Council adopts revised Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program

February 11, 2009

PORTLAND — Following more than a year of work including extensive public participation, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week adopted a revision of its Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, the nation’s largest regional effort to protect and enhance fish and wildlife.

The Council’s program directs more than $200 million per year in electricity ratepayer funding to address the impacts of hydropower dams on fish and wildlife from the estuary of the Columbia to its highest mountain tributaries in the four Northwest states. The program revision is the first since 2005.

“In the new program, the Council brings together federal, state, and tribal actions to protect and enhance fish and wildlife in the Columbia River Basin,” Council Chair Bill Booth said. “The new program strengthens our focus on project implementation and performance, ensuring that the region’s significant investment in fish and wildlife is focused, coordinated, and scientifically credible.”

The Council approved the program unanimously except for that portion that includes the Council’s recommendations for operations of the mainstem Columbia and Snake river dams. Oregon’s two Council members voted against that section because some of the recommendations conflict with Oregon’s position in federal litigation over future dam operations.

The program revision began in November 2007 when the Council called for recommendations from the region’s fish and wildlife agencies and Columbia River Basin Indian tribes. Using the recommendations as a foundation, the Council and its staff developed a draft program for public comment in 2008. The final version of the program reflects extensive public comments on the original recommendations and on the draft program. Key themes of the program include:

• Emphasizing implementation of fish and wildlife projects based on needs identified in locally developed subbasin management plans (these plans are included in the program) and also on actions described in federal biological opinions on hydropower operations, hatcheries, and harvest, Endangered Species Act recovery plans, and the 2008 Fish Accords signed by federal agencies, Indian tribes, and the states of Idaho and Montana
• Continuing the Council's commitment to independent scientific review of all projects proposed for funding through the program, including those actions described in the biological opinions and the 2008 Fish Accords
• Focusing on protecting and restoring habitat in order to rebuild healthy, naturally producing fish and wildlife populations
• Further review of specific issues such as the impacts of global climate change, toxic substances, and invasive species on fish, wildlife, and habitat

In the 2008 Fish Accords, Bonneville and other federal agencies committed to extensive, 10-year implementation plans, with associated actions and funding commitments, based on the foundation built by the Council’s program over the last 26 years. This foundation includes water management and fish-passage measures (in the original, 1982 Program), mainstem and off-site mitigation measures (1987 and subsequent program amendments), the program framework (2000 amendment), and the subbasin plans (2004-2005 amendment). With the additional funding commitments in the 2008 Fish Accords, funding of projects through the Council’s program likely will total about $230 million per year beginning this year.

Thus, in the revised fish and wildlife program, the Council’s focus turns from planning to implementation and performance. The program:

• Increases project performance and fiscal accountability by establishing reporting guidelines and using adaptive management to guide decision-making
• Commits to a periodic and systematic exchange of science and policy information; and
• Emphasizes a more focused monitoring and evaluation framework coupled with a commitment to use the information obtained to make better decisions
• Calls for a renewed regional effort to develop quantitative biological objectives for the program
• Retains an interim objective recommended by the region’s fish and wildlife managers of increasing salmon and steelhead runs to 5 million fish by 2025 and achieving smolt-to-adult return rates of 2 to 6 percent
• Addresses passage problems for lamprey and sturgeon at the mainstem dams
• Proposes changes in some hatchery practices to create a more balanced, ecological approach to fish production
• Retains a crediting formula for wildlife losses of two new units of habitat for each lost habitat unit

The legal authority for the program is in the Northwest Power Act of 1980, which directs the Council to develop a program to “protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife, including related spawning grounds and habitat, on the Columbia River and its tributaries … affected by the development, operation, and management of [hydroelectric projects] while assuring the Pacific Northwest an adequate, efficient, economical and reliable power supply.” The Act directs the Council to review the program at least every five years. The Act also directs the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal power marketing agency that sells electricity generated at federal dams in the Columbia River Basin, to fund the Council’s program.

The Council is an interstate compact of the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. The Council includes two members from each state, appointed by the governors. Council headquarters are in Portland, and Council members have offices and staff in their states.

Contacts:

• , Chair, 208-660-4127
• , Information Officer, 503-222-5161