Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program:
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Project


Integrated population modeling to improve forecasting for coho salmon and steelhead returns and the status of their habitat in Oregon

January 2022 - June 2024


Personnel

Participating Agencies

We are using more than 20 years of salmonid monitoring data from the ODFW Aquatic Inventories project, Western Oregon Rearing Project, Salmonid Life Cycle Monitoring project, and Oregon Adult Salmonid Inventory and Sampling projects to 1) develop a population model that will assist ODFW and partner agencies in predicting adult returns of Oregon Coast coho salmon and steelhead populations, thus providing managers with improved forecasts to set fish harvest recommendations and 2) develop Oregon Coast coho and steelhead juvenile habitat models using remotely sensed and modeled covariates to describe the productivity and suitability of juvenile salmon habitat. These valuable tools will inform habitat and harvest management by allowing ODFW to anticipate adult salmon returns and to identify optimal instream habitats to which current and future management actions should be focused.