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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These trout are also adaptable to a range of conditions and can be found growing up to 24 inches in the deep waters of Lake Roosevelt and 4-5 inches in smaller headwater such as those flowing into Hangman (Latah) Creek. Along the Spokane River there can be as many as 300 fish per mile, but in some Idaho rivers their numbers can be as high as 3,000 fish per mile.

It isn’t always easy to tell a redband from coastal rainbow trout varieties, especially if it is at the end of a fly line. Even fish biologists Casey Flanagan and Conor Giorgi who work for the Spokane Tribe have trouble at times. But there are some ways to tell them apart.

Flanagan says in the Spokane area, hatchery trout, which are coastal rainbow varieties, will have a clipped adipose fin (a small fin along the back). Redband can also have some distinctive coloration including the namesake red lateral band as well as large rounded spots. Flanagan and Giorgi say those marks become more distinctive in populations that live in smaller streams. But when Flanagan wants to be absolutely sure she uses genetic markers.

Redband Face a Variety of Challenges

Although redband live in a variety of river habitats, their population numbers can be limited by degraded streamside habitat, increases in water temperature, as well as competition and predation from non-native fish.

The Spokane River by Sandifur Bridge near downtown Spokane is a year-round stronghold for redband and is an important nesting area where fish dig depressions in the gravel called reds to layer their eggs. Redbands struggle on other stretches of the Spokane such as those downstream of the Post Falls Dam where they are preyed on by the non-native popular game fish, small mouth bass.

The watershed of the Little Spokane River with its cold spring-fed waters and healthy riparian habitat has a healthy population of redband. Whereas some tributaries of Hangman Creek, on the other hand, have lower population numbers due to warm, seasonal water temperatures and frequent fine sediment erosion from surrounding agricultural land. This fine sediment covers up the larger gravel that the trout use to make their reds.

Conservation Collaboration

There are many collaborative conservation efforts in the region. The Spokane Tribe, Confederated Colville Tribes, and Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) collect and share similar data. Groups like the Spokane River Forum and the Spokane Riverkeeper are putting up education signage and working to protect water quality.

The EPA, Department of Ecology, tribes and WDFW are working on habitat restoration, including removing fish barriers in the Little Spokane watershed and restoring meanders and streamside habitat to the headwaters of Hangman Creek. Several county conservation districts are also encouraging landowners to opt into a voluntary stewardship program to protect their riparian habitat.

With clean water and intact, healthy habitat, redband trout can thrive in rivers and streams here in the Inland Northwest, allowing them to play their natural role in our aquatic ecosystems and anglers and nature lovers the chance so catch or see this magnificent fish.

As the weather warms up you can find Adam floating the Spokane in canoe, packraft, inner tube, or along with any friend with room on their fly-fishing raft. He last wrote about a close encounter with a woodpecker.

The post Spokane’s Native Redband Trout appeared first on Out There Venture.

On a recent weekday I spoke with Nick Wright, the only other person I encountered that day at Drumheller. A short, wiry man with intense eyes and a sincere smile, Wright was topping off a plastic water bottle from an easy-to-overlook pipe emerging below the upper meadow, at the foot of the new-looking staircase. “It’s cleaner than the Vatican,” he said. “This water is powerful.”

Wright came from the tiny town of Malott, Washington, in Okanogan County to connect with nature and bathe in the ancient rivulet at Drumheller Park. He says the springs restore his body and spirit and relieve the damaged tendons and joint pain he’s incurred through years of manual labor. He started coming here five years ago whenever he needed to “reconnect to spirit.” Healing powers aside, Wright’s not the only one with a deep connection to the springs.

Barry Moses, a Spokane Indian, has been trying to restore Drumheller to the way area tribes knew it for millennia. “My great aunt would camp here during the three-day trip from Wellpinit,” he says. His efforts began in earnest in 2011 when a well-intentioned tree-planting effort endangered one of the last urban sources of native food-plants like brown camas, Indian carrots, and bitterroot. Ponderosa pines, while indigenous and plentiful in Spokane, acidified soil and blocked sunlight. “There were never Ponderosas at Drumheller,” Moses said, citing tribal records. “It was always open.”

Moses convinced members of The Lands Council to let him show them what he meant. “It was spring, so it was easy to see where the new planting was already affecting the native plants.” As the group encountered each native food plant, Moses served up traditional meals he’d prepared and packed in containers the night before, all made from the same plants. The tactic worked. The Lands Council members agreed to replant the saplings elsewhere, and the ordeal led to a Memorandum of Understanding with the Spokane Parks Board and the Lands Council. The Upper Columbia United Tribes (UCUT) became the primary caretakers of the park.

Carole Parks is a science instructor at Spokane Community College. She studied Drumheller extensively for her zoology master’s thesis. Her research shows that native wildlife at Drumheller is declining, especially in springtime when the vernal pools dry up. Pacific tree frogs, water fowl, and deer still live here, but the long-toed salamanders that neighbors reported catching in decades past have all but disappeared. “I never saw a single one,” she said. When the pools dry, amphibians are driven into the yards of the surrounding neighborhoods where they must contend with urban threats such as pets, people, lawnmowers, vehicles, and exposure to pesticides and fertilizers.

Yet in other ways it’s better than it used to be. Abandoned vehicles used to litter the grounds until the mid-90s when Mary Porter and her Rogers High School students removed tons of garbage, and the city ringed the park in boulders to keep cars out.

It’s hard to imagine Drumheller as anything other than pristine. I sat by a sprawling willow and tried to visualize it. Then a movement caught my eye — two deer, young bucks with velvety antlers. They eyed me warily, munching leaves as they moved along in near silence.

Beyond the park boundary is a newly acquired buffer zone, an extra layer of real estate where a house once stood, and Drumheller seems a little bit safer, at least in my imagination. All around, a city rushes by, oblivious, like a river parting around a grand, old tree.

Drumheller Springs Quick Facts

• Size: 12 acres
• Number of distinct plants: 175
• 1870: Chief Spokan Garry operates a long house and school for Native Americans at Drumheller.
• 1880: The park’s namesake, Daniel Drumheller, operates a pig farm on the property.
• 1968: Eastern Washington Historical Society purchases the property.
• Historical names: Stiuwa’tłxʷ; Lone Pine Springs; Garry Spring; Spring Hill.
• Park map from Spokane City Parks & Recreation

Learn about other Spokane city parks in the OTO archives.

Story published in the September 2016 print edition of “Out There Venture” magazine as the Urban Outdoors column.

[Feature photo by Nick Thomas – Two bucks enjoy vernal pools at Drumheller Springs.]

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