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Nez Perce Tribe Begins Construction of Kelt Reconditioning Facility at Cherrylane Hatchery by Staff Big Country News, July 17, 2024

A reconditioned steelhead kelt can produce 9,000 eggs
compared to a first-time spawner's average of 6,000 eggs

LAPWAI -- After 16 years of planning, preparation, and advocacy, the Nez Perce Tribe is ready to start construction of a Kelt Reconditioning Facility at the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery in Cherrylane to aid steelhead spawn.

The facility will be the first hatchery project in the basin aimed specifically at recovering threatened steelhead.

The Nez Perce Tribe, in partnership with the Yakama Nation, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, and the University of Idaho, developed the Kelt Reconditioning Project to improve steelhead kelt survival.

The project, operated in coordination with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, collects downstream migrating kelts at Lower Granite, Little Goose, and Lower Monumental dams on the Snake River.

According to the Nez Perce Tribe, only about two percent of the Columbia Basin steelhead population successfully spawn twice due to limitations on downstream adult fish passage. As a result, fewer are found in the Snake and upper Columbia rivers than elsewhere in the basin.

The project aims to assist steelhead in becoming repeat spawners, a trait that has become increasingly rare due to mounting challenges such as sea lions, invasive predators, dams, and fishers, says a Nez Perce Tribe press release. Rising temperatures have added to the challenges.

By collecting and reconditioning kelts, the tribal programs are helping wild steelhead spawners that would most likely have died, according to the Nez Perce Tribe.

"Most people know that anadromous fish, such as as salmon, die shortly after they spawn," said Dave Johnson, Director of the Nez Perce Department of Fisheries Resources Management. "Most steelhead in the Columbia Basin only spawn once as well. But when conditions are right, steelhead can spawn a second time. The goal of the Kelt Reconditioning Project is to provide those right conditions to as many steelhead as possible. Because the wild runs of Snake Basin B-run steelhead are so low, the use of kelts has become an emergency action to put some fish on the spawning grounds to spawn a second time."

The Columbia River treaty fishing tribes remain the only fisheries managers conducting steelhead kelt reconditioning research in the Columbia Basin. These programs have been successful in identifying reconditioning strategies and methods that work best. Kelt reconditioning has proven effective in improving wild steelhead survival by avoiding multiple dam passages, predation, and unpredictable ocean conditions.

"The Nez Perce Tribe looks forward to operating a facility dedicated to kelt reconditioning and recovering this culturally important species," said Shannon F. Wheeler, Chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee.

The new facility, funded by the Bonneville Power Administration, will be constructed by Syblon Reid General Engineering with engineering support from Kleinschmidt Associates.

Once completed, in the spring of 2026, the facility will be capable of long-term reconditioning of up to 750 steelhead kelts on a budget of just under $1 million annually while employing four full-time employees.

The addition to the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery was first proposed in 2008. In 2016, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NPCC) approved the project's Master Plan. The NPCC's Independent Science Review Panel highlighted kelt reconditioning as a successful strategy in their 2022 review, stating, "The project provides an excellent example of developing a relatively uncertain approach into a viable management alternative to enhance spawner abundance in natural steelhead populations." The National Marine Fisheries Service recognized the Kelt Reconditioning Project as the sole hatchery action in the basin directly enhancing wild steelhead abundance.

Once the new facility is completed, the Nez Perce Department of Fisheries Resource Management will collect outmigrating kelts after spawning and transport them to the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery, where they will be held in optimal conditions and fed to increase their survival chances and rebuild the energy reserves required for repeat spawning.

After overwintering in the hatchery, the kelts will be released back into the Snake River, coinciding with the river's main steelhead run to ensure the reconditioned kelts have plenty of spawning potential.

A reconditioned steelhead kelt can produce 9,000 eggs compared to a first-time spawner's average of 6,000 eggs, so increasing their survival has the potential to significantly enhance steelhead populations. Past releasees of kelts have accounted for as much as 38% of the entire B-run steelhead population spawning in the Snake River Basin, according to the Nez Perce Tribe.

Related Pages:
Kelt Program Aims to Rehabilitate Valuable Repeat Steehead Spawners in the Snake River by Staff, Lewiston Tribune, 11/21/19
Nez Perce Tribe Seeking Next Step for Steelhead Kelt Facility to Capture, Recondition Spawned Fish by Staff, Columbia Basin Bulletin, 10/2/16
Reconditioning Steelhead Kelts Improves Their Survival by Laura Berg, NW Fishletter, 9/6/16

Related Sites:
Repeat Spawners: Study Looks At How Improving Steelhead 'Kelt' Survival Could Aid At-Risk Populations by Staff, Columbia Basin Bulletin 7/22/16
Will Getting Some Steelhead To Spawn Twice Improve Numbers? Yakama Nation Project Looks For Answers by Staff, Columbia Basin Bulletin 11/7/14