A Survey of Healthy Native Stocks of Anadromous Salmonids in the Pacific Northwest and California

Abstract

This report summarizes a survey of healthy native stocks of anadromous salmonids in the Pacific Northwest and California. We used a questionnaire approach combined with spatial analysis to describe the status and distribution of stocks considered to be in relatively good condition. These stocks now constitute a small fraction of the region's historic anadromous salmonid resource but are critical to maintaining current resource productivity. Several agencies have developed, or are in the process of developing, computerized databases that will help organize predominantly quantitative data on native stocks of anadromous salmonids. Our survey supplements those efforts by summarizing some of the knowledge of biologists familiar with the stocks and by making status assessments that at times go beyond conservative analyses of quantitative data. The survey identified 99 healthy native wild stocks of salmon and steelhead that biologists consider to be at least one‐third as abundant as would be expected without human impacts, including 20 considered at least two‐thirds as abundant. More than three‐quarters of these stocks are fall chinook, chum salmon, or winter steelhead in Puget Sound or coastal watersheds of Oregon or Washington. Fewer healthy populations remain of summer steelhead and coho, pink, and sockeye salmon and spring or summer chinook. We suggest that healthy stocks provide unique opportunities for conservation and research that are at least as important to the future of the region's anadromous salmonids as those associated with at‐risk stocks.

Hydraulic Alterations Resulting from Hydropower Development in the Bonneville Reach of the Columbia River

“…The Hanford Reach near Richland, Washington, is the last significant unimpounded portion of the mainstem Columbia River still accessible to anadromous fish, and it supports the largest and most productive population of wild salmon remaining in the Pacific Northwest (Huntington et al 1996;. These large, mainstem-spawning fall Chinook are a cornerstone in efforts to preserve and restore widely depleted and at-risk Columbia Basin salmon stocks.…”

Robustness or resilience? Managing the intersection of ecology and engineering in an urban Alaskan fishery

“…The challenges of this urban fishery are not unique. Increasing urbanization in the lower Pacific Northwest has pushed wild salmon populations to the brink of extinction (Netboy 1980, Nehlsen et al 1991, Cone and Ridlington 1996, Huntington et al 1996, National Research Council 1996, Gresh et al 2000. Widespread public support has leveraged millions of restoration dollars to prevent the loss of salmon populations, but still they are disappearing (Lee 1993, McGinnis 1994.…”

Evaluation of Fall Chinook and Chum Salmon Spawning Habitat near Ives and Pierce Islands in the Columbia River, Progress Report 1999-2001.

“…One is the Lower Columbia River fall chinook stock, also referred to as Tule, and is currently listed as "threatened" (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1999). The other stock is the upriver bright stock, which is healthy by comparison (Huntington et al 1996) and primarily spawns 325 km upstream in the Hanford Reach.…”