Lower Snake River Compensation Plan Hatchery Evaluations – Salmon River Project No Nez Perce Tribe Department of Fisheries Resources Management

LSRCP Program Mitigation Goal South Fork Salmon River Adult Return Goal – 8,000 Adults McCall Production – 1 million Smolts

Project Goal Monitor and evaluate the results of the LSRCP hatchery program so that operations can be adaptively managed 1) optimize hatchery and natural production 2) minimize deleterious ecological impacts

Project Objectives Project coordination Population status monitoring Hatchery:natural composition and age structure in natural production areas Geographic genetic structure of subpopulations Gene conservation efforts

Middle Fork Salmon River South Fork Salmon River

Relationship to NMFS (2000) Biological Opinion Action 174: Determine relative distribution and timing of hatchery and natural spawners. Actions 175, 177, and 178: Implementation of safety net projects. Action 179: Establish recovery goals that incorporate: genetic stock structure, demographic description, and spatial distribution. Action Hatchery research, monitoring, and evaluation program consisting of studies to determine whether hatchery reforms reduce the risk of extinction.

Relationship to Salmon River Subbasin Summary Continue Lower Snake River Compensation Hatchery Monitoring and Evaluation to determine hatchery chinook and steelhead performance, natural production responses, competitive interactions, harvest management and provide for applied adaptive management (Section Fisheries/Aquatic Needs). Continue and expand investigations of interactions between hatchery and wild chinook, steelhead, and resident fish. Quantify the types and extent (amount) of straying by chinook and steelhead occurring within subbasins, within the Mountain Snake Province, and within designated ESUs.

Relationship to Salmon River Subbasin Summary Conduct gamete preservation on all salmonids throughout the Salmon Subbasin. Complete a province-wide chinook salmon genetic assessment that will provide a baseline for monitoring hatchery introgression into wild populations. Define the metapopulation structure in the South Fork Salmon and Upper and Lower Middle Fork Salmon watersheds.

Summary of Approach Salmon Spawning Ground Surveys –Population status –Distribution and relative abundance –Hatchery:natural composition in natural production areas –Age structure to calculate spawner to spawner ratios –Determine sex composition –Estimate pre-spawning mortality –Dispersion of hatchery adults into other spawning aggregates –DNA sample collection

Summary of Approach Genetic stock structure within SFSR spawning aggregates –DNA analysis (microsatellite, nuclear, mitochondrial) –Gene flow, genetic similarity –Spatial and temporal variation

Summary of Approach Preservation of genetic diversity in the Salmon River subbasin –Cryopreservation of adult male gametes

South Fork Salmon River Percentage Hatchery Origin Carcasses Results to Date

Percentage Hatchery Origin Carcasses in other SFSR Spawning Aggregates Results to Date

Annual Salmon Age Structure in the SFSR Results to Date

Genetic Stock Structure in the SFSR –Sample collections initiated in 2000 in SFSR (Stolle, McCall Hatchery broodstock, below weir, Poverty), Johnson Creek, Secesh River, and Lake Creek –Sample collections to occur through 2005 –Funding available in 2002 to begin DNA analysis

Spawning AggregateNumber of Salmon Semen Samples Cryopreserved Big Creek82 Marsh Creek37 Capehorn Creek12 Johnson Creek115 South Fork Salmon McCall Hatchery 250 Lake Creek60 Upper Salmon River Sawtooth Hatchery 192 Pahsimeroi River Pahsimeroi Hatchery 80 Results to Date Gene Conservation Efforts –

Results to Date Minimum Conservation Adult Spawner Escapement –Necessary to maintain a naturally reproducing population in nature (long-term population persistence) –Maintains an adequate yearly effective population size (environmental stochasticity, loss of genetic diversity) –Continuing adaptation and evolutionary processes –Ecosystem processes Conservation Goals

Expected Products Adult salmon population status over time (distribution and relative abundance) Hatchery:natural composition in the mainstem SFSR Age structure and sex composition for run reconstruction (spawner to spawner ratios) Spatial dispersion of hatchery adults in the SFSR Genetic stock structure of salmon subpopulations in the SFSR Preservation of genetic diversity of subpopulations at low levels of abundance

Expected Products Conservation framework for hatchery operation (adult sliding scale, broodstock selection and mating protocols, production program ) Establish conservation goals (minimum adult spawner escapement)