Pacific Lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus), or “Asúm”, as recognized in the Sahaptin language, is one of many threatened cultural-keystone species with critical ceremonial and nutritional significance among Columbia River Plateau peoples in Washington and Oregon. Commonly referenced by Elderly fishermen and women in tribal communities as “eels,” lamprey are experiencing severe decline in abundance and historical distribution and have contracted throughout their range. The Pacific lamprey is a treaty protected species but is now listed as a species of concern by the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service. For the last decade, Yakama Nation Fisheries and the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission have sought to restore their relationship to Asúm through habitat and passage restoration, adult translocation, early life stage release, monitoring and policy change. 

Michael’s research contributes to tribally led restoration efforts by asking how climate change will impact existing barriers and facilitators to lamprey passage and abundance at freshwater spawning grounds and traditional harvest sites within the Columbia River Basin. Existing lamprey abundance is influenced by several major factors including passage at existing dams, interventions such as translocation, and hydrological factors including streamflow and culvert size. Specifically, Michael’s research uses a combination of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, fisheries science policy recommendations, and climate modeling to ask how climate change might affect Pacific lamprey passage at the Bonneville and Dalles dams along the mainstem Columbia River, and how these changes will combine with other stream-level climate impacts to affect tribal harvesting at culturally significant sites on Columbia River tributaries.

Michael will work in partnership with the Yakama Nation Fisheries Pacific Lamprey Project, the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, to model the relationship between high temperatures and the rates at which lamprey are able to pass through human-made barriers in their habitat. This modeling project will develop quantitative data that can guide harvests for tribal fishers and can also contribute to dam removal project efforts.