CONDUCT FALL CHINOOK SALMON SPAWNING ESCAPEMENT ENUMERATION PROJECTS

This project is a cooperative effort between the U. S. Forest Service, Klamath National Forest, Six Rivers National Forest; the Salmon River Restoration Council; the Quartz Valley Indian Reservation; the Northern California Resource Center; the Mid Klamath Watershed Council; Siskiyou Resource Conservation District, and the Karuk and Yurok Tribes. The California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) will direct this survey, and are also contributors to this effort. The CDFG has been led the effort to determine Chinook spawner escapement in the Klamath River upstream of Weitchpec since 1978. The data generated by CDFG has been and continues to be valuable for the determination of harvest levels for the management of Klamath River fish stocks, as well as track the trend of Klamath fall chinook abundance in the Klamath Basin. The CDFG uses a combination of counting weirs, spawner carcass surveys, redd surveys, and hatchery returns to develop these important estimates. This one year survey will determine in-river run size (escapement) of Chinook salmon within the Shasta, Scott, and Salmon River basins and other major tributaries to the Middle Klamath River during the 2015 season (October through December, 2015). Information will be collected on run timing, spawning distribution, length frequency, and sex ratio for fall Chinook salmon. The survey provides for the recovery of coded wire tag information and scales for age class determination. Additionally, information on coho salmon and steelhead observed during the course of the survey will be documented.