Puckett, Kathryn J

From: chris toole [Chris.Toole@noaa.gov]

Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 4:47 PM
To: Postlethwait, Lori; Mark Eames
Cc: Puckett, Kathryn J; Stier,Jeffrey K - KE-4; Rock Peters (E-mail)
Subject: Re: Drafts of 2-Pagers
Attachments: Immediate Additional Action IMW 20090811 cej.doc

Attorney Client and Work Product, Deliberative Process Privileged and Confidential 
 
sorry ‐ here is the real file 
 
Postlethwait, Lori wrote the following on 8/13/2009 3:28 PM: 
> The file on IMW's appears to be blank 
> 
> ‐‐‐‐‐Original Message‐‐‐‐‐ 
> From: chris toole [mailto:Chris.Toole@noaa.gov]  
> Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 4:22 PM 
> To: Mark Eames 
> Cc: Postlethwait, Lori; Puckett, Kathryn J; Stier,Jeffrey K ‐ KE‐4; Rock Peters (E‐mail) 
> Subject: Drafts of 2‐Pagers 
> 
> Attorney Client and Work Product, Deliberative Process Privileged and Confidential 
> 
> As we discussed earlier today 
> 
>    

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FCRPS BiOp Issue Paper

Draft 8.5.2009

Action Immediate Additional Actions:

Intensively Monitored Watershed (IMW) support for
certainty of FCRPS BiOp off-site mitigation action
evaluation

Lead Action Agencies, NOAA

Implementing
Agency (others)
Description: Current activities: NOAA/BPA/BOR are currently implementing six
 Current watershed scale tributary habitat restoration experiments – Intensively
activities Monitored Watersheds (IMWs) – to determine the biological effect of
 Proposed habitat rehabilitation actions. IMWs are a central tenet of the FCRPS BO
enhancements off-site mitigation program, and therefore are critically necessary to the
successful implementation of this program. IMWs are large watershed-
scale studies intended to resolve the effectiveness of restoration efforts, as
well as the affects of freshwater and marine habitat conditions on fish
abundance and productivity. Action Agencies currently funds IMW pilot Deleted: BP

basin studies in the John Day, Wenatchee, Entiat, Methow, Lemhi and
South Fork Salmon river Basins, while NOAA Fisheries also funds
approximately $1.2 million annually for IMW studies in Oregon,
Washington, and Idaho.

Proposed enhancements: Watershed-scale rehabilitation programs

designed to elicit and document a fish population process response are
critically dependent on relevant habitat actions being implemented with
sufficient intensity – large spatial coverage in a short time interval –
consistent with an experimental design. Additionally, habitat projects to
be implemented must have an explicit linkage to an ecological process that
is limiting fish population processes, have an implementation strategy that
is do-able, and have a relatively short time (year) to begin making a
physical and biological impact. Such implementation and project
selection criteria depart significantly from the regional process currently in
place to design and execute habitat rehabilitation actions. Therefore, to
greatly enhance the likelihood of successful implementation of FCRPS
BO tributary habitat IMWs, the following need to be accomplished:
-Integrate IMWs with regional salmon recovery processes. Salmon
recovery lead entities and co-manager groups, as well as land management
agencies and NGOs, are key collaborators in watershed scale
rehabilitation actions, yet act under mandates independent of the FCRPS
BO requirements for these actions. Therefore, to maximize the successful

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implementation of FCRPS BO IMWs, outreach, integration and

regional/local participation and ownership is necessary. To achieve this
form of program buy in, some combination of the following should be
initiated for each program
-Independent technical review of IMW design, with particular
attention to the ecological limiting factors addressed, action choice
and design, experimental design for implementation, and
effectiveness monitoring program.
-Project coordinator and outreach director, a person to champion the
program within local forum and coordinate implementation
planning.
-FCRPS BO IMW outreach to regional salmon recovery efforts,
including non-FCRPS BO IMWs and other relevant monitoring and
data management activities.

-Jumpstart implementation. Develop an independent funding source to

separate the IMW habitat project design and implementation process from
other regional, reach-scale project processes. The IMW funding process
can be a supplement to, rather than a complete replacement of, funding
processes for projects in these watersheds. The goal of this item is to
ensure the timely and complete implementation of habitat projects during
the initial startup phase (first 3 years). Ideally, once the watershed scale
approach is demonstrated and more complete participation by local and
regional project solicitation processes is achieved, continuing parallel
funding process will not be required.

-Completeness of current program. The current program of FCRPS BO

IMWs is meant to generate generalizable habitat improvement dependent
fish population process changes; however, the extent to which the current
program is complete with respect to limiting factor and species specific
responses needs to be evaluated. Initializing additional IMWs will be
limited by the identification of potential locations, but should be
considered based on an assessment of the current programs completeness. Deleted: It is anticipated that
implementing additional IMW studies
along with other habitat monitoring
Potential Expanded implementation of IMWs will reduce uncertainty regarding the programs will be part of implementing an
Magnitude of physical and biological effectiveness of habitat restoration actions. IMWs improved fish-in/fish-out and habitat
effectiveness monitoring strategy. The
Biological Benefit will also be a primary source of information to develop and test Action Agencies are proposing to better
coordinate tributary climate change
mechanistic models that link fish population processes with habitat information, including flow and
quantity, quality and spatial arrangement. temperature monitoring and fish-in/fish-
out information (i.e., censusing adult
spawners and subsequent juvenile
Estimated Cost BPA is supplementing existing fish-in/fish-out monitoring activities with migrants).
the addition of $12.25 million dollars in BiOp placeholder funds for Deleted: will improve
integrated habitat and fish monitoring, and is also providing an additional
$100K technical support plus 0.3 FTE for annual evaluations of fish-
in/fish-out and other biological and environmental metrics relative to

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contingency triggers.
Current Situation: Involved parties and agreements: NOAA/BPA/BOR are currently
 Background implementing six IMWs
 Involved
parties and Implementation potential/do-ability: See Fish In/Fish Out Monitoring
agreements Issue Paper.
 Implementation
potential/ do-
ability

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