The Lewis River Hydroelectric Projects - PacifiCorp

Cougar Park—Interpretive Sign #1 (Natural History)
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Cougar Park
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Red Salmon, Rich Resource
If you visit the mouth of Cougar Creek during the early fall, you may
come across a scene that wouldn’t be out of place along the coast of
British Columbia or Alaska: in the shadows of tall evergreens, brick-red
salmon with green heads push against the current, doggedly working
their way upstream. Some pause in shallow riffles, scooping out bowlshaped
depressions known as “redds” with their tails.
Bald eagles perch streamside, watching the spawning fish with
calculating eyes, and occasionally pouncing to drag a fish ashore and
feast. Overhead, gulls wheel and cry, and descend to snatch scraps.
Cutthroat trout shadow the red fish, darting in and eating wayward eggs.
It’s spawning season for kokanee—a landlocked race of red salmon
(Onchorhynchus nerka). Unlike their ocean-going cousins (sockeye),
kokanee spend their whole lives in fresh water. They hatch in streams at
lakeside, and the tiny larvae spend their first winter buried in gravel,
living off of the nutrients stored in their yolk sacs. In early spring, the
small fish leave the streams to swim the waters of the lake. There they
spend about three (possibly up to seven) years feeding on plankton
before returning to their home streams to spawn.
Kokanee are distributed throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska,
and in northern Asia. Lewis River kokanee, however, are not native to
this river. They were introduced in the late 1950s and early 1960s, from
lakes in British Columbia.
Kokanee occur in all Merwin and Yale reservoirs—partly because of
stocking programs and partly because fish “leak” downstream through
Yale Dam into Merwin. But the only truly self-sustaining population
occurs here in Yale Reservoir, where the fish find appropriate habitat for
spawning in the surrounding creeks.
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Photo of bull trout
In addition to providing spawning habitat for kokanee, Cougar Creek is
also one of the few streams in the Lewis River watershed that supports
spawning bull trout (Salvelinus conflentus). These large, trout-like char rely
on extremely cold water and suitable gravels to spawn successfully. Bull
trout are listed as a threatened species.
Cougar Creek and the surrounding forest lands are protected by the
Cougar Conservation Covenant, the result of PacifiCorp’s agreement to
purchase 800 acres of Weyerhaeuser lands around this rich stream system
and protect them in perpetuity. The covenant includes a 500-foot buffer
Appendix 1: panel profiles Lewis River Draft I&E Plan page 39