Working for a Healthy Wind River
Did you know, wherever you go, you’ll find yourself in a watershed? A watershed collects rainwater and runoff into streams and rivers, which in this area eventually lead to the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean. The Wind River watershed is one of the largest in Skamania County.
The Wind River drains a 225 square mile watershed that begins between Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams and enters the Columbia River about six miles above Bonneville Dam. While most of the watershed is part of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, there are private forestlands and residences as well, including the communities of Carson and Stabler.
Wild summer steelhead are a principal native fish species present in the watershed. Shipherd Falls, which is located just a mile up from the river mouth, historically blocked all the less-athletic salmon species, while steelhead (technically a searun trout) were historically able to leap up over the falls. A constructed fishway, managed by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), now enables additional fish passage, however only wild steelhead and spring Chinook from the Carson National Fish Hatchery are passed through the fish ladder upstream.
One reason the Wind River watershed is unique is because it was designated as a wild steelhead sanctuary by WDFW. The gene pool of steelhead in the watershed is not supplemented by hatchery steelhead, and this helps preserve the wild fish genetics of the species.
Historical habitat degradation, releases of hatchery summer steelhead, and heavy fishing of wild steelhead, in addition to factors outside of the watershed like ocean temperatures, all contributed to the decline of Wind River steelhead. In 1998, the National Marine Fisheries Service listed the steelhead of the Lower Columbia River as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
In 1997, WDFW rated the status of the Wind River summer steelhead as Critical and the National Marine Fisheries Service listed them as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1998. Due to the status of this stock, Wind River summer steelhead have the highest priority for recovery and restoration in the State of Washington’s Lower Columbia Steelhead Conservation Initiative.
Each year, WDFW estimates the steelhead population in the watershed, and this year the final run size for wild summer steelhead was estimated at over 500. Therefore the Wind above Shipherd Falls re-opened from Sept. 16 to Nov. 30 for catch-and-release steelhead angling.
Harvest of wild steelhead ended in the mid-1980s and releases of hatchery steelhead ended in the mid-1990s, leaving habitat degradation as the primary local factor that limits populations in the watershed.
That’s where the Wind River Watershed partnership comes into play. The partnership is a collaborative effort between four agencies to recover wild steelhead in the watershed. The partnership came together in the early 1990s and includes Underwood Conservation District (UCD), United States Geological Survey (USGS), United States Forest Service (USFS), and Washington State Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW).
Project partners conduct monitoring and research on steelhead populations, attempt to identify habitat factors that limit population growth, and work to restore degraded habitats. Funding from Bonneville Power Administration supports the work, supplemented by other grants and assistance from groups ranging from the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding to Clark-Skamania Flyfishers.
Partner activities include: monitoring and research on steelhead populations (USGS and WDFW), evaluating physical habitat conditions (UCD and USFS), assessing watershed health (all), reconnecting habitat (UCD and USFS), reducing road sediment sources (USFS), rehabilitating riparian corridors, floodplains, and channel geometry (UCD and USFS), and promoting local watershed stewardship (UCD).
Recent habitat restoration activities have been conducted by UCD in the Little Wind River, while other restoration projects are being planned and conducted with other private and local landowners. The USFS has also led habitat restoration work on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Meanwhile USGS and WDFW have conducted annual monitoring and research to assess the status and trends of the steelhead population, and measure its responses to habitat restoration in the watershed.
Work by WDFW includes operation of an adult fish ladder and trap at Shipherd Falls, conducting snorkel surveys each summer to count wild steelhead, and operating four rotary screw traps that capture and PIT tag out-migrating steelhead smolts in Trout Creek, Panther Creek, the upper Wind River, and at the Wind River mouth. Data collected from these monitoring sites are used to estimate adult and smolt abundance each year, and to estimate survival of steelhead in each of their life-stages as they progress from small juveniles, to smolts, to returning adults. The data are also used to track the population’s response to habitat restoration in the watershed.
Work by USGS includes tagging of juvenile steelhead with Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags and operation of instream antenna systems to track PIT-tagged steelhead. The instream antenna systems assist USGS and WDFW in tracking juvenile and adult steelhead. These systems provide data on life-history aspects of the fish such as survival, movement to different habitats within the river, migration timing, and population estimates. Ongoing work is focused on migration of juvenile steelhead to differing rearing areas of the watershed prior to their seaward migration and assessing restoration efforts such as the population response in Trout Creek following the removal of Hemlock Dam. These efforts will help managers and restoration practitioners in both the Wind River and other watersheds to make smart decisions regarding planning for restoration or other efforts to restore and protect valuable fish runs in the future.
The USFS Gifford Pinchot National Forest (GPNF) manages the forest and streams within the national forest portion of the Wind River watershed. The GPNF conducts habitat surveys, monitors water temperature and streamflow at key locations in the watershed, and conducts habitat restoration where needed to restore watershed processes and healthy habitats. Forest and stream management within the national forest is done under the guidance of the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP). Under the NWFP the Wind River is designated a “Tier I Key Watershed”, and as such is the highest priority for aquatic habitat restoration. Restoration priorities on national forest lands are developed from a combination of field surveys, watershed analysis, and guidance in the Lower Columbia River Salmon Recovery Plan.
Aquatic restoration on national forest lands is intended to restore access to previously occupied habitats, and to re-establish natural processes that will ultimately provide complex and robust habitats, that will be sustained and replenished over time. In the near term, the USFS uses native materials in concert with established principles of natural river processes to improve habitat quality and diversity in forest streams and riparian forests.
Currently, the USFS has identified Trout Creek and Trapper Creek/Middle Wind River as priority subwatersheds for restoration within the Wind River watershed. The intent is to complete all essential restoration activities in these drainages in the next 5 to 10 years.
UCD focuses habitat restoration and watershed stewardship on the private lands in the watershed, south of the national forest boundary. UCD has a long history of working with various private landowners on a variety of issues, from streamside habitat enhancement to fish passage, forest management, wildfire risk reduction and livestock issues. UCD’s most recent habitat enhancement project in the watershed is on the Little Wind River, in cooperation with three landowners; search Little Wind River on YouTube, and the first item is a short film highlighting this project, called “Renewal on the Little Wind.” UCD can be available to make site visits and answer questions or advise on natural resource concerns; and their technical staff can be reached at 509-493-1936 or www.ucdwa.org.
To learn more about the partners’ different activities in the watershed, visit: https://www.ucdwa.org/wind-river-watershed-project