A Geographer in the Wild

I got to hold a fish!


This was the highlight of my summer, professionally speaking. I am currently a cartographic technician STEP at the USFWS’s Columbia River Fisheries Program Office while I finish my Master’s in Geography.

My native habitat as a geographer is in front of a computer using GIS technology. My regular duties include supporting projects with spatial analyses such as habitat patching for bull trout, and visualization of data typically in the form of maps. I also work with GPS technology, and now – FISH!

Considering I spend most of my working time in an office I really look forward to the opportunities when I can get out in the field. This serves two purposes: First, I find it beneficial to the quality of my work to see the places I map and experience it firsthand, and second, it’s so nice to take a break from the computer once in a while.

I have been working on a map of the White Salmon area for the office and was excited to see the study site in person. It makes a place more real when you can go there and see the terrain with your own eyes. From a mapping perspective, going out with the field crew provides me the opportunity to see what’s important to them and I walk away with a better understanding of the data collected and the conditions it was collected under.

Our office is currently moving fish above Condit Dam on the White Salmon River so they can spawn upstream. This is in anticipation of the dam’s removal, http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/sep/17/salmon-moved-to-native-waters-before-condit-dam-br/. Specifically we’re moving Tule fall Chinook and I was able to go out for the first week of field work. The whole week was full of firsts for me. I got to see the hatchery and the weir, wear waders that didn’t leak, assist in catching, tagging, and transporting fish, and, of course, hold one! It was a great experience and I hope I can go out again soon.



Submitted by Nadia Jones

Preparing for Removal of Condit Dam

Dam removal is as controversial as ever in the Pacific Northwest and, from my experience, has a myriad of fish restoration factors to consider much less all the other addditonal considerations that go into the decision to remove a dam. Biologists in our office have done assessments that are trying to either enumerate or document the presence or absence of species in areas both upstream and downstream of Condit Dam. These assessments will provide the pre-removal "snapshot" of White Salmon River fish populations and, hopefully with additional assessments and monitoring in the years after the removal, there will be a story of the repopulation of both anadromous and resident fish species into newly available habitat.

For the past two years, I worked with several other U.S. Fish and Wildlfie Service biologists, Spring Creek National Fish Hatchery staff, PacifiCorp (owner and operator of Condit Dam), Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, National Marine Fisheries Service, Yakama Nation Fisheries, The U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Geological Survey's Columbia River Research Laboratory on planned capture and transport of Lower Columbia River fall Chinook salmon. The breaching of Condit Dam and draining of Northwestern Lake will temporarily inundate the spawning habitat of fall Chinook salmon with sediment in the lower White Salmon River. This will in turn affect the survival of the salmon eggs placed by fall Chinook salmon in the lower White Salmon River (annually in September) immediately prior to the scheduled removal of the dam (currently October 2011). A decision was made by representatives of the previously mentioned agencies, and the operator of the dam, to transport adult fall Chinook salmon upstream of Condit Dam and allow them to spawn naturally in an area of the river that will be unaffected by sediment released from removal of Condit Dam. This decision was informed by other assessments and data collection of fall Chinook salmon spawning abundance, genetics, and juvenile production in the lower White Salmon River.

The following videos show some of the work that was performed during 2008 and 2009 assessments. In 2008, we assessed three different capture mentods in an effort to catch and transport Lower Columbia River fall Chinook salmon upstream of Condit Dam to document how successful our proposed actions might be. In 2009, we assessed the use of a resistance board weir in combination with a dormant adult salmon collection facility and a Video Passage System (VPS). Here are the links to the 2008 report and the 2009 report to view them in their entirety. Aspects of these efforts are ongoing in 2010.







Submitted by Rod Engle.