Thursday July 25, 2024
KLEW —
Last week, the Nez Perce Tribe officially broke ground on their new Kelt facility. The goal is to help steelhead spawn more than once.
Plans to bring this new facility to life have been in the works for 16 years. Alongside the Yakama Nation, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, and the University of Idaho, the Nez Perce Tribe has been able to make this happen. The project is the first in the basin focused on recovering the Snake River Wild Steelhead populations as they have declined in the past years.
About two percent of the Columbia basin steelhead population can successfully spawn twice. Once they are done spawning many try to migrate to the ocean, but many die due to obstacles faced at hydroelectric dams. This makes it difficult to find them in the Snake River and upper Columbia rivers.