Welcome to our newsletter that we will share exclusively with you – one of our committed Wild Steelhead Initiative supporters. We intend for this newsletter to serve several purposes: keeping you informed about our strategy, our current efforts, and significant developments in wild steelhead management and science. It will also provide practical information, such as steelhead run forecasts from Alaska, BC and the lower 48, to help you plan your time on the water.
Thank You
I’d like to start by expressing, on behalf of TU and the entire Wild Steelhead Initiative team, our deep appreciation for your advocacy and financial support. Many of you have consistently supported this work since we launched the Initiative in 2014, and I can say without a doubt that you are the reason we have been able to achieve significant outcomes for wild steelhead conservation over the past decade, including:
- Ending sport harvest of wild steelhead on the Olympic Peninsula’s cherished westside rivers, the Queets, Hoh, Sol Duc, Bogachiel and Calawah
- Reopening a catch-and-release season on the Skagit River with rigorous monitoring and conservation thresholds
- Creating a first of its kind steelhead management “portfolio” in Puget Sound, with some rivers managed exclusively for wild steelhead and other, more degraded rivers where hatcheries will provide fishing opportunity
- Protecting 100,000 acres of the fabled North Umpqua River through federal legislation establishing the Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Sanctuary and closing the harmful summer steelhead hatchery program at Rock Creek
Every one of these successful efforts involved partnerships. If someone tells you that a single organization was solely responsible for major achievements such as the ones noted above, don’t believe them. Our list of partners is long, including other non-profit conservation and fishing organizations, Tribes, state fish and wildlife agencies and commissions, and federal and state legislators. We are grateful to all.
Still, I believe it is fair to say that “but for” TU’s Wild Steelhead Initiative team’s leadership, expertise, and engagement, many of these achievements would not have happened. The Initiative team includes top-shelf scientists, policy advocates, organizers and communications experts. We work in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Alaska, as well as in Washington D.C., and our community of supporters — Wild Steelheaders United – is 35,000 members strong and growing.
One key feature that sets TU’s Wild Steelhead Initiative apart from other organizations is that we methodically pursue improvements in wild steelhead management instead of attempting to prevent negative outcomes. Relatively speaking, it is easier to oppose an ill-conceived action than to develop an affirmative agenda, build partnerships, and see it through to fruition. Yet the latter is what we need to do if we are to achieve our vision that includes both wild steelhead conservation and better angling opportunity, and it takes resources and time. But as the progress highlighted above demonstrates, major wins are possible with sound strategy, persistence, and the resources to execute a game plan.
Looking Ahead: RAISE
We are proud of our accomplishments over the past 10 years, but we are not resting on our laurels. We have a big vision and plans to achieve it over the next decade. Our vision has a name: RAISE, which stands for Recovery Action Integration in Salmonid Ecosystems, and I want to introduce it to you.
RAISE was born out of our decade of experience. What became crystal clear to us is that achieving abundant, fishable populations of wild steelhead requires more than one action, dam removal for example. It requires integrating multiple actions that address the major limiting factors. The Elwha is a case in point. Dam removal was paired with a fishing moratorium and limited use of hatcheries (if we had our druthers we would have used them even more sparingly) to enable the successful recolonization of wild steelhead and salmon.
It is without a doubt true that wild steelhead cannot thrive without accessible, high-quality habitat, and Trout Unlimited has led the nation in protecting, reconnecting and restoring coldwater habitat. For example, TU was the lead conservation organization in the decades-long effort to remove four dams on the Klamath River, which came to fruition at the end of August, reopening over 400 miles of previously blocked steelhead and salmon habitat. Similarly, TU spearheaded a successful effort to protect 9.3 million acres of southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, including its most productive wild steelhead rivers, from clearcut logging and roadbuilding. And throughout steelhead country we are putting millions of federal and state dollars on the ground to remove fish-blocking culverts.
But habitat alone does not produce fish. We must return enough adult spawners to use that habitat to produce more fish. That fact was driven home in a recent report on the results of long-term monitoring of “Intensively monitored watersheds” in the Pacific Northwest, which was the subject of our recent Science Friday blog post written by our lead steelhead scientist, Gary Marston (we will feature a Science Friday blog post in each quarterly newsletter). To realize the benefits of the unprecedented, billion-dollar habitat investments being made, we must get more wild steelhead back to our watersheds.
RAISE is a major undertaking. It involves a multi-faceted strategy that includes strategic communications, demonstration projects, science, partnerships, and policy advocacy. We will need your continued support in the years ahead to realize its full potential.
Our Ongoing Priorities
But rest assured that while we pursue RAISE, we will seize near-term opportunities including:
- Obtaining a new fisheries management plan for westside rivers on the Olympic Peninsula designed to strengthen wild steelhead populations while providing consistent angling opportunity
- Partnering with Tribes and state steelhead managers to develop steelhead management plans for the Klamath and Elwha basins that prioritize wild steelhead restoration and sustainable fishing opportunities
- Securing improved dam operations and a billion-dollar mitigation fund on the Skagit River through the relicensing of Seattle’s three-dam hydroelectric project
Stay in Touch
I’ve packed a lot of information here – I hope you share my enthusiasm about our efforts, and the future of the Wild Steelhead Initiative.
I’ll continue sharing updates and information, but please reach out any time you’d like to discuss this work.
Likewise, Scott Reinstein in TU’s Development office, is always happy to share about ways to support this work.
Thanks for your ongoing support. I hope all of you have a great fall season on the water,
Rob Masonis
Vice President Pacific Region
robert.masonis@tu.org
Steelhead Run Updates
Skeena and Northern BC Coast
After five years of low returns, anglers on the Skeena finally have some good news as the steelhead return has shown a dramatic uptick in this year. As of the start of September about 90% of the steelhead are expected to have entered the watershed and data from the Tyee test fishery indicates that about 35,000 steelhead have returned to the Skeena watershed marking 2024 as the 11th best return on record. Similarly, the Dean and Nass rivers are showing an uptick in steelhead returns this year, coming in well above average. However, it is not all good news as flows this summer have been particularly low and temperatures have been high, which has the potential impact the survival and success of returning steelhead in these watersheds.
Umpqua and Rogue River Summer Steelhead
Umpqua summer steelhead have been struggling in recent years and this year appears to be no exception. As of July 18, the return past Winchester Dam looks the be the 3rd lowest in the past ten years. Typically, by mid-July around 75% of the run has passed Winchester and while the return of 1,554 hatchery and wild summer steelhead is well below average, it is still nearly double 2023’s return of 786 steelhead at that point in the season.
Like the Umpqua, the Rogue River summer steelhead return looks to be well below the 10-year average this year. Returns on the Rogue are based on index counts from test seine fisheries at Huntley Park and as of August 30, 136 hatchery and wild adult steelhead had been encountered, compared to a 10-year average of 184. Similarly, half-pounders are also below average, with 1,505 hatchery and wild half-pounders encountered as opposed to a 10-year average of 1,875. This is still a drastic improvement from 2023 though, when just 72 adult steelhead and 849 half-pounders were seined by August 30. Typically, about 70% of the adult summer steelhead and 80% of the half-pounders will have passed Huntely Park by August 30.
Mid-Columbia Basin (John Day, Deschutes, Klickitat)
Summer steelhead returns are up this year in the Columbia River Basin and were sufficient to open fisheries on the Deschutes, John Day and Klickitat rivers. So far about 130,000 steelhead, including about 50,000 unclipped/wild fish have been counted passing over Bonneville dam, coming in well above the 10-year average of 107,464 steelhead and 42,597 unclipped/wild fish. It is worth noting that the ten-year average is one of the lowest on record. This year’s return is still well below the 20-year average past Bonneville. However, we should see one of the best steelhead fisheries in the Mid-Columbia in some time. While it is still a bit early for the John Day, steelhead are starting to push into the lower Deschutes, although the recent fires on the lower river have limited access. The Klickitat River has been in great shape and producing steelhead on deep swung flies, and the fish should start to look up for surface flies as the fall stoneflies start hatching.
Snake Basin (Clearwater, Salmon, Grand Ronde)
As of the end of August, about 75% of the early run fish heading for the upper Salmon, Little Salmon and Snake River in Idaho had passed over Bonneville Dam and approximately 30,000 hatchery steelhead are expected to return to these watersheds, which would make it the best return in the past seven years. It also appears that this year’s run is dominated by fish that spent two years in the ocean, with 93% of the PIT tagged fish detected so far being 2-salts, which generally average 7-12lbs.
Clearwater fish tend to arrive at Bonneville Dam about a month later than the Salmon River fish, meaning that as of the end of August only 14% of the fish will have typically passed over the Dam. However, the early numbers indicate that about 7,000 Clearwater hatchery steelhead have passed the dam and suggest that between 30,000 and 47,000 can be expected to return.
The early steelhead have already started to move up the Snake, but as of the end of August none of the PIT tagged Clearwater fish had yet passed over Lower Granite Dam. While the counts at Lower Granite of about 4,200 unclipped/wild and 8,800 total steelhead are slightly below the ten-year averages of 4,400 unclipped/wild and 9,400 total steelhead at this point in the season, it is still early in the season and numbers (6,700 unclipped/wild and 18,000 total) at Ice Harbor appear to be well above the ten-year average (4,400 unclipped/wild and 11,000 total). This suggests that we are likely to see a good pulse for fish moving upriver soon, as peak counts at Lower Granite dam typically occur near the end of September.
The Grande Ronde River opened for steelhead in Washington at the end of August and the beginning of September in Oregon, and although steelhead should be starting to move into the river, it has been low and warm and hopefully conditions will improve as we move into the fall.