Reservoir Provides Cool-Water Refuge for Adult Chinook Salmon in a Trap-And-Haul Reintroduction Program Matthew Keefer University of Idaho

University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst International Conference on Engineering and International Conference on River Connectivity Ecohydrology for Fish Passage (Fish Passage 2018)

Dec 12th, 3:40 PM - 5:20 PM Reservoir provides cool-water refuge for adult Chinook salmon in a trap-and-haul reintroduction program Matthew Keefer University of Idaho

George Naughton University of Idaho

Tami Clabough University of Idaho

Matthew Knoff University of Idaho

Tim Blubaugh University of Idaho

See next page for additional authors

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Keefer, Matthew; Naughton, George; Clabough, Tami; Knoff, Matthew; Blubaugh, Tim; Sharpe, Cameron; and Caudill, Christopher, "Reservoir provides cool-water refuge for adult Chinook salmon in a trap-and-haul reintroduction program" (2018). International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage. 27. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/fishpassage_conference/2018/December12/27

This Event is brought to you for free and open access by the Fish Passage Community at UMass Amherst at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Presenter Information Matthew Keefer, George Naughton, Tami Clabough, Matthew Knoff, Tim Blubaugh, Cameron Sharpe, and Christopher Caudill

This event is available at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/fishpassage_conference/2018/ December12/27 Reservoir provides cool-water refuge for adult Chinook salmon in a trap-and-haul reintroduction program Matthew Keefer1, George Naughton1, Tami Clabough1, Matthew Knoff1, Tim Blubaugh1, Cameron Sharpe2, & Christopher Caudill1,

1University of Idaho, 2Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife Willamette River basin, OR (~30,000 km2)

Willamette Falls

South Santiam River

Willamette River Willamette River floods

National Weather Service

1948

1996 wikipedia Willamette Valley Project • 13 multi-purpose dams • Flood control • Hydropower • Irrigation • Water supply

Detroit Dam 141 m

Cougar Dam 158 m Chinook Salmon • Oncorhynchus tshawytscha • Native, anadromous, cold-water species

• High ecological, economic, Immature male (for scale) and social value Chinook salmon • Spring-run population • Historically widespread • Spawn in tributaries • No adult fish passage at dams • Extirpations / Declines • ‘Threatened’ • U.S. Endangered Species Act Research context • Large effort to restore Willamette River Chinook • Historical focus: hatcheries • Expanded: reintroduction into historic habitats

Adult Trap-and-Haul Historically-used Chinook salmon habitat above dams Research context

Foster Dam 38 m

Portland: 84 Craft Beer Breweries Research context

Lower Willamette Foster Dam, S. Santiam River River SPAWNING

Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct

Chinook salmon body temperatures

C) 22

o 20 18 16 14 12 10 8

Mean daily temperature ( temperature daily Mean 1 Jun 15 Jun 1 Jul 15 Jul 1 Aug 15 Aug 1 Sep 15 Sep

Keefer et al. 2015 (J Therm Biol) Research context • Long migration (~420 km), long residency time • Exposure to warm water temperatures. . . . • Adult prespawn mortality Chinook salmon 450 site years

EGGS

Bowerman et al. 2016 (Fisheries) Research context Temperature effect on mortality Prespawn mortality of Chinook salmon above Foster Dam

Mean = 28%

Hatchery salmon effect

DeWeber et al. 2017 (N Am J Fish Manage) Bowerman et al. 2018 (Trans Am Fish Soc) Reservoir release study hypotheses • Releasing adult Chinook salmon into the reservoir will reduce thermal exposure • Prespawn holding in cold, hypolimnetic water • Lower exposure will reduce prespawn mortality

SPAWNING SALMON ‘Wild’ Chinook salmon collected and radio-tagged Methods Year River release Reservoir release 2012 41 33 • Collection and tagging 2013 25 50 2014 8 44 • Transport (2-3 h, in total) 2015 23 14 2017 5 19 Total 102 160

Lotek Wireless transmitters:

46 × 16 mm, 16 g

61 × 16 mm, 23g iButton loggers Methods • Release timing

2017 2015 2014 In-river release 2013 2012

2017 2015 Reservoir release 2014 2013 2012

15-May 14-Jun 14-Jul 13-Aug 12-Sep Salmon release date Methods • Adult salmon release sites • Temperature monitoring • Radiotelemetry antennas Results • Water temperatures

South Santiam River > reservoir Foster Reservoir 25 25 Depth

0.2 20 18 oC = stress 20 1.5 3.0 4.6 15 6.1 15 9.1 12.2 2012 15.2

Temperature (C) Temperature 10 2013 18.3 2014 10 21.3 2015 24.4 2017 5 May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct 5 May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Date Results • Salmon residency times in reservoir • Annual medians ~ 7, 35, 11, 93, 8 days

140 2012 120 2013 100 2014 2015 80 2017

Reservoir residence time (d) time residence Reservoir 0 15 May 15 Jun 15 Jul 15 Aug 15 Sep 15 Oct 2012 2013 2014 2015 2017 Release date Year Results • Salmon thermal histories

S Santiam River: warm, shallow Chinook salmon body temperature and depth 22 0

18 5

C) o 16 SSR 14 SSR 10 RES Green Peter Dam: 100 m

12 (m) Depth RES

Temperature ( Temperature RES 10 RES 15 Middle Santiam River: cold! 8 MSR MSR MSR 6 20 1 Jul 15 Jul 15 Jul 1 Aug 15 Aug 1 Sep 15 Sep Mean daily Chinook salmon body temperature

Results Loggers recovered: 26 reservoir-released and 35 river-released fish 24 2014 South Santiam River 2013 • Thermal 21 18 benefits 15 - 73% of reservoir- 12

released had an 9 Foster Reservoir estimated thermal Middle Santiam 6 River benefit 24 2017 2015 - Mean benefit ~107 21 degree days per fish 18

6 15 May 15 Jun 15 Jul 15 Aug 15 Sep 15 Oct 15 May 15 Jun 15 Jul 15 Aug 15 Sep 15 Oct Results Salmon released in river

• Final distribution Salmon released in reservoir

19% 1%

Middle Santiam River

14% 2% 16% 1% 51% South Santiam River 98% Conclusions: the good • Salmon released in the reservoir entered tributaries • At least 70% were last detected in upstream rivers Conclusions: the good • Salmon used cool water refuge in reservoir • Extended thermoregulatory behavior • Presumed selection for preferred temperature range • Reduced cumulative and acute thermal exposure Conclusions: the inconclusive • Some salmon (~19%) entered the Middle Santiam • Historic spawning site, but current spawning unknown • Some salmon (~14%) fell back past Foster Dam • Direct mortality and injury risk • Homing behaviors? Natal sites downstream? Conclusions: the inconclusive • Effect of release in reservoir on spawning success • Much larger samples required to estimate prespawn mortality ?? Some take-homes • Fish trap-and-haul may be a useful recovery strategy for migratory populations • Reservoirs may provide thermal refuge for temperature-sensitive species • Novel strategies + adaptive management experiments are critically needed for progress

Kevin Belcher Willamette Falls Bibliography

Bowerman et al. (2016). Pacific salmon prespawn mortality: patterns, methods, and study designconsiderations. Fisheries 41:738-749.

Bowerman et al. (2018). Prespawn mortality of female Chinook salmon increases with water temperature and percent hatchery origin. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 147:31-42.

DeWeber et al. (2017). A hidden-process model for estimating prespawn mortality using carcass survey data. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 37:162-175.

Keefer et al. (2015). Thermal exposure of adult Chinook salmon in the Willamette River basin. J. Thermal Biol. 48:11-20.

Naughton et al. (2018). Reservoir provides cool-water refuge for adult Chinook salmon in a trap-and- haul reintroduction program. Mar. Freshw. Res. 69:1995-2007. (Special Issue for Fish Passage) https://www.uidaho.edu/cnr/fish-ecology-research-lab