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State fish biologists are proposing to improve wild spring chinook salmon spawning habitat in the upper Rogue River, tinkering with hatchery chinook to improve returns, and allowing anglers to keep some early-run wild spring chinook when predicted returns are strong, a new draft plan states. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s draft plan, which updates its original 2008 plan, proposes no great shifts in management strategies and gives department biologists some kudos for what it states are gains in one of the plan’s key elements — rebuilding the genetically pure wild, early-run spring chinook that reach the upper Rogue in May and early June. Early-run wild spring chinook are prized by anglers and tend to be older and larger than the rest of the run. But they are the Rogue run most damaged by the placement and operation of Lost Creek dam, which blocked them from about one-third of their natural spawning habitat beginning in 1977. While the first 10 years of the plan saw moderate improvements to the early-run returns and a minor shift toward historical peak September spawning, the draft outlines how biologists expect to reach the desired level of 15,000 wild spring chinook returning annually to the upper Rogue. “We’re making real progress in returning that early-run component of the spring chinook run,” said Dan Van Dyke, ODFW’s Rogue District fish biologist. “I think we can get there, to desired status. And that, of course, is what everyone’s been working for.” But department critics such as retired Gold Beach fishing guide Steve Beyerlin consider the draft “a cover up” for past management mistakes, and he wants to see ODFW jump-start real recovery by using egg incubator boxes in key cold-water tributaries such as Big Butte Creek to create more wild-born chinook. Winter water releases from Lost Creek Lake are warmer than pre-dam temperatures and accelerate egg incubation, so spring chinook hatch earlier in the main-stem Rogue than in pre-dam years, a likely contributing factor in survival rates that declined in the post-dam era. “You can put hatch boxes anywhere to get them out of that toxic (main-stem) environment,” said Beyerlin, of the Curry Sport Fishing Association. “I think it’s all just a cover-up,” Beyerlin said. “I’m very disappointed in them.” The draft is now up for public comment, with a public meeting planned for 5:30 p.m. Monday at the Jackson County Auditorium, 200 Antelope Road, White City (enter through gate on Mosquito Lane off Table Rock Road). Another meeting was held in Gold Beach Wednesday. Written comments can be emailed by Dec. 16 to [email protected]. A copy of the plan is available at https://bit.ly/2rdkNE9. One of the key components of the draft plan for anglers is whether and when they would get to keep wild spring chinook, which dominate the catch despite the release of about 1.7 million spring chinook smolts from Cole Rivers Hatchery. ODFW plans to expand harvest of early-run spring chinook in freshwater when returns improve enough to warrant that, based on previous returns and the forecast for that particular year. For instance, anglers can now keep wild spring chinook beginning July 1 while fishing from the river mouth upstream to Dodge Bridge near Eagle Point. The draft states anglers could keep one wild spring chinook a day and three per year beginning June 21 downstream of Dodge Bridge if the average count over the past two years and the current preseason forecast each eclipse 12,000 wild spring chinook in the upper Rogue. The current 10-year average return on wild spring chinook into the upper Rogue is 9,663 adults. The current plan’s so-called “desired status” is a 10-year running average of 15,000 wild spring chinook reaching the upper Rogue, and its goal is to reach that by 2025. The draft also calls for the state to ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as part of its mitigation for the dam’s building, to fund a gravel survey downstream of the dam and begin replenishing spawning gravels if the data support it. Chinook dig egg nests calls redds in main-stem gravel riffles. The dam blocks the normal flow of downstream gravel. ODFW will ask the Army Corps to fund a gravel survey downstream of the dam and initiate replenishing of gravel there by 2019 unless it is not supported by survey data. ODFW also will attempt to place spawning gravel along the main-stem Rogue at the McLeod side channel, Trail Creek Riffle, private sites, and the Shady Cove side-channel. The gravel would be dispersed naturally downstream in winter high-flow periods. ODFW plans to place 1,000 cubic meters of spawning gravel in Big Butte Creek pending funding. The plan also seeks to continue steps toward improving returns and catches of hatchery fish bred and released from Cole Rivers Hatchery. The draft suggests looking into the release of fewer but larger spring chinook smolts at Cole Rivers and use lower densities in rearing ponds to potentially improve survival rates. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman.