Targeting walleye

Mar. 29—Members of the Clearwater-Lewis County chapter of the Idaho Farm Bureau spent a recent weekday on the Snake River where they caught and killed 69 walleye.

The farmers are paying close attention to the advance of the nonnative predatory fish into Snake River Basin and ever deeper into salmon and steelhead territory. They see it as a place where they may be able to flex their muscles and play an active and more visible role in salmon recovery.

Farmers in north central Idaho rely on the tug-and-barge transportation that the Snake River dams make possible and oppose efforts to breach the dams, which would return the river to a free-flowing state. But they have made investments in water quality and salmon recovery that smolt-gobbling walleye threaten to undo.

"Transportation has been portrayed as our main objective and main concern," said Sheila Hasselstrom, who farms with her husband, Eric, near Winchester. "We also care about our salmon runs and we put those practices into place every day when we walk out our front door to make decisions on our acreages, whether it be farming practices like no-till or minimum till. We work on nutrient loss management and any type of runoff. We fence our animals off of stream beds. We have shade rules when it comes to our forestry."

Earlier this year, the chapter of the Idaho Farm Bureau planned to sponsor a walleye fishing contest on the Snake River at Lyons Ferry. Though it was approved by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the group pulled the plug following an outcry from a segment of the angling public that favors walleye.

Hasselstrom said they are considering regrouping and moving forward with the event, dubbed a walleye jackpot, next spring. In general, they hope to highlight threats to salmon and steelhead beyond the dams. That includes predation not only by walleye and other nonnative fish, but also birds, seals and sea lions. As dam breaching efforts continue following an agreement between the Nez Perce and other tribes and the Biden administration, the farmers want to see more focus placed on climate change, warming oceans and declines of Pacific salmon in river basins without dams.

"The Idaho Farm Bureau is one of the bigger farming groups in Idaho and the more people that talk about it, maybe the more attention and validity it will be given," Hasselstrom said.

State, tribal and federal fisheries agencies in the Columbia River Basin are tracking the upstream movement of walleye with great concern but they haven't yet landed on a response strategy. They formed a work group and are focusing research at and above Lower Granite Dam.

Walleye are well established below the dam and there is a booming fishery for them near Lyons Ferry, just downstream of Little Goose Dam. But the fish are colonizing areas upstream of Lower Granite Dam. Anglers have caught them in Hells Canyon and on the lower Salmon River as far upstream as Riggins.

Marika Dobos, a regional fisheries biologist for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Lewiston, recently gave a presentation on walleye to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. The group that includes politically appointed representatives from Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Montana helps vet fish and wildlife projects paid for by the Bonneville Power Administration that are intended to mitigate harmful effects of the Columbia River hydropower system.

Dobos said walleye have been in the Columbia River for decades but their recent and increasing presence upstream of Lower Granite Dam is a threat to salmon and steelhead. That is because the predatory fish are moving into areas where they have access to salmon and steelhead smolts not only during the spring and summer when the young fish are migrating to the ocean, but also in the rivers where they live prior to migrating.

She noted fall chinook runs in the Snake River upstream of Lower Granite have made significant improvements in the past two decades. A hatchery program led by the Nez Perce Tribe has been successful and now supports a popular fishery for the species that once teetered on the brink of extinction.

"If walleye continue to colonize and establish in more numbers in these reaches, that could spell a different story for this (fall chinook) program in a very short amount of time."

Researchers are working to learn how walleye are moving upstream of the dam. They have been observed using the dam's fish ladders but they also likely move through the dams lock system. They also don't know if walleye are spawning upstream of the Lower Granite Dam.

"If we are just recruiting new animals through the lock or the ladder it seems like the most urgent thing we can look at is how do you make changes to the ladder," said council member Ed Schriever of Idaho. "Walleye aren't the strongest swimmers in the world. Can we sort them out by making it harder to get through the ladder?"

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.