The Lake Roosevelt Fisheries Evaluation Program (LRFEP) began operations in 1988 and is tasked with assessing the effectiveness of the Grand Coulee Dam Artificial Production Program. The artificial production program is comprised of the Spokane Tribal Hatchery (Spokane Tribe of Indians), the Lake Roosevelt Rainbow Trout Net Pen Program (Lake Roosevelt Development Association), the Sherman Creek Hatchery (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife-WDFW), the Ford Trout Hatchery (WDFW) and a portion of the native redband trout raised at the Colville Trout Hatchery (WDFW). The projects receive funding from the Bonneville Power Administration through direction of the Northwest Power Act and Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program as partial mitigation for the loss of anadromous fish above Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph Dams.
The LRFEP is a cooperative, multi-agency program that includes the Lake Roosevelt fisheries co-managers, the Spokane Tribe of Indians, the Colville Confederated Tribes and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The program is managed by the Spokane Tribe of Indians, which contract with the other two fisheries management organizations. Additionally, the program contracts with Eastern Washington University, which has been a critical research component of the program since its inception. The program has worked for more than a decade and a half to develop management strategies and objectives that benefit Lake Roosevelt natural resources. Coordination is a critical component of the LRFEP because it fosters interaction and communication between Lake Roosevelt co-managers, researchers, the net pen coordinator, and hatchery managers and personnel. Three groups meet independently to develop management and monitoring decisions on Lake Roosevelt. They include the Lake Roosevelt Management Team, which has one representative from each of the fishery management entities. They develop recommendations and fishing regulations and update management documents. The LRFEP is comprised of hatchery and net pen personnel and the participants of the LRFEP and other projects on the reservoir. They meet regularly to review annual reports and new science developments and to assess recommendations and monitoring efforts to ensure they represent the best science. Particular emphasis is directed towards eliminating duplicated efforts and to foster efficient utilization of funds. The Lake Roosevelt Hatchery Coordination Team is comprised of the managers, researchers, monitoring personnel, and hatchery and net pen personnel. They meet twice a year to review hatchery program status, the recommendations of the Management Team and LRFEP and in-hatchery research. The groups meet independently and have specific tasks, but membership strongly overlaps and the groups tend to work synergistically to meet objectives.
The LRFEP has developed fishing regulations, management strategies, management plans, stock selections, and release methodologies that have strongly benefited the Lake Roosevelt fishery. Current analysis of angler use data collected by the LRFEP indicates the economic value of the fishery is as much as 10.1 million dollars annually to the upper Columbia River region.
The LRFEP has also assessed population dynamics and changes to native and hatchery-reared fish communities and the lower trophic levels of the food web in Lake Roosevelt in order to assess hydro-power and hatchery impacts on the fishery and ecology of Lake Roosevelt. One of the critical tasks undertaken by the LRFEP has been the development of the Lake Roosevelt Ecology Model by Dr. Scott Wells of Portland State University and Dr. David Beauchamp of the University of Washington. The model will allow managers to assess river operation effects on the water quality, food production and fish production within the reservoir. The model, which is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2006, has broader implications in water quality/quantity management and has been eagerly anticipated by our program and several other agencies and groups interested in water quality in the upper Columbia River.
The data collected by the program will be compiled in a database developed by the Kalispel Tribe’s Joint Stock Assessment Project, which will be available to the public via the world-wide-web.
Fishing Derbies Conducted on Lake Roosevelt
Over the past six years, the Spokane Tribe of Indians’ Two Rivers Casino and Resort has sponsored the Two Rivers Trout Derby. It is a two day event in August that offers cash prizes for the most fish captured by weight each day, for the combined two days total weight, and for the greatest single fish weight each day. Anglers are required to follow the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fishing regulations for Lake Roosevelt and the Lake Roosevelt Fisheries Evaluation Program acts as the weigh-masters for the event. This allows Two Rivers to have professional biologists involved in a critical component of the event, and allows the LRFEP to collect data that would be difficult to collect utilizing other means. The weigh-masters are usually comprised of individuals from the Spokane Tribe of Indians LRFEP and Water and Fish offices, but also include individuals from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Colville Confederated Tribes. The event gives the Colville Confederated Tribes’ Chief Joseph Kokanee Enhancement Project an opportunity to collect large numbers of genetics samples over a short period of time and with limited efforts by personnel than if they had to complete the work by sampling the reservoir.
The Trout Derby has proven to be an enormously popular event on Lake Roosevelt, and is typically comprised of about 125 teams of two anglers. Most of these folks begin pre-fishing several days prior to the Derby to learn fish behavior and feeding patterns prior to competing in the event itself. Most of them camp at the National Park Service or Spokane Tribal campgrounds or stay at hotels in local towns. Fuel and other sundries are also purchased at local groceries, tackle shops, etc and all participants launch from the NPS boat launch sites or from the Two Rivers boat launch. Collectively, competitive anglers and spectators of the event provide a healthy boost to the local economy.
Other Derby’s put on by the Spokane Tribe of Indians include the Spring Thaw Trout Derby which was conducted for the first time in April of 2005. The Two Rivers Walleye Championship occurred for the second year in September of 2005 and had about 65 teams competing in the event. The Spokane Tribe of Indians is also considering instituting more derbies in the future.
FWIN – Fall Walleye Index Netting
Lake Roosevelt has developed a large walleye population over the past several decades. The Lake Roosevelt Fisheries Evaluation Program has completed various sampling protocols that have attempted to evaluate the population in the reservoir, but they are a difficult species to assess and because efforts were not coordinated across all walleye lakes in the region, the data has not been comparable across the region. Beginning in 2002, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) began a new protocol to assess walleye abundance and health across the State of Washington. Because Lake Roosevelt has a significant walleye population, the reservoir was scheduled to be assessed using the new protocols. The WDFW requested that the Lake Roosevelt Fisheries Evaluation Program assist with this work because of the extensive size of Lake Roosevelt and the large number of personnel that are required to complete the sampling under the protocols. Over a one week period of time, 150 nets are set in the reservoir for 24 hours each. Length, weight and other morphological characteristics of the fish are measured and recorded for later analysis. The Spokane Tribe of Indians’ Lake Roosevelt fisheries Evaluation Program and the Water and Fish Program have contributed nearly half of the 25-30 personnel that are required to complete FWIN sampling on the reservoir for the past 4 years.
