Greenwater River juvenile emigrant evaluation and spawning survey FY2023

Greenwater River is part of the White River/ Puyallup basin which contributes spring Chinook salmon and is one of the more important producers to the overall goal of the White River system. This project will monitor natural juvenile production from spring Chinook emigration from the Greenwater River. In addition to the natural production, acclimation ponds for both spring Chinook and steelhead are operated in the Greenwater River. We will use a rotary screw trap to collect emigrating juvenile salmonids. We expect to collect enough data on spring Chinook, coho, and pink salmon to generate statistically valid estimates of abundance. We also expect to encounter juvenile steelhead and will estimate their abundance if data allows. Because the focus of this project is on spring Chinook, we will expand the extent and duration of spawning ground surveys in the Greenwater River to complete as near as possible a red based census of spawning. This information will allow us to make comparable estimates of productivity with fall Chinook in the Green River basin.

The purpose of the project is to estimate juvenile abundance of emigrating spring Chinook, and coho salmon in Greenwater River. Secondarily, we will be able to evaluate productivity of spawning adult spring Chinook in the Greenwater River.