An Interview with Jim Cummins, Fish Biologist, South Central Region Jim Cummins, fish biologist in the South Central Region, is a 30-year veteran of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. He graduated from the University of Washington with a B.S. in fisheries science in 1970 and immediately started with the agency (then named Department of Game) in a temporary job at Wells Fish Hatchery. In the fall of 1970 he moved to Lake Whatcom Fish Hatchery, where he spawned and reared kokanee for two years and did creel census work in Whatcom County. Jim moved to Olympia in 1972 and worked as an aquatic biologist in Thurston, Pierce, and Lewis counties. He transferred to the Pierce, South King County area fish biologist position in 1975 before coming to Yakima in 1981. He lives in Yakima with his wife Susan and teenage daughter; another daughter is at Central Washington University and his son works for AT&T in Seattle. He served as regional fish program manager in the South Central Region from 1981 to 1997. Jim has been working in his current position since 1997, spending about 60 percent of his time on anadromous fish planning and monitoring.

Q: In 30 years have you seen quite a few changes in the state and agency? A: Oh yes there has been a lot of change, some good, some not so good. The biggest for me in fish management was the merger of the Department of Wildlife and the Department of Fisheries in 1994, because that meant working with salmon. Before that, I just dealt with gamefish. In the first half of my career, I focused on, or at least most enjoyed, my involvement in alpine lakes and resident stream trout management. Now my work mostly revolves around Columbia and Yakima River salmonids. Q: Was merger one of the good changes? A: Yes it probably was because it's logical that one agency manages all fish – salmon and gamefish – that share the same water, the same habitat. The integration is far more efficient. Q: Are salmon your biggest management issue? A: Yes, salmonids – salmon, steelhead, and bull trout -- are the single most important issue because of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing of many Columbia River runs, including the Mid-Columbia steelhead Ecologically Significant Unit (ESU). The Yakima Basin is an important component of the Mid-Columbia ESU. My area of responsibility actually runs from the lower Columbia at the Benton/Klickitat County line to the Ringold and Hanford Reach fisheries near the Tri-Cities. I coordinate with our Columbia River harvest managers out of Vancouver and of course our fish management and intergovernmental policy folks out of Olympia, planning and implementing recreational fisheries, reviewing restoration and recovery plans. I frequently coordinate with and work with the Yakama Nation in the Yakima River Basin. Q: Thirty years ago when you got into this field, would you ever have predicted we'd be at this point with salmon? A: No, but then I don't think I ever thought much about it because ESA didn't relate much to fish then. It was used for developing recovery plans for species like bald eagles and California condors. And fish, after all, could be raised in hatcheries. What's changed, I think, is a broader environmental awareness, a better understanding of all kinds of habitat deterioration and how that affects a population of any animal -- birds, mammals or fish -- and that the wild genetic stock is critical. In the past, we didn't treat or manage wild fish separately from hatchery-reared fish. Our steelhead hatcheries, for instance, were focused on the sport harvest return, working with a few main stocks of steelhead. When I was in Pierce County in the late ‘70's, we did start looking at wild stocks and their genetic diversity value. And research started on the Kalama River to look at the impacts of hatchery steelhead on wild summer run steelhead. After four or five years of study, the bottom line was that hatchery steelhead don't spawn as successfully as wild ones. And that started us seriously looking at the issue. In the ‘80's, on the Puyallup and Green rivers, I was involved in what was the beginning of experimental work to use wild brood stocks specific to each river system. But I never thought then that we wouldn't even have some of those wild stocks at all. Q: Do you think that people understand the significance of the difference between wild and hatchery fish? A: I don't think many people really do, although certainly many more understand that today than they did 30 years ago. There are more organizations today with wild fish advocates. But I still run into people who just want to catch a fish, any fish, and they don't understand the long-term consequences of not having the genetic diversity of wild fish in the system – that the future of hatchery fish themselves depend on those genetic lines being available. Maybe that's hard to understand when hatchery returns are strong, as many have been this year. Q: How are bull trout faring? A: There are 11 to 12 populations of bull trout in Yakima and Kittitas county waters, and they vary in condition. Some of the healthiest are in Rimrock and Bumping reservoirs. Kachess and Kacheelus reservoirs and Ahtanum Creek have very low populations. Historically, construction of five irrigation water storage dams without fish passage may have had the biggest impact on bull trout. Now, the main problem for bull trout here is reservoir water level management. They live most of their lives in the reservoir now, then go into the streams or rivers to spawn. During drought years reservoir levels may be reduced before some of the fish get into the tributaries to spawn. Before the reservoirs, bull trout lived in the mainstem rivers and in some of the natural lakes that are stream-fed. The habitat is in pretty good shape, and although there's some poaching, that doesn't have a real big impact. Most anglers know they can't harvest them, and don't. So it's likely the water level fluctuations from irrigation withdrawals from the reservoirs. But we really don't have enough information. I started the first bull trout spawning surveys in ‘84 on Indian Creek, and now we conduct annual spawning surveys on all of the reservoir populations, Ahtanum Creek, American River, and Rattlesnake Creek and their tributaries. Q: What management changes have been made during your career that you feel are most significant? A: Our stream management plan back in the late ‘80's really started better management of wild fish.Wild trout populations could not be maintained with the high catch limits that were in effect 30 years ago. We put selective fishery regulations into place with bait restrictions and minimum sizes to allow for natural reproduction. And later we discontinued catchable-size hatchery trout plants in rivers and streams where they were interfering with wild reproduction. An example of the success of that program is the Yakima River trout fishery today. It's a blue ribbon catch-and- release fishery that draws anglers from all over. There are even professional fishing guides on the Yakima now. A major change that I implemented upon arrival in this region was in alpine lake management so that we could provide a quality recreational experience. I significantly reduced the frequency and number of fish stocked in these high mountain lakes, based on my work in west-side cascade mountain alpine lakes, and work that was done by Jim Johnston on the Olympic Peninsula. There we found that far too many fish were being stocked. We also all but discontinued stocking eastern brook in high lakes, because tend to overpopulate, and become stunted. Q: What's the biggest challenge of your job? A: Keeping up with the complexities of fish management since it includes everything from warmwater species to endangered salmonids now. There's a lot going on and our responsibilities are broader and we rarely have enough staff or funding to collect all the information we really need to do a good job. It's also difficult to have detailed knowledge of any one thing or place anymore, and I miss that. Merger and frequent reorganization, competing for my job when it was changed slightly to accommodate merger and reorganizations, and funding crises have been challenges, too. Hopefully we are now moving forward and those issues will no longer be distractions. Balancing family responsibilities with the job has been another challenge. I have tried to spend time and maintain relationships with my wife and three kids. Q: What's the best thing about your job? A: The field work – getting out to do high lake surveys, bull trout spawning surveys, creel census work. Through my career I find myself doing more office paper work and less field work, so when I do have the chance to get out, I enjoy it. I'm still here, after 30 years, because there's still so much to do and learn, and I can't think of a better job. I also enjoy working with the quality people who work for our agency.