Lyle Falls Fishway Improvements

Strategy: Reconstruct Lyle Falls Fishway to Federal design criteria to ease passage of steelhead past river mile 2.2 of the Klickitat River, and to function as the broodstock collection facility for the YKFP steelhead integrated hatchery program.

Improvements are planned at Lyle Falls Fishway to address limited adult fish passage through the fishway into the Klickitat subbasin. Engineering assessments (Harbor Consulting Engineers, Inc. 1996) identified the following factors currently restricting passage at the fishway:

1. Inadequate attraction water
2. Location of the fishway entrance
3. Configuration of the fishway entrance ports
4. Location of the fishway exit, with fish exiting into swift water
5. Trash rack debris accumulations
6. River shoaling at the fishway exit

A subsequent HEC-RAS hydraulic model report, using fisheries criteria in accordance with the accepted design criteria approved by fishery agencies (NOAA and WDFW), outlined repairs, modifications, and retrofits that would facilitate increased passage into the Klickitat subbasin for all fish at nearly all flow conditions.

The completion of ongoing engineering and design work for Lyle Falls will establish a facility that allows a high proportion of returning fish to be physically examined at a location in the lower watershed. A video monitoring and PIT-tag detection system would enable escapement monitoring, provide run-timing information, improve enumeration of natural- and hatchery-origin recruits returning to the subbasin, and could also determine the presence/absence of a fluvial bull trout population.

The collection facility would support data collection that bears on the scientific justification for particular supplementation activities proposed for the subbasin. See ISRP 2005-16. The facility would support monitoring and evaluation strategies in the proposed Klickitat Anadromous Fishery Master Plan (KMP) that can be undertaken prior to implementation of supplementation activities, including the following:

Strategy SC3d. Use radio telemetry, mark-recapture, and/or run reconstruction to determine passage and entrainment rates at Lyle Falls and Castile Falls and to track natural spawners to their spawning grounds.

Strategy SC5a. Collect DNA samples and morphometric data from fish passing through the Lyle Falls and Castile Falls traps. Use findings from Yakima and other Columbia Basin studies in conjunction with information from these samples to target genetic studies in the Klickitat subbasin. Convene meetings of tribal and state geneticists as necessary to further develop sampling rates, protocols, and evaluation measures.

Strategy SC6b. Update and maintain all Klickitat-related databases with historical and current harvest data.

Strategy SC6c. Use run reconstruction methods developed for Yakima Basin spring Chinook to reconstruct Klickitat run and harvest to the Columbia River mouth.

Click here for an image of the construction schematic for the fishway improvements. (Coming soon.)

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