Upper Columbia Science Summit weighs progress, limits of salmon recovery

LEAVENWORTH — The Upper Columbia Science Summit brought tribes, scientists, utility districts and agencies to Leavenworth to assess the current state of salmon recovery and explore new science and ideas on Jan. 21 and 22.

“We're trying to bring new science and new thoughts for people to consider as they're doing their restoration work. It's trying to be supportive, it's trying to be encouraging,” said Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery Board (UCSRB) Executive Director Amanda Ward. “It's really important that people are brought together to actually be able to have these conversations.”

In an era of funding challenges at both the state and federal level, the Leavenworth Festhalle was a new, cost-effective option for the summit, which meets every two years, said Ward. Organizers also added that Leavenworth is in the heart of the Wenatchee River Basin, where many attendees work.

Hosted by the UCSRB, the two-day summit featured speakers and panelists from the Yakama Nation and Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Chelan, Douglas and Grant PUDs, state and federal fisheries biologists and scientists from nonprofit organizations and universities.

Speakers at the summit said salmon recovery in the Upper Columbia has made small progress over the past quarter-century; habitat and hydro improvements have lowered the risk of extinction for Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed spring Chinook salmon and steelhead. However, populations haven’t recovered enough as they would have hoped. Additionally, speakers warned that bull trout populations in the Wenatchee, Entiat and Methow subbasins have experienced severe declines, likely due to a combination of habitat degradation, increasing water temperatures, and fishing mortality.

Climate change was a large theme in discussions, said Science Summit Chair Ryan Niemeyer. Niemeyer highlighted a University of British Columbia study that revealed a much higher mortality rate for female salmon than males, which increased when migration conditions were challenging, such as higher water temperatures. Scientists anticipate this problem to become more pronounced as ocean and river conditions continue to change.

Among the most promising developments, speakers from the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and Trout Unlimited shared progress on efforts to remove Enloe Dam on the Similkameen River near Oroville. The dam has not been in operation since 1958, blocks fish passage, and has been shown to disrupt the flow of bed load, nutrients and aquatic organisms.

A study completed last year indicated that removal was feasible, and funding secured through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Fish Passage Program will advance designs from 30 percent to 60 percent. Once removed, the dam is expected to reestablish connectivity to the Similkameen River Basin and allow access by steelhead and spring Chinook salmon to over 1,500 miles of spawning and rearing habitat.

“That's exciting for everybody, because that will open up huge, huge reaches of upstream [tributaries] for salmon,” said Ward.

With the summit’s “Honoring the Past, Shaping the Future” theme in mind, stakeholders assessed progress over the past 25 years, looking at what has worked, what has not, and where recovery efforts need to evolve as conditions change.

The summit also looked beyond the last quarter-century, emphasizing the role of Indigenous knowledge and leadership in shaping future recovery efforts. Davis “Yellowash” Washines, Government Liaison of the Yakama Nation DNR Fisheries emphasized the importance of partnering Indigenous knowledge and values with modern science implementation for more effective and holistic recovery efforts.

John Sirois, Traditional Territories Advisor of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, challenged stakeholders to better prioritize salmon recovery over fears of disrupting the comfort of economic systems and power needs. Sirois warned that without keystone species like salmon, human existence will not continue, encouraging stakeholders to ask, “What do salmon need? What am I doing to ensure they will always be here?”

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media