A Probabilistic Model for Assessing Passage Performance of Coastal Cutthroat Trout through Corrugated Metal Culverts

Abstract

We conducted a series of volitional trials with wild-caught resident Coastal Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii in a 12.2-m-long, 1.8-m-diameter culvert test facility to develop a probabilistic model for predicting rates of upstream passage over a wide range of average velocities. The results of the passage trials indicated that the percentage of fish attempting passage and the percentage of fish successfully passing decreased as the trial target average velocity increased. At our highest trial average velocity of 2.4 m/s, 31% of test fish that chose to attempt passage passed after two nights of observation. Passage performance was generally better for larger fish, but this pattern was only statistically significant for a single trial (1.9 m/s). Fish ascended through the pipe more quickly as velocity increased. At higher test velocities fish favored the left side of the pipe (looking downstream), which contained a reduced-velocity zone created by the slightly oblique orientation of culvert corrugations. Our data provide the basis for a logistic model describing the probability of passage for Coastal Cutthroat Trout through bare corrugated metal culverts with no outlet drop. Empirical studies testing fish passage, such as this one, can inform culvert assessment protocols currently in use.

Received April 9, 2012; accepted November 7, 2012

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Use of the culvert test facility at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Skookumchuck Fish Hatchery was coordinated by Jim Dill and Dan Adkins in cooperation with Rhonda Brooks and Jon Peterson of the Washington Department of Transportation. Financial and other support was provided by the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, Oregon Forest Industries Council, Association of Oregon Counties, Plum Creek Timber Company, Potlatch Forest Holdings, Washington Forest Protection Association, Rayonier, Green Crow, Stimson LC, Forest Capital Partners, and Merrill and Ring. Doug Martin, Joel Cahoon, Pat Powers, Warren Leach, Earl Prentice, Chris Jarmer, and Pete Heide provided critical support for this project. Weyerhaeuser Company provided access to streams on their land for capture of fish. Kyle Meier, Neil Slifka, Spencer Johnson, and Adelaide Sibeaux assisted in fish collection, tagging, and facility operation. Four anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.