News Release
| Release Number: | 02-181 |
| Dated: | 11/4/2002 |
| Contact: | Public Affairs Office, 503-808-4510 |
Portland, Ore.- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin a seasonal operation Tuesday to increase flows and raise water elevations below Bonneville Dam to protect chum salmon returning upriver to spawn.
By holding elevation and flows during November and December, adult chum salmon will be able to dig nests, or redds, and more effectively use available habitat in the river and nearby creeks said Rudd Turner, fisheries biologist with the Corps' Reservoir Control Center. Federal and state fisheries agencies agreed to the Corps' maintaining a target tailwater elevation of 11 feet at Bonneville Dam from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily during the critical spawning period. Daytime flows are expected to be in the range of 120,000 -125,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) to achieve this tailwater elevation.
Chum salmon were listed as a threatened species by the National Marine Fisheries Service in March 1999. Operations have been conducted since then to support fish spawning in the fall and protecting their eggs and the next generation of young fish until they migrate downstream the following spring.
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