From Okanagan Nation Alliance - Fisheries Department

This newsletter is distributed every month or two and focuses on fisheries and water issues in the Okanagan, Similkameen and surrounding watersheds.

Okanagan Sockeye and Chinook Fall Research

For the first time in decades, the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) and Fisheries and Oceans Canada had staff solely dedicated to sampling and counting chinook on the Okanagan River. Thirty chinook were non-lethally sampled and it is estimated that less than fifty returned to spawn near Oliver. Okanagan Chinook were emergency listed as Endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) in May 2005.

Counts of Okanagan Sockeye were also done by the ONA this fall and an estimated 32, 000-35,000 sockeye spawned in the Okanagan River near Oliver this fall. The ONA has been enumerating Okanagan Sockeye since 1997. This was the third year that the ONA has also collected sockeye eggs to raise in a hatchery for release into Skaha Lake the following spring. This year approximately 1.7 million sockeye eggs were collected from less than 700 females. This year’s work was funded by Douglas, Chelan and Grant County Public Utility Districts as part of several large research programs.

Okanagan chinook and sockeye are the remaining populations of wild salmon that return to Canada via the Columbia River.

Kokanee Counts are in for the fall

Both stream and shore spawning kokanee numbers this year were at the highest in recent years. It was the second highest kokanee return since 1992, when numbers began to improve.

There were 61,000 stream stream spawners in tributaries to Okanagan Lake this year and the largest run was in Mission Creek, with 34,000 spawning in the creek and 6,000 in the man-made spawning channel, numbers similar to 2001. The Okanagan Lake shore spawning numbers were 166,200 this year.

The total Okanagan Lake escapement of 227,000 is the highest since 1988 and the first time over 200,000 since 1989. It is substantially higher than the all time low of 8,700 in 1998.

Numbers of returning kokanee were also up in both the Wood and Kalamalka Lake systems, with 15,800 in the Wood Lake system, 12,000 of those in Middle Vernon Creek, and Kalamalka up to 31,000 from 8,000 last year. About 3,000 of the fish at Middle Vernon Creek went all the way into Duck Lake, before finding their way into Upper Vernon Creek near Hiram Walker.
In all, approximately 80,000 kokanee eggs have been collected by the Oceola Fish and Game Club, which is raising them in an incubator to ensure a greater rate of survival. Many of the kokanee also spawned naturally.

Shingle Creek in Penticton had approximately 2700 spawners and the Penticton Channel had approximately 105,000 spawners.

Sources include: ONA, MOE, Lake Country News and Capital News

Okanagan Basin Water Board Opportunity

Volunteer groups interested in Okanagan water resources are invited to apply for inclusion in a new valley-wide water stewardship council which will advise the Okanagan Basin Water Board. The Water Stewardship Council will consist of representatives from major water stakeholders in the valley and from senior government. The goal of the Council will be to use its collective expertise to make informed and responsible recommendations, generate long-term solutions to complex water issues, and take advantage of opportunities to enhance sustainability "on the ground." Three seats on the Stewardship Council are available to volunteer groups.

Interested parties should contact: Greg Armour (Program Manager), 250-550-3773, greg.armour@nord.ca

International Joint Commission Lake Osoyoos Review

Zosel Dam, at the outlet of Lake Osoyoos, is operated under rules established by the International Joint Commission. These rules prescribe a range of water levels that should be followed at various times of the year. The Commission has awarded our company, Glenfir Resources, a contract to describe any issues, concerns or interests in regard to the rules and has asked us to recommend a set of studies that would provide further information relating to those issues.

If your organization would like input into this assignment please contact us. The length of our contract is very limited and to include your concerns in our report we will need to hear from you as soon as possible and no later than November 30.

Please contact Chris Bull Email: Glenfir@shaw.ca Phone (250) 492-4059 Fax (250) 493-0099

Status of Central Okanagan Watersheds

The City of Kelowna is once again planning a Status of Central Okanagan Watersheds informative session on January 27th, 2006. We are looking for presentations on any of the following:

• Urban restoration and enhancement
• Agricultural restoration and enhancement
• Forestry watershed initiatives
• Irrigation/improvement districts watershed initiatives
• Restoration and enhancement associated with development
• Innovative initiatives for watershed protection
• Watershed research and planning
• Fisheries Information
• Other related watershed topics

If you or anyone you know is interested on presenting, please contact Tracy Guidi to submit your form by WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14. Once an agenda has been finalized an invitation will be forwarded to everyone.

Contact: Tracy Guidi,Watershed Coordinator, City of Kelowna, Phone: (250) 469-8983, Fax: (250) 862-3338, E-mail: tguidi@kelowna.ca

Provincial Government Funds Research Grants

VICTORIA - Research grants totalling nearly $230,000 will go to the University of Victoria (UVic) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) to study fisheries management, air quality and climate change in B.C., Environment Minister Barry Penner announced at the Climate and Fisheries Conference in Victoria.

Research grants were presented to UBC for the following research projects:

• $40,000 to study the effectiveness of natural streamside buffers in reducing the impacts of forestry practices on stream ecosystems.
• $69,560 for research to determine the best indicators of the health of streams and their capability of supporting salmon. This research will improve government's ability to monitor stream conditions and prioritize streams that are in need of restoration.
• $30,000 to UBC's Dr. J.D. McPhail toward the publication of a reference book on B.C. freshwater fish, so that biologists will have a single source of information to help with conservation strategies.

These projects will provide additional scientific data to assist government's goal of leading the world in sustainable environmental management, with the best air and water quality, and the best fisheries management.

DFO Mapster version 2.1
Stewardship News Oct 4

MAPSTER version 2.1 is now available on this page.

Version 2.1 contains many new enhancements which users have been requesting since the inception of the MAPSTER web mapping application.

Major new enhancements include:

• a new metadata / spatial data search tool with the capability to locate, display, and download map layers.
• the ability for users to connect directly to remote web mapping services
• advanced map display tools
• save a map directly onto the users PC as a JPEG image file.
• new map layers including Biogeoclimatic subzones, bathymetric surface of the Pacific offshore, and Strait of Georgia estuary vegetation maps (historic).

State of the Salmon Website Relaunched

State of the Salmon is a forum for specialists to share data, information, and knowledge about Pacific salmon. We're working at a North Pacific scale - throughout the natural range of wild salmon - to build a knowledge network that can inform salmon conservation and management decisions in the future.

We've just relaunched our website to reach out across disciplines.

• learn more about our strategies to assess Pacific salmon status and trends
• explore our interactive salmon data and mapping tools
• find out about our information sharing capabilities and plans for the future
• use our Salmon Blog, a forum for lively discussion on various salmon-related topics.

www.stateofthesalmon.org

Small Streams

Special Issue of the Journal of the American Water Resources Association Volume 41, Number 4 August, 2005

This special issue of JAWRA presents nine review papers that summarize the current state of knowledge about the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of small streams and their riparian zones within the context of forest management in the Pacific North West region.

These papers grew out of a symposium and workshop on "Small stream channels and their riparian zones: their form, function and importance in a watershed context," held at the University of British Columbia in February 2002.

To review the table of contents: http://www.awra.org/jawra/toc/toc_41_4.html
From FORREX Watershed Management List Serve.

Upcoming Events

Jan 6-7, 2006 - Canadian Conference for Fisheries Researchers, Calgary 2006 – C-CIARN Fisheries Special Symposium – Fisheries, Water, Landscape issues: meeting multiple resource demands.

Jan 25 - Salmon 2100 Project: The Future of Wild Salmon. Portland,Oregon.

Jan 31-Feb 2 - Northwest Stream Restoration Design Symposium, Dolce Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, Washington.

Feb 15-17 - Pacific Salmonid Recovery Conference. Seattle, Washington, National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

Apr 30 - May 3 - BCWWA 2006 Annual Conference. Whistler BC

June 4-9 - American Society of Limnology and Oceanography Summer Meeting: Global Challenges Facing Oceanography and Limnology. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

June 4-9 - North American Benthological Society (NABS) 54th Annual Meeting. Anchorage, Alaska.

Resource Best Bet

Riparian Roads and Restoration: An Electronic Short Course

Published By

Okanagan Nation Alliance - Fisheries Department
3255 C Shannon Lake Road
Westbank, BC V4T 1V4

Phone: (250)707-0095 ext 110
Fax: (250)707-0166
Email: information@obtwg.ca

Source Material From

Newsletter information is compiled from a variety of resources and focuses on the Okanagan Basin and related issues. These sources include: BCLSS Loonie News, BCClimateExChange@topica.com, ENN, bcen_e-wire, C-CAIRN-BC, fsos-news@topica.com, Fishlink@straylight.primelogic.com, RiverInfo@rivernetwork.org, FORREX Watershed Management Extension, Impacs Ecatalyst, Vancouver Aquarium, DFO Stewardship News , UVIC Restoration News

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