Clearwater River Wild Steelhead Spawning Timing

CL EARWATER R IVER WILD STE ELHEAD SPAWNING TIMING C. J . Cederholm Washington State Department of Natural Res our ces Rural Route 1, Box 1375 Fo rks, Washington 98331 ABSTRACT: Steelhead spawning timing in the mainstem and tributar ies of the Clearwater River was monitored from 1973 t o 1980. Gen erally, spawning begins in Janua ry and lasts until late June with mos t tributaries peaking i n Mar ch and April, and the main river peaking in e arly Ma y . Th e spawning timing in the t r ibutaries is more protracte d whe n compared to the main rive r which is sharply peaking . Spawning genera lly occurs in the spring, well after the ma jor annual freshets of No vember through February . It is sug gested that this spring spawning timing is an adaptation to avoid egg l oss caused by streamb ed scour, and to e l i minate competition with salmon spawners. Commencement of spawning co inc ides with springtime dec lining streamflows and increasing water tempe ratures . Spawning escapements in the Clearwater Ri ver have increased stead ily over the study peri od, due mainly to r educ tions in the Quinault Tribal commercial gil l ne t fi shery catch at Quee ts , and possibly due to an ove rall improvement in l ogg ing road construc tion and maintenance pract i ces in the watershed . Th e l argely ind i genous na tive steelhead spawning populations of the Clearwater Ri ver ma y also be influenced by straying adults r e t urning from extens i ve hatchery smol t plants in the Qu eets and c losely adjoining rivers. This paper could provide background data for future comparis ons betwe en pre- and post-hatchery plant spawning populations. INTRODUCTION s t ee l head spawning counts on the Clearwater River in J e fferson Co unty have been conducted to do c u Wild winter- run steelhead are an important r enew ment spawning population size and annual varia able natural resource base for several small com tions in abundance, timing, and distribution . munities along the western coast of the Ol ympic Peninsula . They provide several months of out I have become concerned about the high level of door enjoyment for sportsfishermen , income for hatchery stee lhe ad smolt plants being made on local businesses, and a commer c ial fishery f or several Ol ympic Pe ninsula coastal rivers, by both several Indian tribes . Over the pa s t 8 years the State and l oc al Tribal entities. This is 257 occurring on the Queets, Quinault, Hoh, and Quil It is also my intention to discuss how steelhead layute Rivers; where each spring, plants of may have adapted t o a late spring spawning timing 50-300,000 smolts per river are made. It is to avoid the streambed scour which is character apparent that these fish have a h i gh degree of istic of fall and winter streamflow periods. wi t hin- and between-river straying (Larry Lestelle , Quinault Fisheries and Jim Jorgenson, Hoh Fisheries pers. comm.) , and may be inter METHODS breeding with the wild strains of similar spawn ing timing. In the long-term, spawning timing, During the winter-spring period (January through growth, and survival of wild fish could be June) of 1973 through 19 80, steelhead spawning changed with a continued pol i cy of ha t chery smo lt redds were surveyed and counted in the lower planting. Recent research by the Washington mainstem and selected tributaries of the Clear State Department of Game on the Ka lama River water River, The Clearwater River, a tributary (Chilcote 1983) indicates that hatchery/wi ld of the Queets Rivers is located approximately crosses on t he spawning beds result in a lower 40 kilometers south of Forks, and east of High survival of offspring, when compared with wild/ way 101 (fig . 1) . In general, mainstem surveys wild crosses . At this point in time the spawning were carried out by viewing spawning redds from a popu lations in the Clearwater River system are helicopter, and tributary counts were determined still dominated by the ind i genous native strains; by foot surveys. An average of six aerial counts and therefore I felt it would be a good time to and five foot counts of each index area were made present this steelhead spawning timing data on per year . wild Clearwater River stocks, for it may be use ful in determining the hatchery influence in the Each mainstem count consisted of a helicopter future. flight from the mouth of the Cl earwat er River to Clearwater River Basin I Morrison's Bridge ~ I I ' \ I Oueets I ,.L Figure 1. Location of the Clearwater River basin, and tributary and mainstem steelhead redd survey index locations. 258 Stequaleho Creek mouth, covering about 36 kilo used to measure water velocity. The streamflow meters. This standard index area was broken into records are reported in Larson and Jacoby (1976), five subsections, which were areas designated Larson and Jacoby (1977) , Abercrombie et al . between tributary mouths and bridges. The sec (1978), and Abercrombie et al. (1979). tions were as follows: · mouth to Morrison's Bridge, Morrison's Bridge to Hunt Creek , Hunt Creek to Gross Bridge, Gross Bridge to Goodyear RESULTS Bridge, and Goodyear Bridge to Stequaleho Creek ( fig. 1). The helicopter would fly at an alti Over the course of eight spawning seasons (1973- tude of 30-100 meters above the water surface, 80), 52 helicopter surveys were conducted on the always traveling in an upstream direction along main rive r index area. During these surveys a the west edge of the river . Each full sized nest t otal of 2,234 redds was counted (table 1) , with or combination of nests that was judged to con the lowest total annual count in 1974 (45) and stitute one female's digging was counted as one the highest annual count in 1980 (629) . redd. Over all, there was an average o f 1.2 nests per redd. Survey timing was separated by In most years, the peak count occurred on or near about 2-4 weeks, depending on the weather . On the first or second we ek of May . The two notabl e each survey, all fresh and complete (larger than exceptions were in 1975 when the peak was late 1 m2 in are a) redd s were counted. There was a (June 7), and in 1978 wh en it was e arly (April danger of recounting redds from previous surveys; 29). On most years, few redds were counted until however, care was taken to minimize this as a April, however some r edds were noted as early as serious source of error. January . Du e to frequent freshets and the lack of algae on the substrate during the winter and The tributary foot surveys were carried out in early spring, it was difficult t o ensure that all the upstream direction by a person walking in the the spawning activity was detected. Although no creeks. Surveys were conducted during 1978, surveys wer e conducted after June 27th, it 1979, and 1980. Ind ex sections were established appears that spawning in the main river is on representative streams, and these sections essentially ove r by the e nd of June. The general were walked several times over a spawning season . trend was that major spawning activity would Ind ex sections covering a total of 22 kilometers begin in April, peak in May, and be over by the were established on five different tributaries. end of June (fig. 2). These tributaries were West Fork Miller Creek (4.0 km) , Stequaleho Creek (2. 7 km), Solleks A total of 68 separate foot surveys for count ing River (2.2 km), Snahapish River (8 . 5 km), and r edds in the tributaries was made in 1978, 1979, Shale Creek (4.2 km) (fig . 1). On each succeed and 1980 (table 2). ing survey, newly count ed r edds were marked with colored plastic ribbon to avoid duplication of The timing of tributary spawning varied widely counts on future surveys . between streams . Generally, major spawning activity was spread over a longer period of time A supplemental experiment was conducted during than in the main river ( fig . 3) . Spawning activ the 1974-75 winter season to determine changes 1n ity in most tributaries peaked prior to peaking streambed elevation from summer to midwinter and in the mainstem, and spawning activity was noted from midwinter to the following summer . We were as early as January and as late as June . Spawn interested in knowing the degree of streambed ing activity in Stequaleho Creek and Solleks scour over a winter season , to give some measure River continued strong into late May, while the of potenti al redd loss. Net streambed scour and activity wa s earlier in Shale and West Fork deposition rates were est imated by a survey tech Miller Creeks . Spawning was intermediate in tim nique descr ibed by Cederholm ( 1972 ) . Wood bench ing, in the Snahapish River with the peaks marks were establ ished on each stream embankment usually occurring in March and April . at each of 39 c r oss sect ions. A c r oss sect ion was located every 150 meters, with nine or ten During the winter of 1974-75 the changes 1n cross sections on each of four spawning tributar streambed cross-sectional area (i . e . , scour and ies. The c r oss sections were not always located depositon) in four steelhead spawning tributaries at potential spawning sites, they were meant as were measured.

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