FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 79, NO. 3 



In 1955, CRFDP cooperating agencies initiated 

 a 9-yr program to introduce spring chinook salmon 

 into Wind River, which enters the Columbia River 

 at river mile 155 in southwestern Washington 

 (Figure 1). Historically, chinook salmon were 

 blocked from all but a few miles of the lower Wind 

 River by an impassable series of falls located 3.7 

 mi upstream from its confluence with the Colum- 

 bia River. The upper Wind River drainage was 

 believed to contain substantial spring chinook 

 salmon spawning and rearing habitat and to have 

 the potential for supporting a productive spring 

 chinook salmon hatchery program. Approximate- 

 ly 35,000 spring chinook salmon eggs from Camas 

 Creek, Idaho, were transferred to Carson National 



from about 2,000 mi of streams, construction of 87 fish ways at 

 natural barriers, installation of 570 screens at diversion ditches 

 and canals, and construction or modernization of 22 salmon and 

 steelhead hatcheries and 7 rearing ponds which annually 

 produced an average of 98 million salmon (2.6 million lb) and 

 2.3 million steelhead (350,000 lb) during 1971-76. Wahle and 

 Vreeland (1978) list numerous operational improvement studies 

 also funded to complement artificial production throughout 

 the basin. 



Fish Hatchery on upper Wind River in 1945. 

 About 20,500 resulting fingerlings were marked 

 and released into the Wind River in October 1946. 

 In 1949, 21 adult spring chinook salmon were 

 observed below Shipperd Falls. Four carcasses 

 bearing the 1946 mark were subsequently re- 

 covered (Zimmer et al. 1963). 



This report is a summary of the 1955-63 Wind 

 River spring chinook salmon introduction pro- 

 gram and results through 1979. 



MAJOR ELEMENTS OF THE PROGRAM 



The Wind River spring chinook salmon intro- 

 duction program had three discrete, interrelated 

 elements: 1) construction of a fishway at Shipperd 

 Falls, 2) trapping nonindigenous adult spring 

 chinook salmon from a heterogenous population 

 passing Bonneville Dam on the main-stem Colum- 

 bia River and transporting them to hatchery 

 facilities on the upper Wind River, and 3) holding 

 of transported adults to maturity, spawning the 

 adults, and rearing the resulting progeny to mi- 

 grant size for release into Wind River. 



30 MILES 



Figure l. — Wind River and vicinity 



OREGON 



VICINITY MAP 



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