Program Objectives
This report summarizes activities by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's
(WDFW) Lower Snake River Hatchery Fall Chinook Evaluation Program for the period 16 April
2006 to 15 April 2007. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (WDFW) Snake River
Lab (SRL) staff completed this work with Federal fiscal year 2006 funds provided through the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), under the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan
(LSRCP).
Congress authorized the LSRCP in 1976. As a result of that plan, Lyons Ferry Hatchery (LFH)
was constructed and has been in operation since 1984 (Figure 1). One objective of the hatchery
was to compensate for an annual loss of 18,300 adult (non-juvenile) 1, Snake River stock, fall
Chinook salmon (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 1975). An evaluation program was initiated in
1984 to monitor the success of LFH in meeting the LSRCP compensation goals and to identify
any production adjustments required to accomplish those goals. This mitigation program was
modified in the early 1990s by agreement of the United States v. Oregon parties to supplement
natural fall Chinook production above Lower Granite Dam (LGR). Currently this is an
integrated hatchery program designed to support recovery of the Snake River naturally produced
fall Chinook. This action was consistent with the U.S. Endangered Species Act and
Washington’s Wild Salmonid Policy.
The WDFW has two general goals for its fall Chinook evaluation program:
(1) monitor hatchery
practices at LFH to ensure quality smolt releases, high downstream migrant survival, and
sufficient adult fish contribution to fisheries and escapement to meet the LSRCP compensation
goals; and
(2) gather genetic information to help maintain the integrity of the Snake River Basin
fall Chinook salmon stock (WDF 1994). Our efforts have contributed to evaluating the status of
Snake River fall Chinook by monitoring population abundance, spatial distribution, genetics, and
life history (sex and age information of returns) as well as by removing strays at LGR on the
Snake River to minimize the effects of out-of-basin strays on the population (NMFS 1993).
Specific annual program objectives can be obtained from the Snake River Lab Project office.
1 The LSRCP Special Report refers to adult recoveries. That language was intended to differentiate adults from
juveniles in the document (Dan Herrig USFWS, LSRCP, personal communication). The LSCRP mitigation goal
was based upon 97,500 fall Chinook counted at McNary Dam in 1958, and with the expectation that 14,363 wild fall
Chinook would persist in the Snake River through natural production. At that time adult and jack counts were
combined to give a total count. Therefore the mitigation goal consists of jacks and adults, not just adults. Since
mitigation goals were set up using window counts at dams, and minijacks (fish < 30 cm total length) are not counted
at the dams, they were excluded from the mitigation goal calculations.
