Hello All:

My name is John McMillan and I am the biologist who sent out the memo concerning the fish kill in the NF Calawah River. I see that only my email message was posted, and not the attachment with the description, observations, and numbers of fish found in the system.

Also, hello ltlcleo I do remember you from both our meetings, it is good to hear you are concerned. From our brief meetings I came away with a feeling that you are very sincere in your concern about wild fish.

I must admit that this is the first time I have ever posted on one of the fishing bulletin boards, and make clear that I am only here to provide information on this topic. I would especially like to clarify the situation and then respond to the discussion between Pat Graham and Bob Ball.

I will provide a brief background on my ONP work. Over the past five years I have conducted over 150 snorkel surveys in the Quileute/Hoh River basins, covering over 300 miles of stream. I spend over 300 days each year doing a mixture of fishing, snorkeling, and spawning counts. To complete these surveys I typically hike about 300-400 miles each year. I hope this provides some sense of the time and effort that I spend studying these river systems.

This summer we snorkeled the NF Calawah as part of a basin wide salmonid survey in the Calawah River basin. In total we covered almost 40 stream miles and hiked 110 miles in a wetsuit to cover these areas. As Bob mentioned, the NF Calawah is a very important tributary, especially for steelhead and coastal cutthroat.

As a scientist, conservationist, and fisherman, I empathize with the feelings of helplessness that can pervade our thoughts during times like these. Often our first reaction is to try and do whatever possible to help the stranded fish, such as transporting the fish or even digging in the channel to allow further migration. The situation on the ONP this summer/early fall is disturbing, but in most cases this is a very natural cycle.

According to precipitation records from Forks (period of record is from 1931-2002), this summer is the second driest on record, with only 6.25 inches of rain since July 1. The driest year occurred in 1987 when we only had 5.1 inches of rain over the same period of time. Going further back, I found that the ONP experienced similar droughts in 1935, 1951, 1967, 1987, and now in 2002. Roughly these summer/fall droughts (over our short period of record) seem to occur about every 20 years (which also roughly coincides with ocean pressure shifts (PDO) that also influence our coastal climate).

Most of these droughts probably ended in a similar fashion, loss of surface flow and a subsequent loss of juvenile/adult salmonids. For those who personally know the NF Calawah, we are familiar with the Tribal mythology of the stream that is related to the annual loss of surface water in the middle portion of the river. This year is an anomoly, as most of the lower river has gone dry. However, according to precip. records these droughts have occurred in the past and I am fairly sure the stream lost a significant portion of its salmonid population each time, yet the stream recovered.

Personally, I believe that when nature takes a course that it is best to leave nature to work itself out. In this case, most of the fish are going to die, but the carcasses of all the dying creatures are a very important nutrient source to the stream. If we tried to truck the fish downstream, it is more than likely we are saving fish that are not suited to surviving such droughts and that could have very unitended results. The stream in the upper reaches is still flowing, and that part of the stream is not going to go dry, those juvenile fish will provide a source of recolonization for the lower part of the watershed.

My suggestion would be to let the system fluctuate naturally and allow fish to recolonize. Over generations fish can respond relatively quickly to climatic shifts and allowing these fish to die will help that process of adaptation. It is clear that humans have affected the global climate and the prolonged drought this year maybe related to the syndrome we have labeled "global warming." If our climate is shifting, then the future of salmonids, in streams like the NF Calawah, is dependent upon the fish generating a population that is best suited to surviving these types of droughts, whether that is through earlier run timing so they can get to the headwaters where the streams don't go dry or a later entry timing so that the fish don't become stranded in the drying portions of the stream.

I hope this helps. I wish you all the best.

Sincerely,
John McMillan
Wild Salmon Center