Lake Chelan Tributaries Spawning Monitoring and Evaluation, USFS. Tributary westslope cutthroat trout and rainbow trout spawning monitoring will be conducted in some of the following tributaries: Bear, Big, Cascade, Four-mile, Lightning, Little Big, Xxxxxx, Twenty-five Mile, First, Mitchell, Fish, Grade, Gold, Prince, Safety Harbor, Pyramid, Xxxxxx Harbor, Coyote, Castle, Deep Harbor and Lone Fir creeks. Powers and Xxxxxx (2008) strongly recommended evaluation of the current status of Lake Chelan westslope cutthroat trout spawning populations prior to treatment of fish passage barriers in tributary streams. Spawning monitoring and evaluation may occur by conducting spawning ground surveys and/or snorkeling surveys. During the spawning season (April-June) Forest Service fish biologists may perform spawning ground surveys in the adfluvial zones of selected tributaries according to the methodology of the Lake Chelan Comprehensive Management Plan (Xxxxx and Xxxxxx 2002). Survey frequency would expect to be one survey per stream per week. Sexual maturation, the onset of spawning, and embryo development are significantly regulated by the “thermal experience” of the fish population of interest; therefore, water temperature data loggers will be deployed in survey streams starting with the first (pre- spawning) survey and remain in place until late-September. Data loggers will record water temperature every 30 minutes. Forest Service surveyors may conduct snorkel surveys in each stream in the fall to search for young-of-the-year. Snorkelers will survey, approximately 100-meter adfluvial zone segments that contain representative habitat units (pools, tailouts, and riffles). Surveyors may attempt to capture several fish per stream by hook-and-line for sample-in-hand confirmation of species identifications by snorkelers. 2011, 2012 and 2013 Lake Chelan tributaries spawning monitoring and evaluation results: Results from the 2011 Lake Chelan tributary trout spawning surveys and snorkel surveys are summarized in Tables 6 and 7. Additional summary information can be found in 2011 Lake Chelan Tributaries Spawning Monitoring and Evaluation (Xxxxxxx 2011).
Lake Chelan Tributaries Spawning Monitoring and Evaluation, USFS. For various reasons during the past four years (2012-2015), the Forest Service has been unable to complete the WCT spawning ground and snorkel surveys (reduction in staffing, wildfires, budget, etc.). In years when WCT spawning ground surveys were able to be completed by the USFS (2009-2011), a limited number of potential redds were identified (3 redds). Therefore, due to the limited number of WCT redds observed and the difficulties the USFS has had completing the surveys, the USFS is not requesting money to continue these surveys in 2016. The USFS will focus on developing a new proposal to bring to the LCFF in 2017. Table 30. USFS Estimated Lake Chelan Tributaries Spawning Monitoring and Evaluation Budget and Schedule Year Task Total $ Requested $ (LC06b1) Requested PUD Matching $ (LC06b2) USFS Matching $ 2016 Develop New Proposal $0 $0 $0 $0 2016 Estimated Totals $0 $0 $0 $0
