Justin Baker

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Fish Biologist - Hatchery Assessment
Columbia River Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office
Fish and Aquatic Conservation
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About Justin Baker

Justin is the Hatchery Evaluation Team representative for the Little White Salmon and Willard NFHs upriver bright fall Chinook Salmon programs. He supports monitoring and assessment of hatchery production and performance, as well as evaluating potential impacts of hatchery-origin strays on ESA listed populations in the White Salmon River. Justin also conducts annual monitoring of juvenile outmigration timing and survival of hatchery releases through the Columbia River system for four hatcheries within the Columbia River Gorge NFH Complex.

Program: Hatchery Assessment

Current Projects:

• Monitoring survival of out-migrating juvenile Chinook salmon releases from Carson, Little White Salmon, Warm Springs and Willard NFHs

• Analyzing PIT tag and adult return data from alternative juvenile release strategies implemented at Willard NFH starting in 2018 to provide recommendations to hatchery managers for future releases

• Monitoring movements and straying of returning adult upriver bright fall Chinook salmon from the Little White Salmon River using submersible PIT detection antennas

• Collaborating with biologists at Abernathy Fish Technology Center and WDFW on genetic study of fall Chinook Salmon carcasses from the White Salmon River to monitor hybridization between hatchery-origin URB fall Chinook Salmon and ESA-listed tule fall Chinook Salmon

• Evaluating the impacts of redd superimposition by hatchery-origin URB fall Chinook Salmon on the spawning success of listed tule fall Chinook Salmon in the White Salmon River

• Supporting hatchery staff at Warm Springs, Spring Creek, Carson, and Little White Salmon NFHs with spawning activities and biosampling

Background: Before coming to work at the CRFWCO in 2021 Justin spent seven years as a fish biologist with an environmental consulting firm in Saint Louis, Missouri. Justin went to the College of Wooster in Ohio, home to the Fighting Scots. He went on to study the genetics of darters including those isolated in Ozark refugia and received graduate degrees in Biology from Saint Louis University. While completing his PhD degree he worked for three years at The Ohio State University Museum of Biodiversity conducting fish surveys throughout Ohio and cataloging fish for the museum collection. As an environmental consultant in Saint Louis Justin worked on multiple projects including evaluating negative impacts at power facilities from entrainment of fish eggs and larvae including those of pallid sturgeon.

At CRFWCO since: 2021

Species expertise
Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)

From The Library

Monitoring and Evaluation Updates for John Day/The Dalles Dam Mitigation Programs at Spring Creek and Little White Salmon National Fish Hatcheries -FY 2023 Annual Report
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Monitoring and Evaluation Updates for John Day/The Dalles Dam Mitigation Programs at Spring Creek and Little White Salmon National Fish Hatcheries -FY 2023 Annual Report

The John Day/The Dalles Dam Mitigation (JDTD) program provides mitigation for the escapement of 30,000 adult fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) due to the loss of spawning habitat and production caused by construction of the John Day and The Dalles Dams in the Columbia River. The...

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Assessing superimposition of listed tule fall Chinook salmon redds using aerial and ground surveys on the White Salmon River, WA
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Assessing superimposition of listed tule fall Chinook salmon redds using aerial and ground surveys on the White Salmon River, WA

Hatchery upriver bright (URB) fall Chinook salmon are straying into the White Salmon River (Figure 1). ESA-listed tule fall Chinook population in the White Salmon River spawns earlier (Sept – Oct) than URBs (late Oct – Nov). Tule redds at risk to superimposition which may displace eggs and...

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Monitoring and Evaluation of Mitchell Act-Funded National Fish Hatcheries in the Columbia River Gorge Complex 2023 Annual Report
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Monitoring and Evaluation of Mitchell Act-Funded National Fish Hatcheries in the Columbia River Gorge Complex 2023 Annual Report

The Mitchell Act was authorized by Congress in 1938 to provide funds for hatchery programs and fish passage facilities to mitigate for declining salmon populations due to irrigation diversions, water pollution, logging, and hydropower development in the Columbia River Basin. Funds are...

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Impacts of redd superimposition on the spawning success of listed tule fall Chinook salmon in the White Salmon River, Washington
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Impacts of redd superimposition on the spawning success of listed tule fall Chinook salmon in the White Salmon River, Washington

Upriver bright (URB) fall Chinook salmon reared and released from the Little White Salmon and Willard National Fish Hatcheries are known to stray into the White Salmon River. Interactions between hatchery-origin URB strays and ESA-listed tule fall Chinook salmon are believed to lead to a loss in...

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Impacts of redd superimposition on the spawning success of listed tule fall Chinook salmon in the White Salmon River, Washington
Name
Impacts of redd superimposition on the spawning success of listed tule fall Chinook salmon in the White Salmon River, Washington

Upriver bright (URB) fall Chinook salmon reared and released from the Little White Salmon and Willard National Fish Hatcheries are known to stray into the White Salmon River. Interactions between hatchery-origin URB strays and ESA-listed tule fall Chinook salmon are believed to lead to a loss in...

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