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Columbia Basin Fish Accords
  • Accord Partner: Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation

    Chief Joseph Hatchery grounds; Bridgeport, Washington

    On June 20, 2013, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation hosted a ribbon cutting and First Salmon Ceremony to celebrate opening of the new Chief Joseph Hatchery in Bridgeport, Washington.


    Read more here.

    The $51 million project is funded under the Colville Tribes' Fish Accord with BPA, the Corps and Reclamation. Grant County Public Utility District contributed approximately $10 million.

     

    The end goal is to to increase the abundance, productivity, distribution, and diversity of natural spawning populations of spring/summer/fall Chinook salmon in the Okanogan and Columbia Rivers, to help provide hatchery fish for tribal ceremonies and subsistence needs and to increase recreational fishing opportunities.


    The new hatchery will be operated by the Colville Tribes, ultimately producing 2.9 million Chinook salmon per year once it is in full operation by 2015.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    "The Tribes have embraced hatchery reform efforts that seek to find a balance between artificial and natural production and address the often conflicting goals of increased harvest and conservation,"  Keith Wolf, Chief Joseph Hatchery Science program manager.

     

     

    "The Colville Tribe is in the forefront of implementation of a paradigm shift in hatchery management and . . . the challenging process of institutionalizing hatchery reform in the 21st century." 

    Dr. Lars E. Mobrand, senior biometrician for DJ Warren and Associates, congressionally-appointed member of the Hatchery Science Review Group. 

     

    Locations of Colville Tribes' Fish Accord projects.

    Click here for larger view.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Watch a video on the Colville Tribes' harvest program

     
    About the Colville Tribes and their Fish Accord

    The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation are a federally recognized Indian Tribe comprised of 12 distinct Indian tribes. The Colville Reservation occupies 1.4 million acres in north-central Washington, bounded by the Columbia and Okanogan rivers.


    Because Chief Joseph Dam blocks all fish passage upstream on the Columbia River, the Okanogan River is the only watershed on the reservation accessible to anadromous salmon and steelhead trout. The Tribes have always depended upon salmon to sustain their ceremonial and subsistence way of life. However, the Okanogan population of upper Columbia River (UCR) spring Chinook is extinct, and the UCR steelhead that return to that Basin are listed as threatened under the ESA.

      

    From the outset, the tribes’ objective was to focus the federal government’s attention on the needs of upper river listed stocks, particularly in the Okanogan Basin, which had been overshadowed in previous recovery efforts by lower Columbia and Snake river listed species.

     

    The Colville Tribes’ Okanogan Anadromous Fish Recovery Initiative is the core of the Colville Accord.  The 10-year, $141 million agreement includes on-the-ground improvements for Upper Columbia Chinook and steelhead through habitat restoration, safety net hatchery programs, hatchery reforms and spring Chinook reintroduction to the Okanogan River and other Reservation waters.

     

    Link to Colville Tribes' website

     

    Link to Colville Tribes Accord

    Attachment A - Colville Tribes' projects

    Attachment B
    The Fish Accord partnerships

    The Columbia Basin Fish Accords, first signed in 2008, establish a historic partnership among three federal action agencies (BPA, the Corps and Reclamation), six Northwest tribes and three states. 

     

     

    They provide firm commitments to hydro, habitat and hatchery actions, greater clarity about biological benefits and secure funding for 10 years.

     

    Under these agreements, the federal agencies, tribes and states work together as partners to provide tangible survival benefits for salmon recovery by upgrading passage over federal dams, restoring river and estuary habitat, and through scientific hatchery management.   

     

     

     

     

     
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