As we all know, shortfalls in funding for our fish and wildlife management agencies are an ongoing concern. Severe budget constraints play out in many ways that impact fisheries management and sometimes angling opportunity. TU and Wild Steelheaders United are working both on-the-ground and in the halls of state legislatures to address these funding challenges. One of the first important …
Stock Recruit Curves And Wild Steelhead, A Good Match?
In several recent posts we have discussed the concept of density dependence and how it is used in fisheries management. Today we dive in deeper and talk about the stock-recruitment relationship, density dependence, and how the results of such models are applied to managing steelhead. First, let’s define some terms. Stock refers to, in this context, a population of …
Science Friday: Why do juvenile steelhead move at the onset of winter?
By John McMillan We are going old school today, Science Friday style. No, we’re not talking about shooting ourselves with a tranquilizer gun, going streaking, or starting a fraternity to compensate for a mid-life crisis. We’ll leave that to Will Ferrell. But we are going back in time, to 1971. Today we revisit one of the foundational pieces of …
Science Friday: Steelhead fry party when the lights go off — but will they wake up high and dry?
In our last Science Friday post we took a look, in part, at the feeding behavior of bass. This week we are moving down in the feeding column to focus on catfish. Just kidding. It’s all steelhead all the time here. Today we review a paper by David Hines and several colleagues. The study focuses on the behavior …
A thorny challenge on the Deschutes River
Trout Unlimited is working to ensure the success of the Pelton-Round Butte Fish Passage Program and conservation of lower River angling opportunity If you’re a trout or steelhead angler in Oregon, you’re probably at least somewhat familiar with issues related to fish passage and native fish on the Deschutes River. Trout Unlimited has been working for the past several …
Frank Moore Steelhead Sanctuary
The story of Frank and Jeanne Moore has gained deserved attention in the past few years- from Frank’s service on the beaches of Normandy during WWII to his enduring love for both his wife and the North Umpqua River, to Jeanne’s stewardship as a botanist in the Umpqua basin. If you’re lucky enough to have fished the North Umpqua, you’ve …
Science Friday: Are some fish caught more than others, and if so, why?
We’re deep in the heart of winter steelhead season now. But if you’re like us, you are probably suffering from high-wateritis right about now — a common affliction for winter steelheaders. Living on the Olympic Peninsula, I have it bad. Non-stop rain for days. Rivers punched. Headaches due to lack of chrome-ium. Conditions better improve quickly…or I might not …
Science Friday: Space, time, and maximizing habitat capacity
All steelhead, all the time, here at Wild Steelheaders United. Over the past few weeks we have examined the scientific concepts and tools used to evaluate how productive a given stream can be for wild steelhead. Such assessments are an important component of managing a steelhead fishery — especially if the run in that watershed is ESA-listed (in the Lower …
Science Friday: The importance of both space and time in managing wild steelhead
This is the third of four posts on the nuts and bolts of estimating wild steelhead populations, spawning success, and other key management variables. First, we covered the concepts of carrying capacity and density dependence and how habitat can be used to estimate carrying capacity. Last week’s post shifted gears to review studies that found the spatial distribution …
Upcoming Public Meetings for Skagit Catch and Release Fishery
One of the few real success stories in steelhead conservation over the past decade is the comeback of wild steelhead in the Skagit River system. As we have been saying for several years, the rebound of this population has been substantial enough to consider re-opening the Skagit for a spring steelhead season. Wild Steelheaders United and other angling advocates have …