The Okanagan Basin is a transboundary watershed, with political borders that fish and water do not recognize. The COBTWG responds to the transboundary nature of fish stocks and water throughout the Okanagan Basin by working with US Agencies when appropriate.

Starting in 2001, once or twice a year an informal ‘Bilateral’ Okanagan Basin Technical Working Group (BOBTWG) meets to co-ordinate technical work to maximize the benefits to fish and other users of the Okanagan Basin.
These meetings give the agencies an opportunity to discuss technical issues and identify opportunities to share information on salmon stocks, habitat and programs and initiatives.

This involves working with parallel governments in the United States that deal with this tributary to the Columbia River. These agencies include Colville Confederated Tribes, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, National Fisheries Marine Service and power generating Public Utility Districts that affect fish passage and survival. This partnership has been developing successfully, and some funding from US interests has been secured to undertake projects in Canada that provide benefits on both sides of the border.

The Fish Water Management Tools Project (FWMT) is a state-of-the art computer model developed specifically to help authorities manage water flows in the Okanagan River in a “fish friendly” manner. It was developed and implemented in 2001 through a cooperative venture between the COBTWG and Douglas County Public Utility District. The model benefits kokanee as well as sockeye salmon since water levels in Okanagan Lake are fine tuned at the same time as Okanagan River flows.

The sophisticated FWMT computer model uses real time field data and can quickly predict the benefits and the risks of numerous water storage and release options. These predictions allow a multi-disciplinary team of decision makers to choose the best option for releasing flows in a manner which will benefit fish while respecting the needs of other water users.

The Reintroduction of Sockeye Salmon in Skaha Lake Program is a 12-year initiative to reintroduce and re-establish the indigenous sockeye salmon into their historic habitat in Skaha Lake. This program reaches to stabilize and rebuild the declining wild Okanagan sockeye population, to return sockeye to their former habitat and migration range, and to revitalize the Okanagan Nation salmon fishery.

This wide initiative incorporates various agencies, working in collaboration to implement the following steps:

• Experimental Reintroduction of Sockeye Salmon in Skaha Lake, independently reviewed;
  
• Endangered species
  
• Adult Okanagan wild salmon capture, egg incubation in hatchery and fry release;
  
• Assessment of the interactions with other species, such as Mysis an kokanee;
  
• Ongoing Monitoring: smolt migration, emergence, spawner enumeration, in-lake, etc.;
  
• Evaluation of options to remove barriers to Skaha Lake;
  
• Ongoing Risk Assessments and an adaptive management approach.
  

Government agencies and non-government organizations have worked cooperatively to produce a plan to restore portions of the river. Restoration is impractical in many places along the river because of the amount of development that has taken place. In some other areas the slope of the river is too low to be beneficial to the salmon and trout. The strategy consists of accessing key riverside properties, and then moving back existing dykes to allow room for the river to rebuild a meandering channel and fully functional floodplain. Due to the reduced energy in this river system associated with a regulated flow regime, the plan calls for some in-stream works to encourage development of these natural features. For more details on the restoration plan, a copy of the report can be obtained from the MOE office in Penticton.

ORRI Brochure Information

The ORRI Project returns part of the channelized river back into a natural meandering path connected to its historic floodplain. Dykes are set back, river meanders are re-built, and pool/riffle sequences are created. On the re-established floodplain, riparian vegetation are restored.

The creation of complex and diverse natural habitat will provide high quality spawning habitat for all fish species and rearing habitat for steelhead, rainbow trout and possibly Chinook. Reconnection with the floodplain should decrease silt loads in the main channel. Egg to fry survival is expected to increase and rearing sites will be established where there are presently none. The project is designed to be self-sustaining and ecosystem based.

This restoration method has proved successful in many countries and is working well in a short portion of the Okanagan River that was originally constructed with set back dykes. Nevertheless, the concept of relocating existing dykes is untried locally and a limited project has been suggested to showcase the benefits.

The project is supported by a Project Committee. Membership consists of representatives from:

• COBTWG
  
• The Land Conservancy
  
• South Okanagan Similkameen Conservation Program
  
• Ducks Unlimited Canada
  
• Canadian Wildlife Service
  
• Okanagan Region Wildlife Heritage Fund Society
  

McIntyre Dam is located between Oliver and Okanagan Falls and is a part of the Okanagan Basin Lake Regulation System. McIntyre Dam controls lake levels in Vaseux Lake and Okanagan River flows between Vaseux Lake and Osoyoos Lake. When this dam was constructed in 1954, no upstream fish passage provisions were included.

In 2009, McIntyre Dam Project refitted the actual gates in order to provide adult salmon passage upstream and improve juvenile salmon downstream migration, by:

• Replacing the existing undershot gates with overshot gates;
• Building a backwater riffle downstream of the dam;
• Monitoring the impacts on sockeye salmon migration (juvenile and adults);
• Installing a permanent screen in Oliver irrigation canal (Town of Oliver).

This project allows salmon to access another 8 km of Okanagan River, and Vaseux Lake, an important historic habitat which they have been unable to reach for the last several decades.