Peace: Identification of Critical Bull Trout Spawning Zones

This project will provide preliminary information about adfluvial Bull Trout spawning zones in tributaries of the Peace Reach of Williston Reservoir, and will augment baseline information for future long-term monitoring of adfluvial Bull Trout abundance and population trends in the Williston Basin. Information derived from this project will be used for planning and implementation of future Bull Trout spawning surveys in Peace Reach tributaries. Identified spawning sub-populations may be added to the current index system monitoring as a measure of adfluvial Bull Trout population health in the Peace Reach and greater Williston Basin.

The project will survey several significant tributaries of Williston Reservoir and identify areas of active Bull Trout spawning that have gone undocumented since creation of the reservoir. Once identified, more intensive follow-up surveys can be used to document Bull Trout and redd abundance and delineate spawning zone boundaries. Incidental observations of spawning Kokanee will be documented and added to the current knowledge base of Kokanee spawning in tributaries of Williston Reservoir.