Meeting Minutes

Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative

November 19th, 2007 – 7:08 p.m., Boundary County Extension Office

Bonners Ferry, Idaho

Committee Members in Attendance:

Darrell Kerby, City of Bonners Ferry & KVRI Co-Chair

Dan Dinning, Boundary County Commissioner & KVRI Co-Chair

Bob Blanford, Business/Industry

Jim Cadnum, Landowner/Industrial

Ed Atkins, Jr., Corporate Agriculture

Sandy Ashworth, Social/Cultural/Historical

Vaughn Paragamian, (alt.) Fish & Wildlife

Justin Petty, Conservationist/Environmentalist

Linda McFaddan, Federal Lands

Patty Perry, Kootenai Tribe of Idaho & KVRI Facilitator

Kristin James, Kootenai Tribe of Idaho & KVRI Recording Secretary

Agency/Others in Attendance:

Chan Nagel, Boundary County Citizen

Barbara Nagel, Boundary County Citizen

Karen Roetter, U.S. Senator Mike Crapo

Matt Roetter, Visitor

Jeff Knetter, Idaho Fish & Game

Kevin Greenleaf, Kootenai Tribe of Idaho

Wayne Wakkinen, Idaho Fish & Game

Greg Hoffman, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Libby Dam

Sue Ireland, Kootenai Tribe of Idaho

Michael Sloan, Boundary Economic Development Council

David Anderson, Mayor Elect – Bonners Ferry

Opening:

Dan Dinning started by welcoming everyone to the meeting; introductions followed.

The minutes from the October 15th meeting were approved by consensus.

Discussions:

Burbot Conservation Strategy:

Burbot Aquaculture:

Sue Ireland, Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, thanked the KVRI group for allowing her the opportunity to give her updates. In 2003, KVRI agreed to start a burbot committee in order to address the issues associated with developing a burbot recovery plan. In the plan, conservation strategies were set up that the group plans to implement. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) formalized each agency’s commitment to implement the Burbot Conservation Strategy. The MOU was signed by 16 different action agencies.

On October 31st, 2007, the KVRI burbot sub-committee met in Bonners Ferry for their annual meeting. The committee determined, based on the demographics analysis of the population, which the burbot population was so low that they were going to have to take action with aquaculture or reintroduction to be able to make in difference in bringing the population to a size that could respond to habitat improvements. This particular species has not been cultured in a hatchery before so it was important to design a research program to develop appropriate aquaculture techniques for the burbot reintroductions that would need to take place to rehabilitate the population.

The Kootenai Tribe of Idaho was able to secure funding through help from the congressional delegates and also from Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to start developing techniques. They are working in cooperation with other management agencies such as Idaho Fish & Game, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, British Columbia Ministry of Environment and others. They have contracted with the University of Idaho Aquaculture Research Institute to develop the techniques and they are making great progress. Sue then read from a hand out the University had developed that outlines the progress to date (please find hand out available on the Tribe’s website – www.kootenai.org).

Libby Dam Operations in Relation to Burbot Conservation:

Greg Hoffman, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, displayed a power point presentation he developed for the purpose of the KVRI meeting. Currently, Libby Dam is releasing the coldest water available in the reservoir using the selective withdraw system. There are a series of gates across the face of the dam which contain 14 slots and 18 gates in each slot. A crane moves back and forth across tracks at the top and picks up gates and stores them back behind. Essentially, water spills over the top down through the penstocks through the turbines. That allows for colder or warmer water to be selected to influence Kootenai River temperature. Each gate takes about 30 minutes to move around. There are 50 feet of free board above the gates.

This is the third year the gates have been active. Patty Perry asked if the anticipated results for the ability to address the burbot concerns for temperatures were achieved; Greg stated they are doing what they have the ability to do with the gates and the system that is in place. In the systems operation request (SOR) it calls for temperature management, but temperature is influenced by volume. The next step in determining what can be done will likely involve assessment of implementation of temperature experiments with volume (flow) experiments. When there’s less volume the warmer water has the opportunity to cool quicker.

While looking at temperature right now, the SOR does not call for flow. Patty asked for Greg to explain briefly to the group why the SOR was set up like that.

Sue explained that during the preparation of the Burbot Conservation Strategy the group recognized BPA’s need to produce power during this time of the year, and that until the aquaculture program got fish back into the river to influence with flow operations the SOR’s will not ask for low flows. However, the Conservation Strategy, as well as the SOR’s, do indicate that there may be future need for flow restrictions if and when there are burbot back in the river in sufficient numbers to observe their response to temperatures and flow.

In 2008 the new salmon biological opinion may be released, which has generally positive benefits for the Kootenai River in the summertime. However in the burbot world it may not be such good news – with less water being released from the reservoir in the summer and fall there will be more to release before the end of the year, which means potentially higher flows during November and December each year.

Burbot Findings:

Vaughn Paragamian, Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG), spoke to the group about the netting success for burbot. He displayed power point slides to guide his presentation (the power point is displayed on the Kootenai Tribe’s website---www.kootenai.org).

The number of burbot caught has declined over the years. The study IDFG did provided information that followed through with all their original findings; they needed low flows for burbot to migrate and move up river and they also need cooler temperatures. Burbot have been known to travel long distances, however they move real slow. Salmon can travel 60-70 miles in a day compared to burbot moving only about 1-2 miles in a day.

If temperatures could stay below 6 degrees centigrade as early as November it would increase the probability of burbot spawning and migrating.

Extensive burbot rearing is the process of taking artificially fertilized eggs, or larva, and placing them in a pond to hatch and grow. This was extensive was tried in Sinclair Lake. One idea they experimented with was incubators to help hatch the eggs. The incubators were made with a fine mesh screening to keep the eggs inside. Marbles were placed at the bottom to keep the fertilized eggs separate. Four incubators were placed three feet under the ice at different locations around the lake. Approximately 1,000 eggs were placed in each incubator.

IDFG also tracked the water quality of the lake. The dissolved oxygen, just a few feet under the surface, was really low. The desired level was not reached until March.

There were 110 egg shells and 20 larva found within the incubators. Overall there was a very low hatching success. Some of the results were off a bit because IDFG later found out that only about 65% of the eggs were actually fertilized. They concluded that they haven’t had much success placing eggs in the lake so the next year they are going to try and place larva in Robert Frederick’s Pond.

There has been more and more of an effort to catch burbot but fewer fish caught. Burbot live between 4 and 14 years. There isn’t any information on how large the population for burbot was pre Libby Dam, so the only number for IDFG to use in the catch per unit which has been tracked. The assumption is the more fish there are the more fish that will be caught. The recovery goal 9,500 burbot which include those caught in Canada also.

Over the years there has been a constant population decline, does anyone know why? Vaughn stated the recruitment has been diminishing. He has looked back through some older publications and found that water temperatures are warmer; discharges are high during burbot migration, and lead to failure of spawning.

Sandy Ashworth also added that there has been a lot of change in the Kootenai Valley over time. Change of patterns for the way people lived off the land, diminish in what burbot ate, a decline in fishing, new settlement among others. There was a lot to provide decline of the burbot population even before the Libby Dam.

If the problem is not cured how will the species be reintroduced? Vaughn stated IDFG realize there will have to be changes made. They are trying to get tolerable conditions for burbot and make other changes where they are needed. In the conservation strategy for burbot, there are a suite of actions that address habitat restoration. There is still a lot unknown about the species, but the goal is to get a viable self sustaining population.

U.S. Forest Service Update:

Linda McFaddan, USFS, stated there is a proposal to move the lookout tower on Black Mountain 1.5 miles north of its present location. The reason primarily because the structure needs to be repaired, but also because of the communications paraphernalia that intertwine with the tower it’s better to dissemble it and reassemble it a short distance away. The comment period ends November 23rd. Pat Hart would be the contact person for more information on this project.

Committee Updates:

Myrtle Creek Sub-committee:

Linda McFaddan, USFS, mentioned the group met on November 7th to discuss monitoring. The prescriptions that have been written for the first project, Mini Mac, were also discussed. The difference between the moist and dry sites, restoration, fuel reductions and where the group wanted to monitor were all topics discussed. There were several photo points already taken & will be more both taken pre and post sale. The group is hoping to secure funding to get some water quality monitors placed above and below the Mack Creek area to get a better handle on whether there is sedimentation and where it came from. They will also be setting up some field trip dates again. USFS is hoping to get the bid out, offered and sold by the end of the year with work to begin shortly there after.

Patty added prior to the meeting the focus was on effectiveness monitoring. They are not telling the scientists how to do their job rather they know the goals the committee set and wanted to achieve, what to monitor and how to achieve that.

How is the progress on the grizzly bear rewrite in Libby? Linda stated she was not at the last meeting. Patty and Wayne Wakkinen stated it was not a topic of discussion at the last IGBC meeting.

Smith Creek Working Group:

Jeff Knetter, Idaho Department of Fish & Game (IDFG), stated the last meeting was cancelled.

TMDL Sub-committee:

Patty stated the next meeting will be on December 7th at 8:00 a.m. at the Kootenai Tribal Office.

Grizzly Bear Sub-committee:

Scott Robinson, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is on the sub-committee and he brought displays that are available for use at the library, fair, visitor’s center, etc. They are accompanied by several handouts on grizzly bears. The display and everything is part of the sub committees grizzly bear education and outreach.

Wayne Wakkinen added that locally they are working with Claine Skeen to get the Good Grief dumpster fenced and secured.

The library is in need of their own C.J. There’s a dead bear available. The group is looking into securing funds to get the bear mounted. Mike Herrin may have I & E funding to help get the bear on wheels. Last year the money was given to a public outreach and survey done in the Yaak drainage. They are still in the process of sorting through the information gathered.

There was discussion at the IGBC Sub-committee to standardize food storage for bears. There was also talk for the Rock Creek EIS where there will be mandatory food storage units; however that’s only 3 bmu’s for the ecosystem. There are good reasons and places where mandatory food storage containers would be helpful.

Dan Dinning added the county is looking to reduce the collection sites down to 2 sites through out the county. One site would be up north and the other down south. The county’s landfill is getting to the point where they are getting close to exceeding the guidelines for capacity.

Chan Nagel asked if the bear proof storage and the reductions of the garbage dump sites are primarily because of the black bears or the grizzly bears. Dan stated it is primarily black bears that have been getting into the dumpsters.

Closing Comments/Meeting Announcements

River Restoration Project:

Patty stated the project is not progressing as quickly as they had hoped. Dave Rosgen will not be coming back up to the area until February.

Flood Stage:

Dan Dinning stated the Weather Service declined lowering the flood stage level; the level will remain at 1764.

Global Warming Seminar:

Darrell Kerby stated he attended a workshop last summer with all the Idaho Officials. Mayor Larkin from Post Falls convinced a couple professors from the University of Idaho and an adjunct to the mayor in Seattle to put on workshop for the officials on Global Warming and what it meant for Northern Idaho. Darrell thought it may be a good education seminar for the group. He offered to set up a workshop if there was enough interest.