Summary of Upper Skagit Watershed Fish and Wildlife Monitoring Technical Meeting, North Cascades National Park Service Complex headquarters (Sedro- Woolley, WA), April 11, 2008 Participants: Twenty scientists and managers (see attached list) from the US National Park Service (NPS), Washington Dept of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW); US Forest Service (FS); Seattle City Light (SCL); British Columbia Ministry of Environment (MOE); Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission (SEEC) Meeting objectives per the meeting agenda: • Sharing information on ongoing fish & wildlife monitoring projects within the Upper Skagit Watershed • Identifying opportunities for collaboration • Identifying needs/opportunities for data management • Linking monitoring projects to land management needs Presentation summaries (in order they were given): Jack Oelfke, North Cascades National Park Service Complex: Jack provided an overview of the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program, a national program tailored to the local level that establishes the foundation and basis for a long-term biotic and abiotic ecological monitoring program in the park complex. Goals of the monitoring program include: building understanding of Park resources by tracking status and trends of key resource components; providing the basis for early warning about threats to Park resources; providing reference information useful for comparing resources in the Park to those in less well protected environments. After years of development the following monitoring projects (“Vital Signs”) will be implemented in the North Cascades NPS Complex: mountain lakes, subalpine-forest vegetation; landbirds; glaciers; climate; and landscape dynamics (remote sensing/aerial imagery). Funding limitations prohibit implementation of a broader range of Vital Signs at this time. The program has extensive database management, analysis, and reporting components to ensure long-term archival of information and availability to the public, managers, the research community, etc. All of the park’s Vital Signs will include some monitoring activity in the Upper Skagit Watershed. AJ Fedoruk, BC Ministry of Environment: AJ provided an update on the development of the “Upper Skagit Watershed Fish and Wildlife Management Plan” for MOE. That plan is nearing completion, pending ongoing review. The plan provides an overview of fish and wildlife management issues within the Upper Skagit Watershed in BC, including listing the known fish and wildlife management issues for the area and suggesting strategies to address those issues. A sampling of the issues includes management and monitoring of fish populations, introduced aquatic species, water quality monitoring, wildlife habitat, grizzly bears, mountain goats, mule deer, hunting and trapping, international wildlife, and stressors and future concerns. Of particular note is that many of the issues identified in this plan are considered high priority needs south of the border, on NPS lands, as well. Mark Downen, Washington Dept of Fish and Wildlife: Mark described summary results for a number of fish population monitoring projects he has ongoing on Ross/Diablo/Gorge Lakes, including bull trout, rainbow trout, and the red side shiner. Notable monitoring results from the past 2-3 years of effort for Ross Lake indicate a decline in growth rates of rainbow trout, the appearance and dispersal of red side shiner, high parasite loads in rainbow trout and their presence in bull trout, and a dramatic population increase in red side shiner. Mark noted the looming concerns for native fishery populations in Ross Lake of 1) climate change (and warmer lake temperatures); 2) potential concerns if the red side shiner establishes a long-term presence in Ross Lake; and 3) the consequences of the “aging reservoir” phenomena for Ross Lake in that the lake has reached an age where nutrient decline is expected for the system, with subsequent impacts to fish populations. Duane Jesson, Ministry of Environment: Duane reported on Upper Skagit fishery issues, and noted that all his work is driven by outside funding sources. MOE serves as an advisor to BC parks, but decisions are made by the parks themselves. One project of interest has been a bull trout tagging project which has shown that many fish tagged in Ross Lake move into the Upper Skagit River in BC; Ross Lk has later season spawning activity (mid-October) than in BC (mid-Sept). Duane noted that a SEEC-funded fish and fish habitat inventory was recently completed, showing rainbow trout and char species to predominate. There were no red side shiners detected in this survey; one brook trout was found near Ross Lake; and no cutthroat trout were found. (Note: the report “Reconnaissance Fish & Fish Habitat Inventory of the Skagit River Watershed”, by Triton Environmental, March, 2008, will be available on the SEEC website.) Duane also reported on the angler capacity surveys for the Upper Skagit River for this catch and release fishery, and noted that reports for all these survey projects are available in pdf format. There is high angler satisfaction for the Upper Skagit River, primarily because it is not a crowded fishery. However, he noted a slight decrease in aesthetic fish condition due to frequent catch and release. He voiced concern about the release of non- native perch and bass into lower mainland lakes and Ross Lake, and support for monitoring fish stock status in Ross Lake and BC streams, given high angler demand for a recreational fishery. Duane noted that the last comprehensive snorkel survey was conducted in 1994. Ed Connor, Seattle City Light: Ed provided substantial and interesting life history information on bull trout in the Ross Lake system, and noted that the Ross Lake bull trout population is the 2nd largest population in the United States. He expressed high interest in returning to do work on bull trout in Ross Lake given the concerns of climate change and warming temperatures and the subsequent potential impacts to bull trout. Ed noted there remains several information needs for bull trout in the Upper Skagit system, including life history patterns, survival trends over space and time, migration routes and timing, and habitat use. He believes that an acoustic survey method he has used in the lower Skagit system would work quite well in the Upper Skagit and provide a wealth of life history information. From his prior bull trout work in Ross Lake he noted the importance of the Big Beaver Creek outflow as a critical food source for bull trout when rainbow trout emerge from the turbid Big Beaver Crk into the clearer Ross Lake waters. Ed suggested three big questions loom for the Upper Skagit fisheries: 1) are fish populations changing over time; 2) what are the temperature and flow regimes, and are they changing over time; and 3) is the productivity of the Ross lake reservoir changing over time, given it has reached approximately 55 years in age and nutrient levels have been shown to decline after about 50-70 years in reservoirs. Ken Ashley, SEEC Water Quality Advisor: Ken provided a summary of the March 25, 2008 “Upper Skagit Water Quality“meeting that focused on the first year results of a contracted water quality assessment of the Upper Skagit watershed on the BC side of the border. Due to concerns about the expanding development of both the Sunshine Valley and the Copper Giant Mine, SEEC contracted with the consulting firm Limnotek to conduct the study. The methods being used in this project were selected to enable the information gathered to be incorporated into the greater B.C. and Canadian water quality monitoring efforts. This was seen as essential to initiate the involvement of regulatory agencies if any impairment was detected Results from the first year of the project indicated that biological resources were outside the normal reference conditions in a site downstream from the Copper Giant Mine and from the Sunshine Valley development. Water chemistry data indicated that the potential cause of non-reference condition for the site below the Copper Giant Mine was from elevated levels of cadmium, lead and zinc. The cause of the non-reference condition below the Sunshine Valley development was related to the clearing of trees in the riparian zone. Based on these results, SEEC is considering continuing Limnotek’s work for a second year. This extension will double the number of samples used to build a RCA (Reference Condition Approach) water quality assessment model (± 70 total samples) and pay to have Limnotek finalize the model’s development. The estimated cost for this work is ±$150,000 (Canadian dollars). Ken also brought up the idea of conducting a paleolimnological study to address the concerns about the decline of nutrients in Ross Lake. Being a reservoir and not a true lake, Ross has reduced productivity in the littoral zone due to annual cycles of flooding, desiccation and freezing. Even though this area occupies very little space it is very productive, often 10 times the pelagic productivity, and contributes substantially to the amount of carbon fixed in a natural lake. In Ross we are likely witnessing the tail end of nutrient depletion in this system which will eventually start to impact terrestrial systems. Some of the bigger questions are; 1) Where are we on the nutrient depletion continuum or have we bottomed out? and 2) What actions are we willing to take to restore some of the biological productivity in this system? Robert Naney, Okanagan-Wenatchee NF: Bob reported on several interagency carnivore research and monitoring projects he is involved with that are in or adjacent to the Upper Skagit Watershed. A wolverine capture and tracking project has been ongoing since 2005 that has documented the extensive movements of wolverines ranging from near Hart’s Pass just north of Washington State Highway 20 to north of the border into Manning Park, including travels within the Upper Skagit Watershed. Two other animals, trapped in the upper Twisp River Watershed, have movements from north of Lake Chelan to Hart's Pass.