Page 1 - May 2013

CHEHALIS The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation “People of the Sands” TRIBAL NEWSLETTER May 2013 Free Tour Educates Youth About Fish on the Chehalis River Basin Friday April 5th, during spring on the upper river basing and after break, the youth program took a year two will be able to draw some feld trip to the fsh trap located very defnitive conclusions about in the head waters of the Chehalis fsh migratory patterns. river basin above Pe Ell. This is where the Chehalis Tribal The average length for steelhead Department of Natural Resources out-migrating is 143 mm at a are conducting a fsh study. weight of 25 grams (Bigger than anticipated). With average ages of The children’s favorite part of 2.5 years as determined by scale the study was seeing the juvenile samples. fsh and eel collected that wet cold Friday morning. Mark Next week they hope to begin to White checked the rotary screw start pit tagging steelhead to refne trap and collected a few juvenile fsh movements and travel times. fsh and lamprey eel. After Next year they will incorporate transporting them to the portable telemetry to determine losses building used for sampling. The through different reaches of the youth scampered inside to watch Youth observe Mark White collect samples from the rotary river. This will help improve Mark White weigh, measure and screw trap on the upper reaches of the Chehalis River Basin. restoration efforts and increase fsh document the species caught that About the Fish Study sculpins. Over 900 fsh have been runs through survivability. morning. captured, recorded and identifed. Natural Resources started operating For more information about this He showed the children some of the trap offcially on February When there are species that study please contact Bill Secena the samples that were going to be 4 . It will run thru mid June (or cannot be identifed, they are sent at 360-688-4305 or Mark White, th sent to the lab for further testing. whenever the water levels drop so to a lab in Olympia for species Director of Chehalis Tribal Natural Due to the small enclosure they far that they can’t operate it) and identifcation. Sometimes utilizing Resources at 360-709-1551 or took turns watching the process of will resume in the winter. The local knowledge in the area helps email: Mwhite@chehalistribe.org documenting the fsh. project is funded for two years by with species identifcation. the Tribe, Lewis County PUD and After all the documentation was the Washington State Department What they have learned fnished they were released by of Fish and Wildlife. at this very early stage in Fisheries Technician, Bill Secena the study is the length of back into the river. Currently they are time (age of juveniles) catching Steelhead, and before they out-migrate, they are also catching there is signifcant lamprey some Chinook, Coho, breeding habitat up stream and lamprey as well as of the trap, and length of some trout, dace and time for out-migration of fsh from the upper reaches The children to the reservation. Keep gathered around in mind this is a very early the buckets to look assumptions. at the few juvenile fish and a lamprey After this season the eel to be weighed, Department of Natural Sample of the juvenile fish were measured and Resources will have a weighed and measured inside the documented. much better information sampling building.