Chinook salmon are a cultural and ecological keystone species for the rivers of the Inland Northwest. These salmon, among other anadromous, ocean-going fish, were blocked from their historical migration routes with the construction of Grand Coulee Dam in 1942. For regional tribes, chinook were once abundant and important subsistence fish upstream of that dam

Paired with previous adult and juvenile releases, this study will be the first large-scale formal research investigating the behavior and survival of these juvenile fish as they make their way through Lake Roosevelt, passing Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams, followed by the successive downstream dams on the Columbia River equipped with fish passage.

This is a truly collaborative process, pooling resources between the three tribes. First, Chinook salmon to be released are raised in the Coeur d’Alene tribal fish hatchery.

Next, the Tribes release juvenile chinook into their waterways: Latah Creek, the Spokane River below Nine Mile Dam, and areas of Lake Roosevelt. Releases are timed so that as the fish move downstream, they will create a larger and larger sample size.

Tribes use two different tracking devices: a passive integrated transponder (PIT tag), like ones used in pets, and an acoustic tag. The PIT tags generate data for the life of the fish as it passes through the dams on the Columbia on its way to the ocean, and then hopefully in 2–3 years on its return as an adult swimming upstream through the dams with fish passage.

According to Colville Confederated Tribal fish biologist Casey Baldwin, “The acoustic study that is occurring this spring is the first large-scale pilot study to evaluate survival in reaches of the blocked area and through the dams, and it will also provide some data on travel times and behavior near the dams.”

Due to size and battery life, acoustic tags will provide data for an average of 80 days. The Tribes share the maintenance of 50 acoustic arrays in Lake Roosevelt.

The acoustic tags can be monitored from approximately 200 meters away of an array, whereas the PIT tags must come within five feet of a reader. The PIT tag readers are located in fish passages on Rocky Reach Dam, near the city of Wenatchee, Wash., and other downstream dams.

For this season, the study has a sample size of 770 acoustic tags and approximately 4,500 PIT tags, released at nine different sites. The Tribes will repeat this study for the next three years.

Although this season marks the first formal study on juvenile chinook behavior and survival, there have been previous adult and juvenile releases for both cultural and research purposes. Releases in both the Sanpoil and the Little Spokane Rivers reveal that habitat above the dams is suitable for successful reproduction.

In the Sanpoil River, the Colville Tribe has confirmed successful spawning through the documentation of redds (spawning nests) and out-migrating juveniles past the dam the following spring.

In August 2021, the Spokane Tribe released 51 adults, 20 with radio tags, in the Waikiki springs area of the Little Spokane and found nine redds, although their surveys were limited due to private property river access.

If landowners along the Little Spokane are interested in helping the reintroduction effort, they can contact Spokane Tribal Fisheries about conducting surveys within their private waterways.

The fish of the Columbia River were and are the cultural touchstone for the Tribes of the Upper Columbia. The salmon that once ran from the streams of northeast Washington and North Idaho to the ocean and back supplied up to 75% of the subsidence diet and were the focus of seasonal gatherings, trade, and ceremonies.

As the late Colville Tribal elder Mary Marchand once said, “If you bring back our salmon, you will bring back our culture.”

Originally published in the May-June 2022 print issue.

Find more stories about salmon in the OTO archives.

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Millgate will follow and film the migration through multiple states and across hundreds of miles while learning about salmon and their incredible journey to complete their life cycle. The project begins at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon and ends at the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River in central Idaho. Video footage gathered during the 850-mile trip the salmon make will turn into a finished film plus stories for print and video media outlets nationwide in 2021.  

“From the deltas of the Pacific Coast to the vast public lands of Idaho’s backcountry, this project reveals incredible landscapes and the nearly impossible migration of Chinook salmon within those landscapes,” says Millgate, summarizing the project.  

Only a couple dozen of the native Chinook salmon at the center of Millgate’s storytelling adventure survive the annual migration and return to spawn in the Yankee Fork, however. As tiny smolts, the young fish must ride the spring runoff from the mountain waters to the Pacific. Along the way they face many challenges, including making it through or around several dams and reservoirs. Those that survive face other challenges as they grow and mature for several years out in the Pacific Ocean before turning around and making that same difficult journey back upstream to reproduce in the waters where they were born. Then, after all that, they die in their home waters, continuing their role in a complex and dynamic process as their carcasses deliver nutrients to the ecosystem.  

The choice to end her journey on the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River east of Stanley, Idaho, has personal and historical significance, says Millgate. “I had been to a spot on the Yankee Fork where there’s an old gold dredge still sitting there along the river from 70 years ago while shooting video for a film on salmon recovery. Everything we did to develop the West is on bold display right there,” she says. The Yankee Fork once supported thousands of native salmon, but the gold dredging of the river channel that took place for a little over a decade in the 1940s led to huge declines in native fish. Today, despite the habitat destruction unleashed by that five-story gold dredge, a handful of native Chinook salmon still make it back to spawn in the Yankee Fork each year. “This fish is stronger than all get out. I started thinking about the long journey those fish make to get to Idaho, and I wanted to take on a project that engages people to appreciate them.”  

While driving the thousands of miles it will take to follow the salmon as they swim upstream will be a challenge in its own right, the more difficult task ahead for Millgate is to fairly and accurately tell her story. There are heated emotions and tricky politics that surround most public dialog about the plight of Idaho’s remaining salmon. But Millgate says fish and wildlife controversies are right up her alley. “I’ve covered grizzlies, wolves, and other issues that get people fired up. As a journalist,” she says, “I’m attracted to those issues because of that dynamic.”   

She also knows she will be interviewing a wide range of people with different interests that are linked to the fate of Idaho’s salmon and steelhead one way or another. “I want to share those diverse views,” she says. “Nobody is paying me to represent a perspective, and I’m going to cover the wide range of the challenges salmon face, but the film will also focus on the different human perspectives.” Her goal with the final film is to appeal to a general audience of people who might typically be more focused on feeding their families than the plight of salmon and to get them to think about the issue and be inspired. “Just the idea of seeing the country these fish go through—it’s an incredible journey. With all the challenges they now face, it’s remarkable.”  

Millgate started planning the Ocean to Idaho project last year, but after the Coronavirus pandemic hit, she had to re-envision everything. She canceled her flights and hotels and had to rethink how she would travel. Desperate times call for creative measures, she says, and the best way for her to work solo and be self-contained was to find project sponsor partners to help her take her project literally on the road.  

Millgate found her ideal sponsors and started following the migration of Chinook salmon on June 25. She will now travel thousands of miles across the Pacific Northwest in a Toyota Tundra paired with a Four Wheel Camper, the world’s largest producer of pop-up campers. Her days consist of driving around from shoot to shoot and living out of her camper, where she also stores her gear and recharges her arsenal of batteries for her five cameras. “Living out of a camper is plenty of space for me,” she says. With the 4×4 Tundra provided by Inland Northwest Toyota Dealers, Millgate says she can get out on dirt roads away from people and to some of the remote places where she needs to film. “I can work all day, and the solar panels on the Four Wheel Camper charge everything. When I get in there at night, I turn on the lights and the fridge is on and I can pop the roof up by myself. With the top up, there’s plenty of room to stand up and move around.”  

You can follow Millgate’s adventure and the salmon migration on her social media channels this summer or from project updates, both of which can be found on the Ocean to Idaho website at www.oceantoidaho.com. Millgate stresses that her ultimate goal for the project is to increase awareness. “I hope it creates new appreciation of these fish and other wildlife and maybe inspires more people to do something to help them.”

Originally published as “Ocean to Idaho: Following the Migration of Idaho Chinook Salmon” in the July-August 2020 issue.

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