Drones to monitor water levels for threatened bull trout in central WA

Yakima Herald-Republic staff report

State fish and wildlife staff will use drones to assess the effects of low water flows on bull trout movement and migration in Kittitas and Yakima counties.

Hot, dry conditions and low water levels can create barriers to fish passage. Drone flights will alert biologists when they need to undertake fish rescue efforts because of these conditions, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a news release.

Both counties are part of a state drought emergency declaration. Bull trout are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, the release said.

Drone flights will take place over the lower reaches of tributary streams and follow those streams to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reservoirs within the Yakima and Naches river basins. The flights will originate from lands managed by the Bureau of Reclamation or the U.S. Forest Service and will take place two to three times per water body, during daylight hours from Monday through Friday, between now and the end of November.

Flights will take approximately two to four hours to complete, fish and wildlife officials said, and will be supplemented with ground surveys. Specific flight dates have not been set.

The effort will continue into the fall.