Home | Fisheries | Habitat Restoration | Invasive Species | Wildlife | Links.

Salmon

Salmonid Status Report

To ensure the Service's fisheries restoration program on Lake Champlain is guided by sound, current management and scientific principles, the Office spearheaded and provided much of the writing and coordination support for a status report by the Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative, which was distributed to the news media and the public. The “Status Report: Conservation of Interjurisdictional Salmonid Species and Habitats in the Lake Champlain Basin” served to compliment the existing strategic plan for salmonid restoration, without introducing an additional, overlapping public process (in addition to the NEPA process for sea lamprey control) to engage the agencies' stakeholders.

Forage Fish Assessment

The Office conducted forage fish monitoring on Lake Champlain in partnership with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife. Rainbow smelt are the primary food for salmonid predators in the lake and also comprise an important winter sport fishery. Lake Champlain fishery managers emphasized that if efforts to restore native salmonids to Lake Champlain were successful, impacts to the forage base must be carefully monitored. Thus, a program was initiated to monitor rainbow smelt stocks in several areas of the lake, using the technique of stepped-oblique midwater trawling. Rainbow smelt sampling in 2000 was carried out in August and catch rates were lower than in 1999.

Fish Passage on the Winooski River

The Office continued to evaluate and enhance the operation of the Winooski River fish passage facility at the Winooski One hydroelectric station in Winooski, Vermont. This hydroelectric dam is the first upstream barrier on the Winooski River. The Winooski One fish “trap and truck” project has allowed fisheries managers the opportunity to restore wild migratory salmonid populations and fisheries in the lower Winooski River that have been restricted by barriers built on the river.

Migrating Lake Champlain landlocked Atlantic salmon now have access to critical spawning and nursery habitat above the Winooski One hydroelectric station. In the fall of 2000, 29 landlocked Atlantic salmon were lifted.

Landlocked Atlantic salmon being processed by Service employee, Nick Staats, at the Winooski One Fish Lift passage facility on the Winooski River, 1993-2000.

Landlocked Salmon Fry Stocked in the Winooski River

In 2000, in addition to salmon smolts provided by the Pittsford National Fish Hatchery, over 150,000 landlocked Atlantic salmon fry were stocked in the Winooski River. A large volunteer effort was needed to accomplish the fry stocking over a two day period.

Salmonid Restoration on the Lamoille River

Lake Champlain salmonid restoration efforts extended up into the Lamoille River watershed in 2000 with the stocking of over 100,000 salmon fry in the upper Lamoille River and the Browns River, a tributary of the Lamoille River.

Technical Assistance

Limited technical assistance was provided to several National Wildlife Refuges as part of their Comprehensive Conservation Plan efforts. Fisheries surveys were conducted to gather baseline data on species, abundance and habitat. Assistance stopped in May when our temporary fisheries biologist took a job with the state of New York. Her position remains unfilled.

Return to top.