Fish Tools

Want to learn how many stream miles of spawning and rearing habitat have been protected, or fish-diversion screens installed, or barriers to fish migration removed in Columbia River tributaries? Making information like this easily accessible is part of the effort to measure and record progress toward the goals and objectives of the Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. The program mitigates the impacts of hydropower dams by protecting and enhancing fish and wildlife populations.

The Council increasingly is making fish and wildlife information available online through charts, spreadsheets and interactive maps. This month the Council staff reported to the Council’s Fish and Wildlife Committee on progress toward increasing the visibility and accessibility of information that explains implementation of the fish and wildlife program.

Recently, the Council activated a new online tool, the Natural Origin Salmon and Steelhead Adult Objectives Map, which allows viewers to see and compare objectives for Chinook, steelhead, coho, sockeye, and chum salmon on a map of the United States portion of the Columbia River Basin. This information not only helps demonstrate progress toward goals and objectives in the Council’s program, but also toward the goals of federal (Endangered Species Act) and tribal plans, as well.

Related fish-information tools maintained by the Council online include:

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High-level Implementation Indicator Reports:

These reports track the progress of fish and wildlife mitigation efforts in areas that include 1) abundance of fish and wildlife; 2) hydrosystem survival and passage; 3) effectiveness of actions in the fish and wildlife program; and 4) indictors that are in development.

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Subbasin and species dashboards:

The fish and wildlife program is implemented in some 60 subbasins of the Columbia River Basin. Subbasin “dashboards” show key elements of these plans, including extracts of the plans and links to related management plans, local maps, and contact information.

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Fish Information site:

Through the Fish Information site, the Council tracks the status of fish and wildlife populations in the Columbia River Basin. This information informs the adaptive management strategy in the program. The fish information site accesses fish abundance estimates from Streamnet, which maintains a similar, species-specific mapping tool. Streamnet, funded primarily by the Bonneville Power Administration through the Council’s fish and wildlife program, is a cooperative information management and data dissemination project focused on fisheries and aquatic data and data-related services in the Columbia River Basin and the Pacific Northwest.

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Program resource maps and data:

These maps, some of which are under development, show investments that have been made and are being made through the Council's fish and wildlife program such as, for example, various fish hatcheries and artificial production programs.