Mid-Columbia Coho Restoration Program celebrates successes and reports on construction plans

At the July 2026 meeting, the Council heard updates from the Yakama Nation on the extensive phased development of the Mid-Columbia Coho Restoration Program that, after nearly thirty years, is ready to begin construction on supporting facilities (see slides | watch video).

Project Review and Implementation Manager Mark Fritsch introduced two presenters from the Yakama Nation Fisheries program: Cory Kamphaus, Policy Advisor and Project Supervisor; and the "Godfather of Coho" Tom Scribner (who also holds the title of Mid-Columbia Policy Advisor). This project has officially been in the Council's Fish and Wildlife Program as a high-priority action item since 1996, although coordination among managers began earlier.

Scribner shared the early history of the project, including the Yakama Nation's decision to try to restore fish to where they had been found historically in the natural environment. "Bill Yallup was one of our chief councilmen at the time," Scribner recalled, "And he always reminded me, 'Try to make it like it was.' And that began the feasibility phase of the coho reintroduction program after being extirpated in this area for several decades, mostly from unscreened irrigation diversions, as well as the large 90% harvest rate on the lower Columbia River and ocean."

Coho were pretty much eliminated in the Columbia Basin by the early 1990s. The goal of the reintroduction project was to re-establish naturally spawning population of coho in a way that would also provide sustainable opportunities for tribal harvest. The first feasibility study was launched in 1996 amid concerns that the reintroduction could have unintended consequences for sensitive populations, including species listed under the Endangered Species Act. That feasibility phase concluded in 2005 and demonstrated that a local broodstock could be developed from lower river stocks. A regional master plan was developed to guide further studies, and in 2017, after multiple reviews by the Independent Science Review Panel (ISRP), the Council recommended that the project proceed. (Read more about the early stages of coho reintroduction). Current operations are focused on using a phased approach to increase coho dispersion in the Wenatchee and Methow subbasins.

"You can see in 2021, this is where we had the sites in place, we did that ramp-up three-year release," explained Kamphaus. "And you can see adult distribution and spawning has moved up the Chiwawa…notice that we have coho spawning 10 miles past our highest-most acclimation sites. And so they're really distributing themselves into these preferred habitats...you can see through this effort, [that] using a phased approach, taking our time, we actually have coho spawning in the three major tributaries, the Twisp, the upper Methow, and the Chewaukan, pretty successfully."

The Wenatchee was slightly different, Kamphaus notes. While the three-year mean was being met, there were concerns about the sex ratios becoming skewed. Female fish were struggling to pass Tumwater Canyon near Leavenworth, WA. Ongoing studies are examining whether selective breeding could result in fish with a better ability to ascend the canyon. The project is also using outplanting, which is the practice of moving fish from the hatchery to a farther away location, to encourage the use of tributaries and relieve adult density near hatcheries.

Kamphaus noted that these additional efforts demonstrate the commitment of the project to achieving success.

"Those are things that we have, over time, not just gone up to what the benchmark is in our master plan. We could have very easily said, we got enough juveniles released, we're good. We could have said in the Wenatchee, we got the number of coho we needed. We're good," he said. "But it's taking that extra step to ensure that this program has the highest likelihood of success. And that's where the adult outplanting and some of that mark-and-capture work came into play."

The next steps for the coho restoration project is to construct supporting facilities, including a new overwintering site in the upper Chiwawa basin that could acclimate up to 150,000 coho or spring Chinook.