A public meeting to explain changes designed to reduce the number of hatchery-origin summer steelhead in the upper Kalama River will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2108 Grand Blvd.
State fishery managers are taking several actions to reduce hatchery steelhead from reaching the spawning grounds, where they can interbreed or compete with wild steelhead protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The fish barrier at Kalama Falls is failing to stop summer steelhead from reaching the upper river.
Biologist John Weinheimer of the Department of Fish and Wildlife said significant numbers of fish have been observed in recent years jumping over the aging concrete structure, which is supposed to channel those fish back to Kalama Falls Hatchery.
Studies show hatchery fish are 50 percent to 75 percent of all summer steelhead found upstream of Kalama Falls.
“We want to talk to anglers about this situation, and the measures we plan to take to address it,” Weinheimer said.
The department already has:
• Increased the daily bag limit to three hatchery steelhead a day.
• Suspended the state’s practice of transporting hatchery steelhead upstream of Kalama Falls.
• Suspended the practice of recycling hatchery summer steelhead from Kalama Falls Hatchery back downstream to give anglers another chance to catch them.
Recycling the summer steelhead give the hatchery fish multiple chances to clear the barrier at Kalama Falls.
“Studies have shown that anglers catch about 20 percent of the hatchery steelhead recycled to the lower Kalama River,” Weinheimer said. “That would be OK, except that the barrier at the hatchery does not reliably stop the remaining fish from moving upriver.”
The agency is seeking money to improve the fish barrier, but that could take years.
“Once we bring down the number of hatchery fish in the upper river, we can consider resuming the lower river recycling program,” he said. “But that could take some time.”
Walter Pistor, a Kalama River landowner and angler, he questions the state’s data that hatchery steelhead are hurting wild fish in the river.
Recycling steelhead is a good practice and sportsmen often catch a fish on its second or third trip up the stream, he said.
Anglers from the Vancouver, Portland and Longview come to the Kalama River and spend money, helping the local economy, he added.
Effective July 1, anglers are required to retain all hatchery steelhead they catch and stop fishing for steelhead once they reach their three-fish daily limit.
