Yakamas rescued doomed fish

YAKIMA – Fishermen owe a tip of the hat to thick-skinned fish biologists and a federal court ruling issued in Spokane 30 years ago for the spring chinook and steelhead runs heading into the Yakima River this year.

Had it not been for the once-controversial Quackenbush Decision, “there wouldn’t be any fish in the river,” said Mark Johnston, fisheries biologist for the Yakama Nation.

The ruling was a landmark that assured water would keep flowing in the Yakima basin during winter. It’s credited with the steady comeback of the region’s once-decimated spring salmon and steelhead.

But in 1980 the issue spawned a bitter struggle between farmers who feared they’d lose everything and the Yakama Nation, steadfast in its effort to preserve the spring salmon important to their tribal culture.

“It was pretty heated, pretty confrontational,” recalls Ron Van Gundy, who managed the Roza Irrigation District at that time. “It was a scary time for a lot of people, not knowing whether they were going to have enough water when everything was said and done.”

Before the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Justin Quackenbush, meetings and court hearings were marred by angry protests.

Prior to the ruling, irrigators would tightly close Yakima basin water storage gates in October, saving all the water they could for the next irrigation season.

River water would recede, leaving salmon eggs exposed to die.

The attitude at the time was that most of the basin’s fish runs were already wiped out, and there wasn’t much left to worry about, said Bob Tuck, who managed the tribe’s fisheries program at that time.

Only 300 anadromous fish were returning to the river, and they were being trucked past the river’s low-water stretch.

In October 1980, Tuck floated the river and found about 60 salmon nests in a 6-mile stretch downstream from the city of Cle Elum.

The discovery came six years after the controversial landmark ruling by U.S. District Court Judge George Boldt that gave tribes competing with sportsmen and commercial fisherman half of each harvestable fish run and required fish habitat protection.

The Boldt Decision followed by the discovery of the spawning beds led to the Quackenbush Decision that required minimum flows for fish production in the Yakima River.

Irrigators and fish biologists suddenly had to work together. It was rough at first, but after 30 years of refinements, farmers and fish are both prospering.

“It was a management and learning experience and adjustment,” Van Gundy said. “We had to learn to operate with the fish in mind.”