Puyallup Enhancement Project

For the first time since the Puyallup River acclimation ponds were constructed in 1997, we were unable to plant coho because the roads were blocked by snow. The access roads were eventually plowed open three weeks after the coho needed to be released. All (100,000) CWT tagged with adipose clipped (marked w/ non-PCSRF funds) Voights Creek coho fingerlings (27 fish /pound) that would normally be reared in the ponds had to be released into Lake Kapowsin instead. This will hopefully provide as good or better survival rates and fishery contribution. Lake Kapowsin was the site of a net pen coho program which operated for five years during the 1990s.

Road repair efforts included flood damage repairs along the FS -73 road to Huckleberry Creek Army Pond and snow plowing in the spring to gain access for fish delivery to several high elevation acclimation sites. The other big maintenance expense included repairs to the Huck Army pond water intake structure which was rendered inoperable by a channel course change sustained during flood flows. The repair actually involved training the river back to its previous course through the placement of large boulders and excavation of channel bars. This work was coordinated with the USFS who is the property steward and lead permitting agency for such work. The entire Huck Army repair bill including road and water supply intake work totaled $30,000.

The fish enhancement efforts described above are intended to benefit stock rebuilding efforts in the Puyallup River, including boosting stock abundance, diversity and spatial structure of populations benefitting from this proposal. Both Chinook programs rear populations that are threatened under the ESA and the coho is considered a ESA candidate species.