Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force
Home | Board of Directors | Bulletin | Projects | Area Served | Pertinent Facts | History | EDT | Salmon | Become a Member | Contact Us | Links | Volunteer
Upper Chehalis Wild Steelhead Broodstocking
Background:
The Upper Chehalis Wild Steelhead Broodstocking project is
operated by the Upper Chehalis Fisheries Enhancement Association with
funding assistance provided by the Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force.
The focus of the project is to provide wild native Steelhead for a recreational
fishery that supports the establishment of unmarked wild reproducing
Steelhead in relation to artificially enhanced volumes of harvestable fish.
Annually, volunteers catch 25 pair of wild Steelhead with hook and line. The Steelhead are kept at a temporary facility near Doty, Washington and then shipped to Bingham Hatchery to be spawned. The juvenile offspring of these wild fish are raised at the hatchery for a short time and returned to the upper Chehalis.
After the fish are released and make their way to the sea to mature, they return to the stream where they were raised. This cycle not only provides fish for sport and tribal harvest, but also promotes the continuation of native fish runs that are so vital to the upper Chehalis region
Accomplishments:
In 2002, the Upper Chehalis Steelhead
Broodstocking Project released 35,000 winter Steelhead smolts.