Monitoring and evaluation of the Winthrop National Fish Hatchery summer steelhead program 2021

Executive Summary- This report summarizes Winthrop National Fish Hatchery’s (WNFH) summer steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) production program for brood year (BY) 2019 as well as complete brood year performance metrics (e.g., smolt to adult return, SAR) through brood year 2017. The program dual roles of mitigation and recovery in the Upper Columbia Region and functions as an integrated, conservation program with goals of increasing natural spawner abundance and distribution. In 2021, WNFH released 208,610 juvenile summer steelhead into the Methow River, within 10% of the production goal of 200,000. Juvenile release was conducted as planned and as described in the programs Biological Opinions. Conversion of WNFH adults from Bonneville Dam to Wells Dam was 83% in 2020 which was 118% of the long-term average. Only five WNFH adults were estimated to have strayed and spawned in the Okanogan Subbasin in 2021. This report provides comprehensive evaluation of program performance and fulfills ESA reporting requirements identified under NOAA’s Biological Opinion (NOAA 2017) and ESA Section 4(d) Limit 5 authorization (NOAA 2019b).