Snake River Currents

Volume 2, Issue 3

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Current Events - Mediation

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SRBA tribal representatives and staff members continue their cooperative work with federal agency representatives toward increased protection and enhancement of on-reservation tribal water and fish resources. Tribal representatives and staff continue their technical analysis of flow protection and augmentation in Salmon and Clearwater basin streams.

The Nez Perce Tribe has a successful record in returning salmon to rivers in which they were historically present. They have re-established spring chinook in the Lostine and Imnaha Rivers, and coho salmon in the Clearwater River Basin. The Tribe now plans to reintroduce sockeye to the Wallowa River and Wallowa Lake.

Canneries devastated the abundant sockeye population in Wallowa Lake starting in the 1880s. For example, two canneries harvested about 12,000 sockeye salmon for two years in a row from Wallowa Lake. By 1905, the sockeye were gone.

An attempt was made in the 1920’s to restock the lake with Alaska sockeye. But in 1927, the Wallowa Lake Dam was erected to provide water for irrigators downstream. The dam blocked migration, and so effectively eliminated the fish.

The Nez Perce Tribe is part of a local coalition that is supporting legislation seeking federal funds to rehabilitate the "condemned" dam, and add fish passage facilities that would accommodate sockeye. Other members of the coalition include the Associated Ditch Company, Oregon State Parks, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Grande Ronde Model Watershed Program, as well as communities in the area.

Wallowa Lake Dam was declared as “high hazard” in 1996 resulting in the development of a Wallowa Valley Water Management Plan, and federal legislation seeking $32 million for the dam's repair.

Congressman Greg Walden, R-Oregon, who is vice-chairman of the Water and Power Subcommittee of the House Committee on Resources introduced the "Wallowa Lake Dam Rehabilitation and Water Management Act of 2001" to the subcommittee. Ordon Smith, R-Oregon, is introducing an identical bill to the Senate.

Meanwhile, the Nez Perce Tribe’s Department of Fisheries Research Management is working to determine the best brood stock available, and the best method for getting sockeye from the Wallowa River into Wallowa Lake and out again for migration to the ocean.

The Tribe’s preference is to use Lake Wenatchee sockeye, which have a healthy run that negotiates nine dams. They would also like to consider sockeye stock from Redfish Lake in central Idaho. The National Marine Fisheries Service, however, will probably insist on a Snake River stock.

Providing fish passage for the dam will be difficult since the area is confined, and the distance from the top of the dam to the Wallowa River below is large. The cost of a fish ladder could prove prohibitive. An alternative to a fish ladder is an elevator that could lift the returning sockeye into and out of the lake. That would require, though, that the fish be trapped and hauled from downstream.

If Congress passes the bill, there will be a five-year plan that will include studies on how best to manage the available water to accommodate both farmers and fishers. Especially for drought years, the amount of water for fish and irrigators likely would be negotiated. The Nez Perce would like to continue what they consider to be a good working relationship with the irrigators.

Once the dam is repaired, the lake would be able to be filled, which it has not been for the last several years due to the dam’s "high hazard" designation. Plans call for adding mass to the back of the dam, and better controls to allow debris going over the top. This would allow more water to be available for irrigation.

A full environmental impact statement will likely be necessary on the project.

(information for this article was obtained from the Columbia Basin Bulletin)

Logging Impacts on Fish Habitat

Timber sales abound in the national forests that encompass much of the Nez Perce Tribe’s ceded territory and traditional fishing grounds. With the National Marine Fisheries Service’s recent emphasis on restoring habitat to save fish, the impacts of logging are important to consider.

Anadromous fish have specific habitat needs in order to be healthy and productive. Since they spend much of their lives and reproduce in freshwater, that habitat is critical. Spawning areas are especially important. They require cool, flowing water, clean gravel to spawn in, clear water for sight feeding, invertebrates for food, and lots of dissolved oxygen.

Logging affects all these habitat features. Logging of streamside trees and skidding trees across streams reduce stream stability and cause widening. The water then flows more slowly, is shallower, and becomes warmer. The loss of streamside trees reduces cover for juvenile fish, and causes further warming. That is one of many reasons why a buffer zone of uncut trees along stream banks is so important.

Logging releases fine material from disturbed soils, which then is easily washed into streams. When logging is done on steep slopes or those with unstable soils, the amount of material released increases. These fine sediments settle on gravel beds making them unsuitable for spawning, and smothering any eggs that are present.

Sediment injures the gills of juvenile and adult fish, and can even lead to asphyxiation. Fish suffer illness and reduced growth rates from ingesting sediment. Sediment also decreases habitat for macroinvertebrates on which the fish feed, and can kill algae growing on rocks.

Large adult fish need deep pools for surviving low water periods. Sediments fill in those pools. If a stream has already been made wider and more shallow from streamside tree harvesting, then the situation is compounded. The stress on the fish can affect fecundity and spawning success.

Sediments also absorb heat, and so add to stream warming. They impair the clearness of the water, making it more difficult for fish to see the invertebrates on which they feed. They can also increase the stream load of soluble nutrients and toxic substances attached to sediment particles.

Another source of toxic substances is herbicides that may be used in site preparation for planting new trees after cuts occur. These toxins are especially harmful to juvenile fish and macroinvertebrate growth.

Road building, which is an integral part of most logging operations, can be more detrimental than the logging itself. Roads are the largest source of sediment to streams of any land-disturbing activity. Approximately 80% of rain falling on roads becomes runoff that transports sediments through the landscape. The heavy equipment used in logging compacts the base of roads decreasing their permeability, and so increasing runoff.

Clear cuts cause the snow to melt off early, leaving little water in streams later in the summer. The increased flows in the early spring can lead to more erosion, washing sediment into streams. The high flood peaks make it more difficult for juvenile fish to maintain their position in the stream, and so can impede migration.

A single timber cut and a single impact are not sufficient to cause significant harm to fish. The cumulative effects, though, of the timber harvest from multiple timbers sales and the many resulting impacts have greatly harmed salmonids. Many of the national forests are now mandating logging practices with the goal of minimizing harm to fish. Fish habitat, however, is so degraded that there is a great need for restoration and no further detrimental impacts.

- Helen Ingram: Water Politics: Continuity and Change

The lack of precipitation the past two months is taking its toll on Idaho's frozen liquid gold. Snowpack percents of average are gradually decreasing as a result of the lack of winter storms moving into Idaho. February precipitation ranged from 80% of average in northern Idaho to 40% in the Bear River basin. Snowpack percentages range from 75-110% of average for most basins; most low elevation drainages are reporting an average to well above average snowpack. 

A near normal snowpack sounds good after last year's snowpack that was only half of normal on April 1, but with most reservoirs reporting much less water than last year, a good snowpack and runoff are critical this year. Streamflow forecasts range from a high of 120% of average in northern Idaho to 42% of average in the Bear River basin. Most streams across central and eastern Idaho are forecast in the 75-85% of average range. Palisades, Jackson Lake and Anderson Ranch reservoirs are not expected to fill based on below normal runoff volumes. Irrigation water supplies will be marginally adequate. Shortages depend upon your water source and water right and are possible in the upper Snake, Bear River, Oakley, Salmon Falls, Big Lost and Little Lost basins.

Water users should monitor conditions closely during the next two months. Spring precipitation can make or break a streamflow forecast, especially in southern Idaho.