Draft recommendations

September 2006  |  document 2006-16

The Council is seeking public comments on its draft fish and wildlife project funding recommendations to the Bonneville Power Administration for Fiscal Years 2007 through 2009. The Northwest Power Act directs the Council to recommend to Bonneville the fish and wildlife projects that Bonneville should fund to implement the Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program.

These draft funding recommendations are posted in parts:

• Ecological provinces:
   
  (1) a spreadsheet (890k Excel) of proposals organized by province with the Council’s draft recommended FY07-09 budgets for each project, along with comments on appropriate projects and
  (2) a brief list (80k PDF) of important issues for consideration.
• Basinwide research, monitoring and evaluation, and coordination projects:
   
  (1) a spreadsheet (250k Excel) of the Basinwide group’s project proposals with the Council’s draft recommended FY07-09 budgets for each project, along with comments on appropriate projects and
  (2) a brief summary (80k PDF) of the Council’s draft recommendations illustrating key issues.
• Mainstem on-the-ground/Multi-province projects:
   
  (1) a spreadsheet (80k Excel) of proposals in this group with the Council’s draft recommended FY07-09 budgets for each project, along with comments on appropriate projects and
  (2) a brief summary (70k PDF) of the Council’s draft recommendations illustrating key issues.
• Draft decision document/programmatic issues and draft recommendations:
   
  The last document is a preliminary draft of the Council’s final decision document (110k PDF) that will ultimately contain the whole of the Council’s final project funding recommendations to Bonneville for FY07-09. Of particular importance at this stage is Section 3, which contains a discussion of a set of broad policy or programmatic issues and the Council’s draft resolution of those issues and how they would affect the project funding recommendations.

Public comments are due by the close of business Friday, October 6, 2006 (see sidebar).

The Council will decide on its final project funding recommendations to Bonneville for FY07-09 at the Council’s next meeting, in Helena, Montana on October 17-19, 2006. In making its final project recommendations, the Council will consider the public comments on its draft along with the project proposals, the review report of the Independent Scientific Review Panel, the public comments on the panel’s report, the prioritization recommendations from the various review groups organized by the Council, and other comments and information in the Council’s administrative record.

Thank you for your interest in the Council and its fish and wildlife program.

Sincerely,

Stephen L. Crow
Executive Director