Changes ranging from the replacement of existing water supplies, to shifting species emphasis to better localizing broodstocks are among the recommendations contained in a draft report on the operation of three federal hatcheries in Idaho's Clearwater and Salmon drainages.

The "Dworshak, Kooskia and Hagerman National Fish Hatcheries Assessments and Recommendations" draft report was released for public comment in late September by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The draft is the latest in a phased review of 21 USFWS hatcheries in the Columbia River basin owned by the federal agency. The overall review, launched in 2005, aims to assure that the fish rearing programs "are part of an integrated and science-based strategy -- consistent with broader state, tribal, and federal strategies -- for conserving wild stocks and managing fisheries in watersheds within the Columbia River basin."

Dual goals are sustainable fisheries and the conservation of naturally-spawning populations of salmon, steelhead and other aquatic species.

The USFWS' Review Team considered, as a foundation for its assessments, four characteristics of each salmonid stock in the Clearwater and Snake river watersheds: biological significance, population viability, habitat conditions, and harvest goals. It attempted to use both short- (15 years) and long-term (50-75 years) goals for each salmonid stock, as identified by the fishery cooperators, as a foundation for assessing the benefits and risks of the agency's hatchery programs.

As an example, for Dworshak's B steelhead program the Review Team "recommends (a) replacement of pumped water from the North Fork Clearwater River (in the immediate vicinity of the hatchery ladder) with gravity-feed water from Dworshak Reservoir to reduce fish health risks; (b) construction of a smolt acclimation pond at Kooskia NFH to replace the direct outplanting of smolts into Clear Creek, thereby reducing straying risks and increasing opportunities to recapture unharvested adults; and (c) development of local segregated broodstocks for the South Fork Clearwater River and Kooskia NFH, derived from hatchery-origin adults returning to those locations, to allow termination of the annual outplants from Dworshak NFH.

"Continued propagation of Dworshak NFH B-run steelhead as a genetically-segregated hatchery stock, for which only hatchery-origin adults are used for broodstock, poses a domestication risk to the population as a genetic repository for the extirpated North Fork Clearwater steelhead population," the draft report says. "The use of pumped water from the North Fork Clearwater River, immediately adjacent to the adult entry ladder into the hatchery, creates several disease risks to steelhead reared on station."

About 40 percent of Dworshak B steelhead released from Dworshak are caught in gillnet fisheries in the mainstem Columbia River, 30 percent are caught in sport fisheries in the Columbia and Snake River basins, and 30 percent are recaptured at Dworshak NFH including fish caught in terminal tribal fisheries.

From 2000 to 2006, the sport fishery harvested an estimated 12,230-30,168 fish per year in the Clearwater River, according to the report.

Some of the proposed changes would be costly.

Changing Dworshak's water supply "would probably cost $5-6 million or more," said Doug DeHart, the USFWS' fish technology team leader. Implementation would require regional agreement at the policy level among Columbia basin states and tribes and the involved federal agencies.

The hatchery was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1969 to mitigate for fish losses, particularly steelhead, resulting from the construction and operation of Dworshak Dam, a 600 foot high water storage and hydroelectric dam two miles upstream from the hatchery on the North Fork Clearwater River. The hatchery sits at the confluence of the North Fork and the Clearwater

The Lower Snake draft report can be accessed http://www.fws.gov/pacific/Fisheries/Hatcheryreview/reports.html

The USFWS will accept written comment on the draft received by Monday, Oct. 27. Comments should be sent to:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

ATTN: Pacific Region Fishery Resources/Douglas DeHart

Science and Hatchery Reform

911 NE 11th Avenue

Portland, OR 97232.

DeHart said the agency intended to finalize the report in January.

The USFWS owns four additional hatcheries in Idaho that are operated by Idaho Department of Fish and Game: Clearwater, Magic Valley, Sawtooth and McCall. Programs at those hatcheries will be reviewed in an upcoming report. Programs at all seven at hatcheries (3 NFHs, 4 state-operated hatcheries) operate cooperatively within the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan, a federally funded program to mitigate for fish losses associated with four "run-of-the-river" hydroelectric and transportation dams on the lower Snake River in Washington state.

Contact Fisheries Resources at (503) 872-2763 or email douglas_dehart@fws.gov with any questions about the lower Snake draft report.

Stakeholder meetings for the lower Snake review were held Sept. 29 in Lewiston, Idaho (http://www.klewtv.com/news/local/29916934.html) and Sept. 30 in Boise, Idaho.

The USFWS is now beginning the implementation process for recommendations at its facilities.

A number of small physical and mechanical changes, such as replacing water pumps or replumbing water systems, have been implemented based on recommendations in previously completed reports, DeHart said. Most were completed within existing operational budgets.

Relatively major changes have also taken place, such as discontinuing the spring chinook salmon program at central Washington's Entiat NFH in favor of increased support for the Yakama Nation's coho salmon program.

The move was made based on "significant straying genetic risk to ESA listed natural populations in the Entiat River" and, because of the presence of those wild fish, little opportunity to harvest the hatchery fish.

Another example is the development of a genetically-integrated steelhead broodstock at the Winthrop NFH derived from natural-origin adults in the Methow River and adults returning to the hatchery, DeHart said.

A final report and recommendations for Warm Springs NFH in the Deschutes River basin, the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery Complex (Leavenworth, Entiat, and Winthrop) in eastern Washington and Eagle Creek NFH in the Clackamas River basin are complete and the final versions have been posted online. The review of NFHs in the Columbia River Gorge is now also complete and includes programs at Carson, Little White Salmon, Willard and Spring Creek.

The USFWS has worked closely with the Hatchery Scientific Review Group to assure the two processes end up on the same page, DeHart said. The HSRG is an independent scientific panel established and funded by Congress to provide an autonomous and credible evaluation of hatchery reform as part of the Hatchery Reform Project.

It is looking at all of the Columbia basin's hatcheries, public and private. The objective of the HSRG is to assemble, organize, and apply the best available scientific information and to provide guidance to the policymakers and technical staff who are implementing hatchery reform.

Drafts of the USFWS reports are transmitted to the HSRG to make sure the reform efforts are synchronized. Two of the Review Team's members are also HSRG members, DeHart said.