Yakima Fisheries Project revised Draft Environmental Impact Statement: Summary

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) proposes to fund the Yakima Fisheries Project (YFP) to undertake fishery research and enhancement activities in the Yakima River Basin. The State of Washington and the Yakima Indian Nation would jointly direct the project. The Yakima River system is a promising location for mitigation and enhancement to compensate for stock losses from development and operation of hydroelectric projects elsewhere in the Columbia Basin. The YFP would help determine the role that supplementation might play in increasing natural production of anadromous salmonids throughout the Columbia Basin. In cooperation with BPA, the project managers propose to construct, operate and maintain anadromous (e.g. salmon) fish production facilities. The goal is to conduct research activities designed to increase knowledge of supplementation techniques. These techniques would be applied to rebuild naturally spawning anadromous fish stocks historically present in the Yakima River Basin and, ultimately, those throughout the Columbia River Basin. Eventually, the YFP might involve the supplementation of all stocks of anadromous fish known to have occurred in the Yakima Basin. However, at this time only two alternatives have been proposed: Alternative 1 would supplement depressed naturally spawning populations of upper Yakima spring chinook salmon; Alternative 2 (preferred) would include all actions under Alternative 1; it would also add a study to determine the feasibility of re-establishing a naturally spawning population and a significant fall fishery for coho salmon in the Yakima Basin. (Coho smolts are currently being imported from another basin under the Columbia River Basin Fish Management Plan; the stock is now virtually eliminated from the Basin.)