Monitoring and Evaluation of the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery Spring Chinook Salmon Program, 2022

Executive Summary- This report summarizes Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery’s (LNFH) spring Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) production program for 2022. Also, reported are complete brood year performance metrics (e.g., smolt to adult return, SAR) through brood year 2016. The goal of the program is to provide harvest opportunities with minimal impacts to natural-origin fish populations and their habitats. In 2022, LNFH released 1,325,770 juvenile spring Chinook Salmon into Icicle Creek, exceeding the production goal of 1,200,000. Juvenile release was conducted as planned and as described in the programs Biological Opinions. The 2022 adult return was 214% of the long-term average, with an estimated 11,002 adult spring Chinook Salmon returning to Icicle Creek. This report documents the comprehensive evaluation of program performance as well as to consolidate reporting requirements identified under the Biological Opinions for LNFH.