Research and Management

"Wild fish cannot fully renew their populations today due to human interventions such as urbanization, hydro dams, logging, introduction of foreign species and other forms of environmental stress that destroy fish habitats and fish populations." MOELP, Fisheries Branch

Human intervention has drastically, and often irreparably, changed the natural ecology of the Columbia Basin. The Columbia River annually makes the top 10 list of threatened rivers in British Columbia, compiled by the BC Outdoor Recreation Council. Hydroelectric dams, logging, mining and other industries have changed the landscape and how its inhabitants relate to it. Seven dams, with reservoirs fluctuating between three and 52 metres annually, have changed the Basin's physical structure as 655 square kilometres of rich valley bottom land was flooded. Due to logging, there is more immature timber than mature timber, and much of what remains is difficult to access, for humans and other animals. Mining and smelter operations have poured toxic substances into the land, air and water. Consequently, biodiversity is threatened; several local fish species have the dubious distinction of appearing on federal or provincial endangered species lists.

Yet, industry provides jobs and enables people to live in this beautiful part of the world. Increasing social pressure and a greater understanding of the delicate connections existing in all natural systems have fostered bold, new management initiatives. With careful attention to the impact people's work and play have on nature, hopefully industry and recreation can coexist with the natural world. Here, we will describe management organizations and management projects, including hatcheries, habitat enhancement, research and lake fertilization.

Management Organizations

Governments, community agencies and Crown corporations are involved in efforts to restore the area's ecosystems and the economic benefits they produce, such as sport fishing and tourism. The Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program (CBFWCP) is a joint program between BC Hydro and BC Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks. It manages fish and wildlife enhancement or rehabilitation projects intended to compensate for the impacts of the various dams and reservoirs in the Columbia Basin. The CBFWCP focuses mainly on locally-initiated or community-supported projects, forming partnerships with various sponsor organizations whenever possible. Some of their compensation efforts include construction of fish hatcheries and spawning channels, lake fertilization, habitat improvement or restoration and research projects throughout the Columbia Basin (see descriptions below). CBFWCP budget for 1998/99 fisheries programs, for example, was $1.5 million, with $1.06 million going toward Arrow Lakes research and $300,000 toward Kootenay Lake fertilization.

The BC Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks conducts and supervises numerous fisheries and wildlife projects throughout the province. The staff of the Kootenay region office, in Nelson, have conducted much of the historical work on Kootenay Lake and continue to play an integral role in the research and experimentation on both Kootenay and Arrow Lakes. Also, they monitor environmental emergencies, provide enforcement/conservation officer service and environmental education programs, coordinate FRBC and CBFWCP projects, centralize resources inventory and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) services, and manage MAPS BC, a Ministry library and Ministry publications.

Columbia Basin Trust was formed to mitigate the past injustices and damage done to the region through the dams and reservoirs built under the Columbia River Treaty. The Trust manages the money paid to the Trust by the Province as a regional share of the downstream benefits from the Columbia River Treaty and the corporation's other assets for the ongoing economic, environmental and social benefit of the Basin and its residents. Under this mandate, CBT assists research and management initiatives through CBFWCP and various community organizations. In 1998/99, for example, the Trust assisted CBFWCP with a one-time funding grant of $500,000.

Columbia Power Corporation is the provincial crown corporation constructing a new power plant at Keenleyside dam. They will annually fund $175,000 worth of fisheries improvement projects in Arrow Lakes.

Forest Renewal BC (FRBC) invests forest industry revenue to renew the forest economy of British Columbia. Investments work to restore the forest environment, grow more and better trees, support forest workers and communities in crisis, and help the value-added sector grow and create jobs. From 1996 to 1998, FRBC spent over $36 million on 229 watershed restoration projects in the Kootenay-Boundary region, working in almost every major watershed in the area. Projects varied in scope, ranging from watershed assessment and planning, fish habitat assessment, restoration of hill, gully and riparian habitat, road rehabilitation and stream rehabilitation.

Management Projects

Hatcheries

Hill Creek Hatchery and Spawning Channel

As compensation for the fish and fish habitat loss that resulted from the Revelstoke Dam construction, Hill Creek Hatchery and Spawning Channel were constructed in 1982 and 1979, respectively. Hill Creek Hatchery and Spawning Channel are located along Hill Creek which empties into Upper Arrow Lakes at Galena Bay, northeast of Nakusp.

Fish migrate up Hill Creek to spawn in a channel 3.2 km long and 6.1 m wide, with a 0.15% grade. The water flow through the channel is carefully regulated and can be supplemented by MacKenzie Creek when needed. 56 settling basins act as holding areas for spawning fish and collection areas for displaced sediment and gravel. In addition, the upper 0.2 km has larger gravel more suited to rainbow spawners. Spawning fish can be counted from three enumeration fences. Kokanee and bull trout spawn during September and October, and rainbow trout spawn in May. The channel has a capacity for 150,000 kokanee to spawn.

In 1987, when the impact of the Keenleyside Dam on fish stocks was realized, the hatchery doubled in size in order to produce Rainbow and Bull trout for both Upper and Lower Arrow Lakes. Currently, Hill Creek Hatchery can produce 100,000 fingerling Bull trout, 20,000 yearling native Hill Creek Rainbow trout, 60,000 yearling Gerrard Rainbow trout and incubate two million kokanee eggs.

To date, over half a million bull trout have been raised and released, mostly into the Arrow Lakes. Every second fall, bull trout eggs are collected, incubated until they hatch out as alevins in early winter and then held and fed until the following fall when they are released back into the streams the eggs were collected from. Even though the original goal was to release 100,000 bull trout per year, what is actually feasible right now is 50,000 bull trout every two years. The Gerrard rainbow program has been shelved (since 1998) until the lake fertilization program achieves some success, and the small stock rainbow program has been eliminated (Thorp, personal communication).

Resources and personnel at Hill Creek Hatchery and Spawning Channel are adaptable, able to address the highest priority projects and issues first, such as being the field centre for the largest lake restoration project in the world. Fisheries studies in the Arrow Lakes are assisted by Hill Creek staff, for instance, a UBC study of bull trout genetic variability, creel surveys, reservoir limnology and trophic status and habitat enhancement projects. Hill Creek Hatchery and Spawning Channel are open year round. Visitors can observe and learn more about the staff's work and about fish and their life cycles.

Kootenay Trout Hatchery

Kootenay Trout Hatchery, near Fort Steele, raises fish for recreational fishing. In 1996 a typical year, 174 lakes, many of them small and remote, were stocked to enhance the sport fishery. That year, the Hatchery raised 1,002,628 rainbow trout, 128,400 brook trout and 119,500 Westslope (Yellowstone) cutthroat trout from the eggs of a wide variety of wild fish stocks. There is an extensive interpretive area, including aquariums, educational models and displays where the public may view rainbow, brook and Westslope cutthroat trout year round.

In the spring, Hatchery fisheries technicians and biologists trap the fish when they come up the creeks to spawn and milk the eggs from the female and the sperm from the males. The eggs are fertilized and incubated, and the fry are fed in the Hatchery to be released into lakes the following spring, often with a fin clipped to distinguish them from the native fish. Each lake has a management prescription determined by MOELP fisheries biologists based on the surface area of the lake and the record of angling success. Various lakes have been studied using gill nets to determine fish age, size and distribution. In addition, anglers are routinely surveyed and their catch-per-unit-effort (e.g. fish caught per hour or day) used to estimate angler use and harvest pressure for each lake. Information on the Columbia Basin small lakes fishery can be found at http://www.fishbc.com or http://www.bcadventure.com/adventure/explore/Kootenays/lakes/index.html.

In the summer of 1999, Kootenay Trout Hatchery announced they will receive 75,000 white sturgeon eggs from Northern Idaho to incubate and grow for release into Kootenay River. They hope to release 5,000 two-year-old fish to replenish the stocks because the stock in the river has not spawned since the Libby Dam was built (see Physical Structure).

Habitat Enhancement

Spawning Channels

In the late summer and early fall kokanee provide a spectacle of nature returning to their native creeks, red and full of eggs and sperm, to spend their last energy on spawning. Natural, enhanced and completely constructed spawning channels are found throughout the Columbia Basin. Various organizations from local conservation associations to Columbia Basin Trust and Columbia Basin Fish Wildlife Compensation Program have been involved in enhancing spawning habitat for fish. Kokanee can be observed spawning in channels constructed at Bridge Creek near Revelstoke; 300,000 kokanee spawn in August and September at Kokanee Creek Provincial Park east of Nelson. Up to a million kokanee spawn in August and September at the Meadow Creek Spawning Channel at the north end of Kootenay Lake, while 4000 kokanee spawn at Redfish Creek on the west arm of Kootenay Lake, and about 600 rainbow spawn in the spawning channel at Whiteswan Lake north of Cranbrook. For more information on where to view spawning fish in the Columbia Basin link to http://elp.gov.bc.ca/fsh/up_close.html

Deer Creek Remediation Plan

Deer Creek is a tributary to the Lower Arrow Lakes with poor habitat for spawning kokanee due to log jams and a fish-impeding weir. Castlegar & District Wildlife Association, in partnership with CBFWCP, is making and implementing a remediation plan which could involve instream enhancement or removing the weir. Columbia Basin Trust has assisted with project funding.

Camp Creek Enhancement Evaluation

A series of habitat enhancements were performed in 1994 by the CBFWCP in Camp Creek, a tributary to Kinbasket Lake near Valemount. Evaluating how fish use the enhancement structures will help determine the effectiveness of such projects and help establish future evaluation criterion. The Valemount Fish & Wildlife Advisory Committee and BC Environment were partners in this project.

Lower Columbia/Murphy Creek Rainbow Trout Studies & Murphy Creek Side Channel/Spawning Pool Repairs

Trail Wildlife Association (TWA) intended to enhance rainbow trout spawning habitat when they constructed an instream side channel on Murphy Creek, a Columbia River tributary near Trail. Upon evaluation, they found over 40,000 rainbow entered the Columbia River from Murphy Creek, with 75% coming from the side channel. Flow patterns around the damaged rock and concrete wall surrounding the water intake to the Murphy Creek side channel threatened to wipe out this essential spawning habitat. With donated armoured rock from CPC and volunteer help from TWA, the structure was fixed, flood damage was amended and large future fish losses were avoided.

Taite Creek Remediation Plan Enhancement

Taite Creek, a Lower Arrow tributary near Fauquier, has a large log jam preventing upstream access for spawning kokanee. Castlegar & District Wildlife Association and CBFWCP had planned to remove the log jam in order to restore the creek's usefulness, but determined that releasing the gravel held up by the jam would possibly wipe out fish eggs buried downstream and alter existing habitat. More research and preparation are being conducted to effect the best solution.

Little Slocan River Landslide Rehabilitation

A very large landslide deposited clay sediment into Little Slocan River near Passmore, and the sediment was carried downstream into Slocan and Kootenay Rivers, affecting spawning grounds there. The river bank continues to erode and threaten the integrity of spawning habitat. Slocan Valley Equal Access to Public Resources Society, in partnership with the CBFWCP, has installed protective structures and reshaped and revegetated the face of the slide in an effort to stabilize the banks and to create and improve fish habitat.

Fissure Creek Diversion Feasibility Study

Fissure Creek is a fishless creek flowing into Lake Revelstoke above the Revelstoke Dam. It is being assessed for its suitability for a diversion to create stream habitat for rainbow and bull trout. The project is investigating the area's land status, the absence of fish, water quality, invertebrate populations, and habitat suitability. The most feasible option creates two km of stream habitat by diverting the creek to a new channel and bypassing its cascades and falls. Partners in this project are CBFWCP and Revelstoke Fish & Wildlife Advisory Committee, with funding by Columbia Basin Trust.

Research

Arrow Lakes Trout Radio Telemetry

Arrow Lakes bull trout and original Arrow Lakes yellowfin rainbow trout were radio tagged in the first year of this four year study. Data on fish behavior and habitat use generated through radio telemetry will enable fisheries biologists to understand the critical habitats for staging, spawning and rearing of these magnificent fish. 11 bull trout and four rainbow trout were tracked by airplane from July to November, 1998. The Revelstoke Fish & Wildlife Advisory Committee were partners in this project, and the Columbia Basin Trust assisted with Year 1 funding.

Kinbasket/Revelstoke Lakes Kokanee Spawning Survey

In the 1980s, kokanee eggs were planted in Kinbasket Lake, the first impoundment in the Columbia River chain of reservoirs. In 1998/99, the third year of a four year project, aerial surveys of 12 critical Kinbasket tributaries indicated over two million adult kokanee migrated out (escapement) of the spawning area. In key indicator streams, kokanee were counted and assessed for size and amount of eggs or sperm produced. The information gathered will help establish an index of kokanee adult escapement, growth, size and age to be used as a baseline to measure the impact of reservoir water fluctuations on kokanee populations. BC Environment (MOELP) and Columbia Basin Trust partners in the project.

Upper Columbia Burbot Movement

Research on a stable population of burbot, a freshwater codfish, in Columbia Lake in the upper Columbia drainage is being conducted in order to establish baseline biological information with which to address conservation and management issues. 26 radio-tagged burbot have had their movements monitored, and a clearer understanding of burbot spawning habitat and biology is emerging. The University of BC has partnered with CBFWCP for this 4 year project.

Arrow Lakes Limnology and Trophic Status

Once the drastically declining kokanee stocks tipped off fisheries scientists, a number of limnological and fisheries studies began on Arrow Lakes in an effort to better understand its ecological dynamics. After their first season in 1997/98, researchers determined that ecosystem collapse was impending and nutrient mitigation was necessary immediately. That first season explored the reservoir through studies in bathymetry (charting the physical shape of the reservoir), hydrology (identifying flow patterns), measurement of temperature, depth, specific conductance, pH, dissolved oxygen, redox, turbidity and current, lake and stream water quality and nutrient budget, (see Physical Structure) and phytoplankton, zooplankton, mysids, kokanee and sport fish (see Biodiversity).

Paleolimnology

Paleolimnology is the study of the history of inland waters. Planktonic fossil remains can indicate historical changes in the climate and vegetation and thus help determine the qualities of ancient aquatic ecosystems. The remains of diatoms, a Chrysophyceaen phytoplankton and Cladocerans, a zooplankton group, (see Biodiversity) were examined in core samples extracted from the bottom of the lake in an effort to get a clearer picture of the ancient water level changes, cultural eutrophication and oligotrophication, and new species introduction. The core samples have yet to be dated and, as such, no information can be gleaned from them. This analysis is expected to be completed by the end of 1999.

Lake Fertilization

Kootenay and Arrow Lakes are being fertilized because they were in the throes of ecosystem collapse. All plants, the base of all food chains, need nutrients to grow. Terrestrial plants get their nutrients from the soil; aquatic plants get their nutrients from water. Algae, or phytoplankton, use sunlight and mineral nutrients to grow and feed the rest of the food chain. The growth of phytoplankton is usually limited by a shortage of phosphorus or nitrogen in the lake. Without phytoplankton, the zooplankton doesn't grow to feed the kokanee. Kokanee are the prime source of food for the larger fish like bull trout and rainbow trout; if kokanee doesn't flourish, they don't flourish. Essentially, a shortage of a few simple chemical nutrients can collapse the entire food chain. Fortunately, water can be fertilized in much the same way that soil is, adding whichever chemicals are missing, phosphorus and nitrogen usually, to the lake's surface to stimulate phytoplankton growth.

The Arrow and Kootenay Lakes are primarily phosphorus limited, though nitrogen can decline to a level of co-limitation in late summer. Although both lakes are naturally oligotrophic, changes to the water flow patterns arising from dam construction in the Columbia Basin created upstream nutrient sinks, leaving many of the lakes and reservoirs ultra-oligotrophic (extremely poorly nourished) and incapable of supporting sufficient stocks of native fish. The very existence of the native stocks are threatened, along with the economic diversity and lifestyle inherent to a region boasting a world-class trophy fishery. In 1998/99, CBFWCP spent 1.06 million dollars on assessing declining fish stocks in the Arrow Lakes and $300,000 on Kootenay Lake fertilization in their ongoing effort to address the issue. Key supporters of fertilization have been the CBFWCP, BC Environment, University of BC, Columbia Basin Trust and local conservation groups.

Kootenay Lake

Kootenay Lake, one of the most studied lakes in BC, is comprised of three arms, the North Arm, South Arm and West Arm. It is 107 km long at its longest and covers 390 square kilometres. Inflow occurs primarily at the end of the North and South Arms, and the outflow is from the West Arm (see Physical Structure).

In 1949, mysid shrimp (Mysis relicta) were introduced into the lake. The mysids can be detrimental because, although some are eaten by kokanee, the mysid shrimp also compete with the kokanee for plankton, their primary source of food, thus compounding the effects of oligotrophication. In 1953, a fertilizer plant was constructed near Kimberly and dumped large loads of phosphorus into Kootenay River which flowed into the lake. Plant production doubled in 1962 and tripled in 1965, creating unnaturally high lake levels of phosphorus which fed the plankton, which in turn fed both the mysids and the kokanee and likely contributed to the high kokanee numbers in the 1960s. Pollution controls were implemented progressively from 1969 to 1979, and the plant closed in 1987.

In 1967, the Duncan Dam was constructed at the south end of Duncan Lake. In 1973, Libby Dam was constructed on the Kootenay River, forming Koocanusa Lake and regulating 80% of the inflow to Kootenay Lake. Dams normally block nutrients from flowing into reservoirs, but this was not initially recognized as a problem in Kootenay Lake because of the unnaturally high nutrient levels from the fertilizer plant. When the fertilizer plant closed, but the dams continued to block natural nutrients from flowing into the lake, the aquatic ecosystem crashed, and with it the kokanee and Gerrard rainbow trout populations. The idea of artificial fertilization grew out of similar, successful projects in coastal lakes, which were fertilized to enhance salmon production. No one had ever fertilized an inland lake on the scale needed to restore Kootenay Lake.

In 1992, a team of scientists, fisheries biologists and technicians joined BC Fisheries Limnologist, Ken Ashley, in a five year experimental fertilization project in the North Arm of Kootenay Lake in order to address the declining kokanee numbers and the resulting decline in rainbow and bull trout populations. The project was clearly experimental, involving a risk of failure, so it needed to be open to change if it wasn't working well. Liquid phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizer has been added to the North Arm of the lake by barge, from April to November, since 1992. In 1994, for example, 47.1 metric tonnes of phosphorus was added to the North Arm. The factors assessed both before and during the experiment were physical structure, history, limnology, water chemistry, phytoplankton, zooplankton, mysids, kokanee and rainbow trout. (see Physical Structure and Biodiversity).

The trend in Kootenay Lake kokanee numbers echoes dam constructions, mysids introduction, fertilizer plant operation and controls and the lake fertilization. After the fertilizer plant closed, there was a drop in numbers, followed by an unbroken decline from 1986-1991. In 1991 kokanee numbers were about 150 fish per hectare. Since fertilization began in 1992, kokanee numbers have increased to their present population density of 600 - 1000 fish per hectare, totalling 25 - 30 million kokanee in Kootenay Lake.

The amount of fertilizer dispensed in the North Arm has been decreasing steadily as the lake retains more of its own natural nutrients, such as the remains of the millions of kokanee which now spawn and die within the system, sending nutrients back to the foundation of the food web. The South Arm is showing a response to the North Arm fertilization also, although recovery is slower. There is a concern that kokanee stocks have not rebounded even though primary productivity is up.

Scientists couldn't predict whether mysid shrimp would out-compete the kokanee for the new zooplankton food source resulting from fertilization. The mysids show no growth trend as of yet, but they are being carefully monitored lest they suddenly upset the ecological apple cart. Rainbow trout and bull trout are larger and more numerous now, benefiting the local sports fishery. They have been increasing by two pounds per year, on average, since fertilization began, with anglers now recording rainbow and bull trout as large as 29 pounds. To assist in monitoring the game fish, local anglers are reporting their catches to BC Environment. The information is being compared to other indicators of ecosystem recovery, such as rainbow trout escapement at spawning grounds.

Arrow Lakes

The Arrow Lakes is a “hidden gem” tucked between between the Selkirk and Monashee Mountains. An alarming downward trend in kokanee numbers was noted there in the 1990s by anglers and fisheries biologists, who feared a repeat of the Kootenay Lake story. Damming the Columbia River at Castlegar, Revelstoke and Mica (see Ecosystem Structure) eliminated 30% of the Arrow Lakes' kokanee spawning and rearing habitat, as well as a good proportion of the rainbow trout and bull trout spawning habitat.

In 1997, intensive research began in cooperation with the University of British Columbia, the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, BC Hydro and Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program. Long term data on Arrow Lakes are scarce, hampering effective assessment of the fertilization feasibility. After two years of research, it is being compared with Kootenay Lake in the hopes that their successful fertilization project may be mimicked on the Arrow.

Arrow Lakes exhibit similarities and differences to Kootenay Lake. The lakes are similar in their narrow, deep fjord-like structure, their location at the end of a series of reservoirs which have seriously deviated from their natural flow regimes, and in their oligotrophic nutrient status and resultant decline in fish stocks. However, Arrow Lakes are more complex than Kootenay Lake, with greater water level fluctuations and two distinct, deep basins separated by a riverine narrows. The conclusion of the team of scientists who assessed both Arrow and Kootenay Lakes is that the impending ecological disaster warrants beginning Arrow Lakes fertilization with the limited supporting research.

Agricultural grade phosphate and liquid nitrogen fertilizer is being distributed from the Galena Bay ferry at the head of the Upper Arrow basin. The innovation is both cost efficient and practical, with the ferry’s large propeller wash dispersing the fertilizer into the natural north-south water flow of the Upper Arrow. This process began on April 23, 1999. Researchers will continue to assess all aspects of the Arrow Lakes ecosystem, anticipating and hoping a response similar to Kootenay Lake will be observed.

Aquatic Ecosystem Topics