The summer picnic in mid-August brought about 40 folks together at the Susan Creek day-use site.  The current board of directors, as voted on during the meeting, are listed on the last page of this Whistle. During the business meeting Rich Grost showed photos of salmon and steelhead moving through the Soda Springs fish ladder.  Hopefully some of these fish will make it up Fish Creek to spawn.  Laura Jackson gave a summary of the Steamboat ladder reconstruction.  An  informational sign is being developed by ODFW  which acknowledges, among other organizations, the contribution the Steamboaters made toward the ladder reconstruction.  She also mentioned the placement of lamprey ramps at Winchester Dam to improve their passage upriver.  The lake behind the dam was drawn down  in early September to facilitate some repair work to the dam.  The contractor installed sprinklers along the resulting backwater mud flat to reduce the mortality of the young lamprey (called  ammocetes).  Lamprey eel are on Oregon's sensitive species list and have been declining significantly on the North Umpqua.  Finally Sierra Lewis, recent masters graduate in fisheries from Oregon State,  summarized some of her thesis work related to the tracking of marine nitrogen in stream-side vegetation above and below  Soda Springs dam.  Salmon are thought to be transporters of this nitrogen isotope as they return to headwater streams to spawn.  The relative strength of the marine nitrogen signal is thought to be based upon population abundance and salmon mortality rates across an entire river basin.  Her research was to infer the historical distribution of salmon in the upper reaches of the North Umpqua based upon deposition patterns of this nitrogen isotope.  Her results indicate that this technique may not be universally applicable as way to trace historical salmon distributions. 

At this writing the McKenzie FlyFishers continue to press the ODFW on the introduction of hatchery spring Chinook into that river.  The Steamboaters have joined with the McKenzie Fly Fishers in their Notice of Intent to Sue.  As of early November both the McKenzie Flyfishers' Board and  a majority of their membership have voted to go forward with the lawsuit.

Peter Tronquet, Joe Ferguson and Jeff Dose have been actively involved in various stakeholder meetings related to the Multi-species Coastal  Conservation  Plan (MCCP).  The Steamboaters Board voted in late August to hire two fisheries scientist, Steve Cramer and Chuck Huntington, to review portions of the draft conservation plan.  Steve will evaluate  the plan's  emphasis on hatchery production, the potential harvest of wild salmonids within the Umpqua River basin, the low escapement levels and the  abundance/ dispersion assumptions for winter steelhead.    Chuck will review the basins listed in the conservation plan as wild fish management areas.   As part of this science panel review of the draft conservation plan, the Native Fish Society has also contracted with two fisheries scientists to review proposed hatchery programs.  The intent of both organizations is to provide an external science review of the draft conservation plan with the hopes of affecting a change in proposals before the plan becomes a final document.  As a minimum the science panel observations will provide a benchmark for further conservation efforts that may occur in the future.

Over the last several years there has been several discussions between various Steamboater members related to fishing regulations appropriate for the fly water section of the North Umpqua River, everything from closing a section to winter fishing to even more constraints of fishing gear.   More recently,  discussion during the MCCP stakeholder meetings have suggested a limited harvest of wild winter steelhead in the lower Umpqua River.  Understandably discussions like these raise the hackles of some folks.  Sometimes we need to get out of Dodge to put these discussions in perspective.  I had two experiences this summer to hone down my perspective, one of over regulation and the other of under regulation.   I was fishing off San Juan Island for humpback salmon coming in from the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  Since I last fished there, about 2004, the WDFG has changed the regulations to one barbless hook per lure with all native fish being released while in the water.  This is in a geographical area which sees salmon in the low millions passing through.   The second experience was at the mouth of the Deschutes River in mid September after fishing upriver several days for steelhead.  Everything we were catching was less than 10 pounds, and all natives.  The fish biologist who checked us on leaving the river mentioned the Indian nets on the Columbia are tending to select out the larger fish.  Last year the fish take was large enough in one night to force closing the anadromous fish season in northeast Oregon that year.   On the Umpqua River we are dealing with a minuscule number of fish compared to the Deschutes or the San Juan Islands and we, at times, pride ourselves in thinking maybe we are over-regulating.  Are we capable of sacrificing our immediate desires for some biological potential in the future, even if we may not reach that potential in our lifetime?  In the counseling world they call it 'delayed gratification'.  Contrary to the old adage,  I'm suggesting a bird (fish in this case) in the hand isn't worth two in the bush when it comes to wild fish.   

There are numerous factors that will affect anadromous fish populations in the Umpqua River basin as a consequence of global climate change.  These include: 1) reduced ocean productivity due to acidification impacts (from CO2 emissions) on food chains, the likely result would be smaller fish and/or reduced survival; 2) altered hydrologic regimes e.g., less snow, more rain; earlier snow melt = lower flows earlier in the season; 3) the amount of the basin with adverse water temperatures will increase and for longer periods; 4) winter storm intensity will increase (more scour); and 5) altered groundwater recharge.  These effects will have impacts on our native aquatic systems, including anadromous fish.

Because the Umpqua is a large basin with several large geo-regions, the impacts will not be equal.  Gordie thinks the worst impacts will occur in the surface-flow dominated watersheds, particularly in the small tributaries in upper reaches of watersheds e.g., Coast Range (main stem, Smith, Cow Creek (parts) and Western Cascades (South Umpqua (most) and North Umpqua (below Toketee).  The ground-water dominated portions (upper North Umpqua) will be less impacted, but there will likely be impacts - just not as severe.

Of course there will be lots of annual variability, these are just long-term trends.  With regard to ocean acidification, there are other factors that affect ocean productivity, some of which tend to be cyclic - such as El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO).  One potentially adverse impact that Gordie is concerned about is a "double-whammy" that would occur with smaller fish size (from reduced ocean productivity) trying to spawn in a more dynamic, scour-induced stream system.  Body size determines ability to dig deeper redds and in coarser substrate.

Finally, he gave a predicted vulnerability of our various species from these changes.  As expected, those species that are most dependent on small streams at lower elevations will be most vulnerable.  Coastal (searun) cutthroat are most vulnerable, followed by coho salmon.  Spring Chinook (stream-type) were next followed by summer steelhead and then by fall Chinook (ocean-type).  Least vulnerable were winter steelhead.  Much of this vulnerability rating has to do with when and where they spawn as well as whether they have to over-summer in freshwater.  Those species that spawn the latest (winter steelhead) or have no over-summering life history (fall Chinook) should fare the best.  Gordie thought that some selective pressure may cause summer steelhead to become more like winter steelhead and spring Chinook might eventually revert to fall Chinook. 

 Long Leaders by Lee Spencer