While the Yakima Basin Fish & Wildlife Recovery Board has focused on Endangered Species Act (ESA) Recovery Planning and the Subbasin Plan, there are related planning efforts that focus on other key fish and wildlife species.
Sockeye Salmon
Sockeye Restoration
The Bureau of Reclamation has lead the Yakima Dams Fish Passage Study, which has focused on restoring fish passage into Lake Cle Elum and the streams above it. One of the primary goals is to restore lake-dependent sockeye salmon. More information can be found in the Yakima Dams Fish Passage Study reports.
Chinook and Coho Master Plans
The Yakima-Klickitat Fisheries Project (YKFP) is a joint effort by the Yakama Nation and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, with funding from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). It runs hatchery programs to supplement the basin’s spring and fall chinook populations, and to reintroduce coho into the basin. This work is detailed in Master Plans and other documents prepared for BPA and the Northwest Power & Conservation Council, some of which are available on the YKFP website.
Coho salmon spawning
Adult Pacific Lamprey
Photo Credit: Y. Reiss
Lamprey Recovery Planning
Pacific lamprey are unrelated to salmon, but also spawn and spend their earlier years in inland rivers, while migrating out to the ocean for their adult years, Often called ‘eels’, lamprey are a culturally important species to Columbia River tribes. Their numbers have declined significantly in recent decades, and they have been proposed as candidates for listing under the federal ESA. Efforts to reverse this decline are now underway, and are guided by:
Tribal Pacific Lamprey Restoration Plan for the Columbia River Basin
US Fish & Wildlife Service Lamprey Recovery Planning
The Yakama Nation Fisheries Program is currently developing a recovery plan for lamprey in the Yakima Basin.
YBFWRB recently signed on in support of the Pacific Lamprey Conservation Initiative (PLCI). PCLI is a “collaboration of Native American tribes, federal, state, municipal and local agencies, and non-governmental organizations working to achieve long-term persistence of Pacific Lamprey, their habitats, and support their traditional tribal use throughout their historical range spanning the West Coast of North America.”