPID RIVER HATCHERY
FERC is required to transplant that run of fish to the Salmon River which doesn’t have any dams. That’s what this facility is for. The distinction in what we do here in Fish and Game is that we have two tribes with a 2-pronged fishery program. We have are resident fish which are catchable trout Fish and Game raises in their hatchery system and put out for fishermen. The other aspect of our hatchery system addresses the anadromous patterns of migratory steelhead and Chinook salmon.
We have a 2-pronged emphasis on endangered migratory fish being propagated in hatcheries to save them from extinction. It is basically a Noah’s Arc-like effort to keep them from disappearing. Our sockeye conservation program is designed to replace a fish that has disappeared. It’s been very successful beginning with very few numbers of fish reared artificially in captivity and released – producing a few more every year. It has been a laboratory system since there were so few. But now they’re on the cusp of having a production hatchery working itself out of business as its fish are reintroduced into the wild. That was the goal.
The other type of facility is a mitigation facility to replace a fish that’s gone. The fish we produce here are for fishermen. We’re not trying to work ourselves out of business by being successful – instead we’re here in perpetuity to replace a run of lost fish. Based on the FEC requirement, our mitigation target is to annually produce 300 million fish for release here. It takes 2400 adults to produce eggs to yield the 300 million released each year.
NWNL It’s amazing that 2400 hatcher adult fish allows you to release 300 million fish through incubation!
HATCHERY ROLE of INCUBATION & TAGGING
RALPH STEINER Idaho Fish and Game is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, and this facility is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The hatchery was built in 1964 by Idaho Power Company. Our incubation room is gravity-fed water from the river.as water is pumped in here to overcome the head. That’s the only pumping that we do, and it only occurs when we have eggs in here. There are 832 trays with 1 female’s worth of eggs in each tray. We segregate them pending disease analysis.
Our new parental-based tagging uses genetic analysis of every cross so we can work ourselves out of the marking business. With records of genetic information from every cross, we can find that fish anywhere in the world, take a genetic sample and trace it back to its parental group. We can know what hatchery and what incubation tray a fish is has come from. We can find that information for any fish anywhere in the world,. That will reduce the need for marking procedures that we’ve done.
NWNL What kinds of markings do you do?
RALPH STEINER We put in pit tags that look like a cold capsule. It’s glass – like a passive-induced transponder – so it doesn’t do anything until you stimulate it with a reader. When read, it returns a 12-digit number. We put about 52,000 of those in every year in our 3 million fish released for a comparative survival program. CSS is the name of these comparative survival studies. We also put in about 120,000 coded survivor tags. These are stainless-steel wire as wide as a human hair and two millimeters long. A code is laser cut in a series of notches that are a repeating pattern. The whole pattern is contained within 2 millimeters. They are embedded in the fish, for attribution of hatcheries, ocean fisheries, and such. Every fish that now comes out of our hatchery has an adipose fin clip to distinguish it from wild fish that makes them visible to the fisheries.
NWNL How do you recover the chips and wire markings?
RALPH STEINER The pit tag doesn’t need to be recovered. It looks like a metal detector and can be read with a wand. Those detectors are in all the dams with the fish ladders. Their ID numbers are read those as they go over fish ladders at the 8 dams on the Lower Snake and Columbia Rivers.
For a long time, we’ve been putting in 52 thousand a year. That’s how we estimate how many fish are coming back. The coded wire tags that are metal detectors read are embedded in the snout of the fish when they’re little. When they come back as a big fish we keep them for our brood stock. So, the coded wire tags are a cheap way to mark fish.
We’ve been doing this for about 3 years. Now that data is out there and stored for the basin. Those fish can be found anywhere. All it takes is a little genetic sample to find out where that fish came from. The computers that do that and the genome work being done is gets better and better every year. Information comes back faster and gets cheaper all the time.
PROCESSES for HARVESTED EGGS
NWNL When you do the harvesting, do you use chemicals on the eggs to prevent pathogens from getting into the water?
RALPH STEINER The incubation system we use makes us prone to a fungus that is ubiquitous in the system and will infest these eggs. So, we are allowed to drip a small amount of formaldehyde on them 3 times a week to prevent fungus from forming. The cutting edge for stopping fungus is dry incubation with a mister – like misters that keep patios cool. We’re working towards that, but we’re not there yet.
NWNL Will you be able to eliminate formaldehyde, since it’s carcinogenic?
RALPH STEINER The concentrations we use are very low, per our discharge permit. We’re heavily regulated, limited and scrutinized by EPA. There is also fish waste and waste from feed to deal with. We sample for total suspended solids and for phosphorus – a byproduct of too much feed. Those samples go to EPA per our permit to operate this facility. That process is mirrored by Idaho Department of Environmental Quality [DEQ] to whom we also report. So any chemicals we use must be within EPA and Idaho DEQ guidelines.
NWNL Is your switch to the misting system due to concerns about formaldehyde?
RALPH STEINER Yes, that and general custodianship. When I first started, we used malachite because no one knew malachite is a carcinogen and suspected to be an immunogen. We stopped using malachite and now use formaldehyde, which will be phases out as we study other technologies.
NWNL Do you use antibiotics on the other fish?
RALPH STEINER We have in the past. We gauge survival within the facility from “swim up” – when the eggs come here – to “release.” The eggs stay here until they hatch.
Yet, in the wild, fish eggs are buried in the gravel where – unlike a chicken egg – there’s not enough room in the egg for the embryo to develop. So, baby fish hatch out with their egg yolk, still buried in the gravel. In an incubator, they sit until that egg yolk, which is food for the embryo, is completely absorbed. When the yolk is absorbed, the belly of the fish closes. We call that the “button up.”
When they button up, they become photopositive allowing them to swim to the surface. We call that the “swim up.” They then swim in circles looking for food and go into the raceways next door. From “swim up” to release, the facility used to lose 20 to 30% of the fish. Now we know they had a fungus infection from other diseases that exist in the environment.
New management practices have reduced disease impacts by culling affected eggs. In the last 6-7 years we’ve had over 98% survival. In 30 years, the mortality rate dropped from 30% to under 2%. In the last 5 years, it’s been 1.3%. That lets us do away with chemicals and antibiotics. So, we have less expense and more responsible custodianship over antibiotic practices. Here, we don’t treat with antibiotics unless there’s an outbreak and it’s prescribed by a veterinarian.
Our commercial feed companies understand the cost of production for commercial trout farms and that people don’t want to eat fish with antibiotic residue. So it’s in their best interest to not produce feed laced with antibiotics, and they have gotten away from it.
HATCHERY MAINTENANCE of “RAPID RIVER FISH”
In the last few years, 40% of the fish caught in the Lower Columbia are Rapid River fish from up here. They among the first to re-enter the Columbia River system since our facility is successful in ensuring fish health. Those fish are efficient, so our “returns” are pretty good. A large portion of fish harvested in the Lower Columbia are Rapid River Fish. They too come back upstream over that series of reservoirs and dams – the last being Lower Granite Dam below Lewiston. A significant percentage of our Rapid River Hatchery fish return to Idaho. We specialize in salmon and do it very well. Our “return from release” is as good as anybody’s – as is our survival from here to Lower Granite Dam, even though many facilities are closer to the ocean.
NWNL What is the survival rate at the Lower Granite Dam for those fish from here?
RALPH STEINER Our survival recently is close to 80% by the time they get to Lower Granite Dam. When they come out of the incubation facility, they go to our raceways and stay here. There are three million little fish in the raceways.
Raceways in this kind of fast-flowing river system is a great silt trap. They fill up with two feet of silt if we don’t stay on them all the time. There are 280,000 little white automatic feeders, even though we mostly feed by hand to get a better result. For every pound of feed that we give them, they grow more than a pound.
NWNL Do you control the water temperature?
RALPH STEINER No. Many of the facilities use spring or well water, so they can control it by mixing lake or spring water. We’re 100% gravity, so it’s a natural rearing cycle. Many steelhead programs raise their fish on spring water this is near 60º all year long. Many facilities also release steelhead smolts raised after 1 year. Our fish are on a 2-year rearing cycle, as it would be in the wild. These fish are 3” long when we move them to the big pond in June. We release them the following March, when they are 5” long. That two-year process allows a 5-inch fish to undergo the physiological changes needed to be in saltwater.
The terms “smolts” and “smolting” refer to this physiological change that prepares them for the saltwater challenge. If you think about the kidneys, the fish lives differently in freshwater than in saltwater. Basically, freshwater is more diluted than the body salts of the fish, so they tend to absorb water and then dump it. A saltwater environment is saltier than they are, so they retain their water and dump the salt as the kidney basically reverses itself. That’s why kidney disease was decimating hatcheries. If the kidneys are not up to par, they don’t undergo the saltwater challenge very well. So, since water here goes down to 33º here in winter, it slows them down and they eat very little.
We do feed them a bit in January and December when the ice melts, since they’re cold-blooded animals that don’t hibernate like a frog or a turtle. They still must swim a little bit; and since their basal metabolism is not zero. We still feed them after reading morning water temperatures and adjust daily feeds, if needed, during the entire rearing cycle. The amount is super critical below 40º. Below that, they slow down and that determines how much we feed them. When down to 35-33º, they barely get any feed at all.
NWNL So, it is a benefit this hatchery is outside.
RALPH STEINER The first ones swim up and go on feed the end of December. The final ones are “ponded” in March. Even though spawning lasts for 6 weeks, it takes 3 months due to decreasing water temperatures. By March, they’re all outside. By June, they’ll be 3” long and put into marking units for fin clipping and application of photo wire tags.
NWNL Is this done by hand?
RALPH STEINER Clipping 3 million fish fins used to be done by hand by 8-10 hired local ladies with surgical scissors. Two would cook and the others would clip.
NWNL Three million fish?
RALPH STEINER We’ve only fin-clipped all the fish since the mid ‘90s. Now it’s easier as we have automated marking units with digital imaging and robotics. The fish go in one end of the trailer and are pumped through barriers separating them by length before they go down separate channels. A clamp holds each one as the fin is cut off and wire is put in their nose. They exit the trailer through a pipe and go into the rearing ponds.
NWNL That’s got to be an expensive trailer.
RALPH STEINER Each trailer costs about $1,000,000 each. They still use local ladies and training crews due to the tight window for this job. There are so many fish to be marked and coordinated statewide, that the logistics coordination is an art form. They bought a bus to transport their crews of 80 people whom they put up in motels, feed, and move around the state. Investing a million or two for a marking trailer is cheaper and yields a better-quality mark.
We do monthly quality-control checks on these fish, starting with taking a sample to weigh, measure and check quality of the fin clips. Our automated marking is very efficient and fast. They can check 300 to 500,000 fish a day at this facility. So, we process the whole three million fish in 2-1/2 weeks.
Our release site is in Pinehurst, further south on the Idaho/Adams County line. We annually release 200,000 there. Our designated release sites are prescribed by “US v Oregon,” a document produced by western states, the federal government and tribal associations. Until that document takes effect in 2017, our prescribed release is 2.5 of our 3 million. Two and a half million are released from here is 2.5 million into the Rapid River, 100,000 in Hells Canyon, 50,000 in the Little Salmon River, and successive similar batches in Hells Canyon and in Little Salmon.
NWNL What did the US v Oregon case address?
RALPH STEINER It’s been in place for several years because of disagreement over the biological impacts from the hydro system, survival of the fish and the migration quarter. Those migration quarter issues were approached in a collaborative way by those cooperating in US v Oregon. For our purposes, US v Oregon prescribes where we release our fish and what percentage of those fish allocations.
WEATHER IMPACTS ON FISH
NWNL Beyond your success of released and returning fish, what other aspects do you study?
RALPH STEINER Yes, my work is mostly focused on released young fry, returning anadromous fish and fish passages through the Columbia-Snake Rivers system’s migration corridor. I also observe El Nino displacements of the ocean current that come down the US West Coast from Alaska. El Nino can push the current offshore as a bubble of warm water intrudes from the south and reduces the Pacific’s local upwelling. That impact for us is there’s not as much for the little fish to eat when they get to the ocean. So, El Ninos can have a detrimental effect on our releases to the ocean. We’re just starting to get a handle on those things.
Much occurs in the ocean that scientists are just learning, including what affects fish in the ocean. For instance, how should we read surface water temperatures? When I was in school, we studied and calibrated data from the first Seasat satellites [Earth-orbiting satellites with remote sensing of the Earth’s oceans]. Now we have the satellites that can read ocean temperatures; but they still don’t know how those temperature changes affect fish. We’re just now understanding long-run effects on a global basis and in the Eastern Pacific.
NWNL This year, it’s warming up. Does that affect migration patterns?
RALPH STEINER It certainly is warming; and yes, that causes new migration issues, including heavy rain, big snowpacks, excess water and droughts. The amount and velocity of water impacts condition fish headed to the ocean. They point their nose upstream and backpedal, having evolved in a fast-flowing river system.
As the amount of water goes down, it affects river temperatures. If the water’s too warm, fish on the way out are affected. The adults coming back are affected and change where they go. If there’s a cold-water plume coming in from one river and the fish are headed for another river, it interferes with their ability to go in the direction they need to take. There are a massive conglomeration of variables and we’re just getting a handle on how all that works. There’s still much work to be done.
A “TO-DO” WISH LIST
NWNL You’ve worked with these fish for over 25 years. What do you wish you could have done that hasn’t been done yet?
RALPH STEINER That’s a great question. But first, we’ve made good progress in the last 20 years. Back in the ‘70s, they just wanted fish back and so they didn’t worry about nitpicking data that’s now critical to planning and forecasting fish runs. Fortunately, access to available information for planning has greatly improved in the last 20 years. Now advocacy organizations promote “Wild and Scenic Rivers” and conservation. We are providing the science so decision makers, advocacy groups and planning organizations can make sound decisions. Besides raising fish more efficiently with lower mortality and less, cheaper feed, our data for decision-makers has greatly improved in the last 20 years. Whether migration corridor issues will be resolved, I don’t know. It’s a social inequality issue, not a biological issue.
NWNL But it’s science that’s driven the numbers of returns of salmon, right?
RALPH STEINER We’d like to believe that, but much is luck and ocean climate conditions. If we take credit for a great fish run this year, then we must be responsible when things don’t go well. There is much we don’t understand in ocean climate and migration corridor conditions. We just do the best we can. We have 3 guys working and some temporaries during the year. Idaho Power achieves their 3 million fish mitigation by funding this facility with just 3 full-time employees. That’s a big bang for their buck since the fishery harvests 6,000 returning adults for the sport fishery and another 6000 for the tribes.
NWNL So there are several beneficiaries of the returning fish – ecosystem health, the salmon industry, sport fishing and the tribes.
RALPH STEINER Yes, for 12,000 fish. In another 3 weeks, we’ll be bumper to bumper with little salmon and massive amounts of adult salmon. Every year we throw a party for a few thousand of our friends in the industry, avid fishermen and outdoors people to celebrate. For a millennium, there have been celebrations with a carnival atmosphere when tribal groups that may not have gotten along would set aside their differences to gather at sacred spots to celebrate the returning fish. The ceremonial and religious importance of salmon to the Northwest was honored by these occasions of coming together to celebrate, harvest and appreciate the fish. This region is not an “I’m going to go out to be by myself in my country” kind of fishery. It never has been.
EDUCATION & COMMUNICATIONS
NWNL How do you educate today’s generation about the importance of salmon?
RALPH STEINER It’s a PR thing. As a state agency, we try to spread fisheries information since one of our mandates is education. We bring fish eggs to classroom programs. Jeff has a steelhead facility where he captures steelhead adults, takes the eggs, sends them to the Niagara Springs hatchery near Twin Falls for rearing. Some of those eggs we put in a local high school’s aquarium. Thus, those students are exposed to rearing fish from eggs and then releasing them into the wild. Most kids near here are exposed to raising fish at the fisheries which heightens their interest in those issues. So that dissemination and learned values for the millions of fish in the basin trickles down to the local community. That is a big part of what we do.
A WHOLE-ECOSYSTEM FOCUS
NWNL As part of Idaho Fish and Game, do you join their other sectors focused on habitat and wildlife? In classes, do you discuss the interrelationships of streams, elk and wolves? And do you meet with the hunting, wolf recovery or wolf bounty sectors to discuss the intersect of elk and wolves with the health of the river?
RALPH STEINER We do. There’s a tremendous effort to support the role of fish. In this watershed, we have both critters with brown eyes and fur and critters that are cold-blooded and in the water. Our organization brings us all together to support what the others are doing. We have training sessions to discuss how each person’s project relates to others’ projects in a different part of the state, as well as in an entirely different venues with entirely different species.
In schoolrooms, there is an aquatic education section that connects subjects and trains teachers to train students, from little bitty kids up to high school. The high school kids volunteer and help us with spawning, having a hands-on chance to hold big fish in resident and local hatcheries.
This is a well-run organization with fishery, wildlife and enforcement bureaus contributing to our efforts. Idaho Fish and Game celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, and from the beginning, we’ve stressed the importance of fish hatcheries. Everything else, including research, followed as we have progressed. The Communications Bureau and Administrative Bureau pay the bills and keep the lights on.
We coordinate with many sectors and many people. When we spawn fish, we have a crew of 3 permanent guys and up to 7 temporaries at a time. In summer, our spawning program requires 13 or 14 people. Every other spawning day involves volunteers. Computer guys from IT come to help us. In yearly advertisements, I say, “Well, it’s that time! If you want a vacation from your cubicle, come out here and touch some really big fish.” We couldn’t survive without volunteer help. It also promotes awareness, connection, the camaraderie of being together in nature, and dissemination of information within the organization. Thus, we know what the other guys are doing.
LICENSING & FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS
RALPH STEINER All facility funding is prescribed by FERC/Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and is connected to the dams’ licensing. FERC proposes how to operate and maintain the dams). We used to have 50-year licenses, and now we’re working on getting that license finalized for the next time, as FERC plans to make licensing more frequent. Licensing decisions are a collaborative decision now, not just the FERC dictating that we have a license for 50 years. Licensing is now a more cooperative effort than it’s ever been.
RALPH STEINER We’ve come a long way. There used to be infighting between organizations; but there’s more cooperation recently, despite some disagreements on different goals. The power companies must answer to their stockholders. The tribal association must answer to its members who hold treaty rights. And the states must answer constituents’ requests to fish and to irrigate dry land. All those varied, vested interests converge in decision-making. It’s still not smooth, but it’s better than it was.
Licensing now includes riparian areas. In the first licensing go-around. Brownlee Reservoir’s inundation of about 1,000,000 acres exemplifies responsibilities beyond those of maintaining fisheries. Yes, we’ve bothered the fisheries. But, when we inundate that much riparian woodland, other mitigation responsibilities must also be met. Mitigation responsibilities apply limited fish responsibilities, especially with more species to be considered, such as lampreys. Wolf traps are also in the mix. We trap wolves, measure them, and return them to the drainage, ignoring the ebb and flow of their populations. They are not on our radar, because we’re focused on salmon; but those populations are not just a peripheral concern.
NWNL I hear they’re thinking of putting more mitigation dollars towards habitat restoration in riparian zones. Are those zones significant to the habitat?
RALPH STEINER More mitigation is better, obviously. Other facilities more interested in wild fish production are working for their return. The real ballgame is out there in the wild areas. Significant spawning grounds have built up, but there aren’t enough wild fish returning to them. Bringing fish back are habitat issues; and they are being addressed in places like Pot Ash Creek, north of Orofino.
My Assistant Manager here is very interested in habitat so he works periodically on a habitat project and with the Trout in the Classroom project under Trout Unlimited. We encourage our staff to get involved with a wildlife issue of their own interest, such as habitat rehabilitation or even a communication desk.
NWNL Do you visit other hatcheries and learn from each other or work in coordination?
RALPH STEINER We do. Anadromous hatcheries have annual meetings for everyone to learn what’s going on. We cuss, discuss and learn about others’ needs. Our local hatcheries have progressed and reshuffled supervision duties and responsibilities in the hatchery system at large. Our goal is to establish a more integrated program. Three years ago. we added positions in supervision for coordinators. That structure is now functioning in full force.
ADULT SALMON SUPPORT
NWNL Ralph, you’ve shared so much information. Any further thoughts you’d like to share?
RALPH STEINER Yes, I’d like to again emphasize to the community the value of what we do. Our facility is not just about fish. We’re all part of the river and its overall health is critically important to all river stakeholders and users. This mitigation facility is here for fishermen, and to provide a trickle-down, economic impact on the Pacific Northwest due to the worth of our fish. When fish production, or fisheries, become a social, political and economic issue, it’s critical that we explain our economic value. The elected bean-counters determine what we can and can’t do. But it’s up to us to convince the public that this facility has a beneficial value that is as critical as our water quality.
Our message is that we’re all in this together and our efforts support our Northwest community and the US at large. We talk to irrigators, dry land farmers, people who produce fish, and city planners who focus on sewer outfalls. Our shortcoming is that we’ve not done enough to explain we’re not here just because people like to go fishing.
Posted by NWNL on March 01, 2024.
Transcription edited and condensed for clarity by Alison M. Jones.
All images © Alison M. Jones, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.