Statewide Steelhead Management Plan, Part III
page 14, Statewide Steelhead Management Plan
Draft December 21, 2006
REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
Policy Statement
Provide adequate resources to effectively gain compliance with habitat conservation
and fishery management regulations.
Gaining compliance with existing and future regulations is essential in protecting and
maintaining important habitat functions as well as ensuring that fishery protection strategies are
followed. WDFW will utilize both voluntary (such as technical assistance, public outreach,
cooperative partnerships) and regulatory approaches to improve compliance with habitat and
fishery regulations.
Strategies
• Promote Understanding of Enforcement Concerns. Promote improved understanding
of the compliance concerns of fishery and habitat managers and the issues facing fish and
wildlife officers.
• Increase Penalties Associated with Noncompliance. Increase the consequences
associated with noncompliance by increasing the fines for illegal actions.
• Implement Improved Compliance Strategies. Improve compliance with existing
regulations through the development, testing, and implementation of innovative
techniques such as outreach programs and law enforcement emphasis patrols.
• Increase Enforcement Presence in Fishery Areas that have ESA Listed Fish. Illegal
take of ESA listed fish can be detrimental to the overall abundance of a population(s), so
officer presence is key to ensuring fishery compliance.
• Improve Enforcement of Existing Regulations. Rigorously enforce current regulations
to protect salmonid habitat:
o prioritize enforcement of habitat protection measures;
o work to increase the accountability of government entities for the enforcement of
state and local habitat protection laws;
o establish public and private partnerships in enforcing laws needed to protect
salmon habitat.
Actions
1) Seek legislation to change the Hydraulic Permit Application program (HPA) to provide
an expansion in civil authority, that includes infractions, fines, stop work and remediation
orders to increase the effectiveness of the HPA compliance program.
2) Regional Fish Program staff will meet at least quarterly with their corresponding
Enforcement Program Captain and Sergeants to discuss areas needing specific
enforcement emphasis for the protection of the steelhead resource.
3) Fish and Wildlife officers will monitor compliance with priority HPAs.
Statewide Steelhead Management Plan, page 15
Draft December 21, 2006
4) Fish and Wildlife officers will conduct routine and emphasis patrols on fisheries that
directly or indirectly impact ESA listed stocks.
5) WDFW will pursue increasing the penalty and fine associated with the illegal take of
steelhead.
6) Develop and track performance measures associated with fishery and habitat compliance.
7) Develop and implement a “Stream Watch” program to increase the awareness of
regulations and accountability of fishers.
page 16, Statewide Steelhead Management Plan
Draft December 21, 2006
MONITORING, EVALUATION, AND ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT
Policy Statement
Implement monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management to assess and improve the
effectiveness of management and hatchery actions to protect the diversity and
productivity of naturally produced stocks and the habitat they rely on.
Strategies
• Enhance Public Participation in Monitoring. Increase monitoring effectiveness through
enhanced public participation in the collection of data.
• Evaluate Efficacy of Hatchery Programs to Support Harvest or Rebuild Depleted
Natural Populations. Due to the natural variability associated with many of the
indicators, e.g. run size, smolt-to-smolt survival, monitoring will be conducted annually
but evaluation will be conducted over a five-year period.
• Establish Fishery/Escapement Data Management System. Monitor the effectiveness of
management actions in achieving watershed based natural stock and hatchery escapement
goals by maintaining a data system with age-specific estimates of the abundance,
escapement, harvest, and fishery-related mortality of each stock.
• Expand Life History Studies to include the Marine Environment. Early marine
survival as well as ocean distribution and survival are important for understanding and
quantifying status and trend changes.
• Develop Comprehensive Steelhead Adult and Smolt Monitoring Program. Develop
juvenile and adult abundance and productivity estimates for state critical- and federally-
listed steelhead populations consistent with the Governor’s Monitoring Forum.
• Link Recovery Plan Actions with Status and Trends of Steelhead Distinct Population
Segments (DPSs). Actions and monitoring and evaluation programs identified in
regional recovery plans directed at other species can also be beneficial for steelhead and
identification of these links will be important.
Actions
Stock Structure, Diversity, and Abundance
1) Evaluate the stock structure of steelhead in the Puget Sound, Olympic Peninsula, and
Southwest Washington regions. Evaluate assumptions of the 1992 comanager analysis
and, building on the tools developed by the Puget Sound, Willamette/Lower Columbia,
and Interior Columbia technical recovery teams, define and implement a consistent
procedure for evaluating stock structure. In areas with significant uncertainty in stock
structure, collect genetic samples for microsatellite or single nucleotide poloymorphisms
(SNP) analysis with methods that assure run timing and life history type are known.
2) Increase the percentage of natural stocks with escapement assessed on a regular basis
through prioritization of monitoring, soliciting funding, developing alternative estimation
Statewide Steelhead Management Plan, page 17
Draft December 21, 2006
methods and sample designs, and enlisting the assistance of other organizations and the
public. Expand adult snorkel survey methods developed in the lower Columbia River
and Snake River tributaries to further quantify abundance estimates and impacts of
marked hatchery fish spawning naturally with natural-origin steelhead.
3) Include British Columbia hatcheries within a broad scale monitoring and evaluation plan
that assesses the productivity of natural stocks relative to the presence or absence of
integrated or segregated hatchery programs.
4) Monitor and evaluate juvenile and adult abundance and productivity for state critical -
and federally-listed steelhead.
5) Design and implement a program to monitor the genetic and life history characteristics of
steelhead stocks and a management structure for analysis and reporting. Prioritize the
collection of samples from control stocks and from watersheds with both a hatchery
program and a significant natural stock.
6) Assess the actual gene flow rate between the non-local segregated hatchery stocks and
naturally spawning stocks in conjunction with the stock assessment work.
7) Establish a web-accessible database with age-specific estimates of the abundance,
escapement, harvest, and fishery related mortality of natural and hatchery steelhead
stocks.
Stock Status
Reassess the status of all populations in Washington on a 4 to 8 year cycle to assure that
opportunities for early action are not missed. Use population viability analysis (PVA) to
filter spawner abundance data and, for populations identified to have a potential
conservation concern, broaden the analysis to evaluate the contribution of rainbow trout
to population viability, the previous performance of the population, and factors affecting
population status.
9) Annually monitor and review the status of populations at risk, identify limiting factors,
and assess the effectiveness of management actions. If necessary, implement new
programs to address limiting factors, and potentially initiate “rescue programs” like kelt
reconditioning, natural stream channel rearing, or hatchery supplementation to conserve
natural populations until limiting factors are addressed.
Fishery Management
10) Produce an annual summary of smolts stocked by river for management and
informational purposes.
11) Monitor recreational and tribal harvest and encounter rates through creel censuses, catch
card cards, commercial fish buyer’s tickets, and tribal reporting.
12) Assess the accuracy of catch record card estimates of catch and estimate encounters of
steelhead by initiating a rotating series of creel surveys and angler interviews.
Habitat Monitoring
13) Develop and implement a consistent method for using remote sensing data to monitor the
status and trends of habitat.
page 18, Statewide Steelhead Management Plan
Draft December 21, 2006
Hatchery Monitoring
14) Implement hatchery evaluation studies on selected facilities to compare replacement rate
of natural stocks in the absence of hatchery programs with natural populations influenced
by integrated or segregated hatchery programs.
15) Develop broodstock management plans for all steelhead programs and provide summary
of hatchery replacement rate every five years.
Manage for Success
16) Develop and implement a web-based system for monitoring the effectiveness of
management actions and stock performance. Include SaSI stock status assessments and
performance measures for harvest, hatchery, hydro, and habitat management.
17) Periodically evaluate genetic conservation guidelines to ensure steelhead genetic
diversity is conserved.
Statewide Steelhead Management Plan, page 19
Draft December 21, 2006
RESEARCH
Policy Statement
Implement steelhead research to inform management decisions on critical steelhead
issues.
Strategies
• Identify and Prioritize Research. Annually convene key agency staff to review
steelhead studies and prioritize research needs.
• Actively Pursue Funding Opportunities. Pursue funding for research from a variety of
sources, including federal grants, contracts, and the Bonneville Power Administration.
• Collaborate with External Agencies and Organizations. Pursue enhanced collaboration
with universities, the tribes, other agencies, and organizations.
• Promote Interest in Steelhead Research. Promote increased interest and funding of
steelhead research by presenting study results to scientific and general audiences,
developing a web page highlighting research findings, and publishing research findings in
peer review publications.
Actions
1) Assess the fishery related mortality caused by steelhead fisheries, including catch and
release fisheries, through mark recapture or tagging studies.
2) Expand and support research that addresses uncertainties in the types of habitat used by
steelhead.
3) Assess migration rates, pathways, and use of estuary, nearshore, and marine habitat by
juvenile steelhead. Develop a longterm acoustic tagging study designed to increase
understanding of early marine survival.
4) Establish a multi-agency, international study that would incorporate acoustic tagging and
genetic baseline information to understand ocean migration patterns and genetic
relationships.
5) Develop improved tools that relate environmental factors (e.g., climate, water
temperature, stream flow) and the physiological status (e.g., length, growth rate) of
juvenile O. mykiss to the diversity, spatial structure, abundance, and productivity of
steelhead stocks.
6) Support and expand research to link changes in genetic markers to the abundance and
productivity of the population.
7) Build on studies in the Cedar River, Yakima River, and other locations to develop a
better understanding of the relationship of resident and anadromous O. mykiss. From
these studies, develop improved tools to assess the potential effects of management
actions and enhanced management strategies that effectively address resident and
anadromous life history forms.
page 20, Statewide Steelhead Management Plan
Draft December 21, 2006
Determine the statistical requirements to provide reliable estimates of escapement and
harvest contribution. Determine the number of coded-wire tags and other marks needed
in relation to the number of recoveries expected.
9) Enhance Geographic Information System (GIS) capabilities by creating spatial data
layers that identify barriers to fish passage, by incorporating additional variables into
models that predict fish distribution, and by annually mapping the distribution of spawner
redds.
Statewide Steelhead Management Plan, page 21
Draft December 21, 2006
