Blue Creek Chinook Coho Life Cycle Monitoring Project | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Blue Creek Chinook Coho Life Cycle Monitoring Project is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) discretionary grant opportunity focused on tracking the status and trends of adult salmon populations in Blue Creek, a major tributary in the Lower Klamath Sub-basin. Blue Creek is described as the largest and most pristine tributary in this part of the basin and is repeatedly highlighted as one of the most important remaining strongholds for anadromous fish in the region. Historical and scientific references cited in the announcement emphasize that Blue Creek has unusually high potential for supporting anadromous fish compared to nearby tributaries, and that its Chinook and coho stocks may be especially important because other lower Klamath tributaries have seen very low or even nonexistent late-fall Chinook and coho presence over past decades. In other words, the project is framed as essential baseline monitoring for a rare, high-value refuge population, rather than routine sampling in a system with many alternative data sources.

A central reason the project matters is that Blue Creek supports a distinct late-fall Chinook run (typically peaking in November and December) that has been characterized as a unique stock adapted to the lower Klamath system. The opportunity description notes research suggesting these fish may be genetically and physically more similar to Smith River or southern Oregon stocks than to other Klamath groups, and that their distinctive run timing, body characteristics, and coloration have been recognized for a long time. Blue Creek also supports one of the largest remaining coho runs in the Lower Klamath Sub-basin, with the Crescent City Fork called out as particularly important habitat that can be heavily used by coho in the upper reaches. Because Blue Creek is relatively pristine and somewhat isolated from other wild coho refugia, the coho stock is presented as a potentially critical genetic refuge for the Klamath Basin, increasing the stakes for consistent, long-term monitoring.

The project itself began in fiscal year 1989 and is designed primarily to collect adult Chinook escapement data and related life-cycle information across the Blue Creek drainage. That information is used to assess population trends over time, understand distribution and movement (including immigration/emigration timing), and document habitat use during the spawning season. The announcement underscores that Chinook trend data from Blue Creek is an “integral component” of the broader Klamath Basin “Mega Table,” a multi-source compilation used to improve estimates of wild salmonid abundance basinwide and to strengthen forecasts of future run sizes. Coho data are collected to the extent feasible, but the announcement is candid that budget constraints and winter high-flow conditions often limit survey duration into late December and January, which can mean surveys conclude before peak coho spawning in some years.

For the 2010-2011 field season specifically, the stated objectives and tasks emphasize generating both an escapement estimate and a spawner index for fall Chinook, while also documenting the timing and extent of Chinook immigration and spawning across the basin. Two complementary population metrics are central to the work. First, the project aims to produce a fall 2010 adult Chinook escapement estimate using an “area under the curve” (AUC) method, which combines fish marking with repeated snorkel counts to estimate abundance while accounting for how long fish remain in the system (residence time) and how reliably observers detect fish (observer efficiency). Second, it aims to produce a fall 2010 Chinook spawner index count using peak weekly snorkel survey counts. A major longer-term goal is to run the AUC estimate and the index count side-by-side for enough years to quantify the relationship between the two. If that relationship is strong, it could allow managers to translate older index-count datasets (collected since the early 1990s) into estimated population abundances, and it could also allow future abundance estimates in years when full AUC work is not possible due to stream conditions or funding.

Methodologically, the project relies on targeted adult capture and marking in the lower reaches of Blue Creek as fish enter the system. Capture uses a 3.5-inch mesh tooth tangle net that can be fished passively or drifted, depending on conditions, with staff continuously attending the net and moving captured fish into holding tubes. Captured salmonids are measured, sexed when possible using external traits, and sampled for scales. Marking is done with a visible streamer tag (batch-marked by event using the same color behind the dorsal fin) and a secondary fin clip; fish are then allowed to recover and released upstream. The project incorporates explicit tests of observer efficiency by allowing a known number of marked fish to disperse and then having divers count them within a block-netted section, while recording physical parameters that could influence detection (for example, visibility and flow-related conditions). Residence time is estimated by tracking the decline of marked fish detections over time (a mark depletion curve), calculating area-under-curve values for marked fish, and using those results to convert weekly snorkel counts into weekly abundance estimates that are then summed to generate the annual escapement estimate.

In addition to marking and snorkel-based abundance work, the project conducts weekly spawning surveys from October through mid-December to document immigration and spawning activity not only for late-fall Chinook and coho, but also for steelhead and coastal cutthroat trout encountered during the same period. Surveys use direct observation via snorkeling across established reaches in the anadromous portion of the drainage. Crews record detailed information on live fish (species, counts, exact locations, size/condition/sex when feasible, and any marks or scars), redds (location, species association when possible, habitat type, and redd dimensions, with redds flagged to avoid recounting), and carcasses (location, species, fork length, sex, percent spawned, scale collection, mark/clip documentation, carcass condition, and flagging to avoid duplicate counts; heads are collected if adipose-clipped). Collectively, these data provide a picture of run timing, spatial distribution, spawning intensity, and post-spawn mortality patterns, which are directly relevant to both local restoration decisions and broader population assessments.

On the management side, the opportunity explicitly ties the project to harvest management and regulatory decision-making. The data support the Pacific Fishery Management Council, the California Fish and Game Commission, and Tribal governments by helping track population trends and estimate key indicators such as fall Chinook ocean stock abundance, age composition, and spawning run size. Those estimates feed into determinations about whether conservation goals for Klamath River fall Chinook are met in a given year and help produce projections of fishable stock used to set fishing regulations along the southern Oregon coast. The project also has a workforce development component aimed at improving the skills and knowledge of Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program staff and Yurok Tribal members through hands-on involvement in multiple fisheries monitoring activities, strengthening long-term local capacity to conduct technically demanding field assessments.

Administratively, this listing is a Notice of Intent rather than an open competition. It states that the opportunity has already been awarded to the Yurok Tribe and that no other applications will be reviewed. The funding opportunity number is FWS R8 YFWO 2010 FISHERIES FP 05 under CFDA 15.608 (Fish and Wildlife Management Assistance). The award amount is fixed, with an award ceiling and floor of $29,980, and there is no cost-sharing or matching requirement. The opportunity was posted on July 14, 2010, and the agency is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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