Proposal Could Mean Future Salmon Fishing

DAYTON - The community is invited to hear a proposal by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation that would revive the salmon population to the Touchet River and provide fishing in the river in 10 to 15 years.

The meeting will be at 7 p.m., March 15, at the Seneca Labor Camp Activities Building on Green Giant Camp Road, east of the Highway 12 overpass on the east end of Dayton.

The meeting is being held to present a proposal by local fish biologists to return natural salmon to the Touchet River and to provide a forum for the public to ask questions and voice concerns, said Gary James, the Tribal Fisheries program manager.

"We just want total transparency with the public," he said.

The Touchet, like the Umatilla Basin, saw its natural salmon run eliminated in the early 1900s because of low water flow and passage problems for the salmon, James said.

He said salmon used to be abundant in the Walla Walla tributaries and it is the goal of his agency and Washington and Oregon fish and wildlife offices to return salmon to our local rivers.

Glen Mendel, the district fish biologist in the Dayton Fish and Wildlife office, said there has been a few Spring Chinook salmon in the Touchet River for about the past 10 years, but the number is not nearly large enough to allow fishing.

These three agencies have been working on restoring salmon to rivers in northeast Oregon and Southwest Washington for the past 10 to 20 years. They have been successful so far in Umatilla and recently Mill Creek and the Touchet River is next on the list, James said.

The proposal lays out a couple of steps to return salmon naturally to the Touchet.

First, if the fish managers with the three agencies approve this proposal, the first step will be to plant about 100 adult salmon in the Touchet River above Dayton this August. After the fish are planted, James said the fish will lay eggs in the gravel riverbed and spawn.

Next, the groups would like to turn the Walla Walla fish facility into a hatchery. This would allow smolt salmon, a young salmon that is two or three years old, to be grown in Walla Walla and then transferred up the Touchet.

The smolts would then be planted up the Touchet River, no adults.

When the salmon naturally return to this area of the Touchet River, which can take three to five years, James said a fishery can be established for American Indian and non- American Indian fishing.

If there are no major obstacles or concerns with this proposal, James said the first step, planting adult salmon in the Touchet, could happen this August.

"The ducks are lined up for it to happen this year," he said.

But, for the number of naturally returning salmon to get big enough in the Touchet for fishing, James said it won't be anytime soon, more likely, 10 to 15 years.

"We have to have repeated (salmon) returns - a big, built up return," he said. "They haven't been there in a century - this can't be turned around (overnight)."

In the Umatilla area where this was first started 10 years ago, he said they have only had one fishery and it produced five salmon, so there's still a ways to go.

Mendel said he hopes the date for fishing to open is sooner.

"I'm hoping it's in the next 10, but we'll see," Mendel said.

But, when fishing does become available, James said both American Indians and non- American Indians will both be able to catch fish, and likely split the returns fifty-fifty.

Mendel said the agreement is still not concrete, but the tribal members have expressed interest in fishing upstream from Dayton. He said it is possible non-tribal people will be able to fish in areas downstream of Dayton.

James encouraged those interested to come to the meeting on March 15 to hear the proposal and start a dialogue about the effort.