1994 Fish and Wildlife Program

	1994 Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program
	Council document 94-55

Fish and wildlife Fish and Wildlife Program

< Section 10 table of contents

10.1 Resident Fish Goal

The program goal for resident fish emphasizes the long-term sustainability of native fish in native habitats where possible, but also recognizes that where impacts have irrevocably changed the native ecosystem, we can only protect and enhance the ecosystem that remains. This systemwide goal has implications for all resident fish program measures. In general, these measures fall into two distinct categories:

Resident Fish Mitigation: Efforts to address the impacts caused by the construction and operation of the hydropower system.
Resident Fish Substitution: Efforts to address the loss of salmon and steelhead in those areas permanently blocked to anadromous fish as a result of the construction and operation of hydroelectric dams.

Measures in both categories achieve the long-term system goals of protecting, mitigating and enhancing the health and viability of resident fish populations to meet consumptive and non-consumptive needs in the Columbia River Basin.

Accomplishing these goals will require the participation of many parties whose practices now adversely affect the health of the ecosystem, including, but not limited to, hydropower facility operators. The responsibilities of such operators will take into account the losses and gains at each hydropower project to determine whether net losses have occurred.[1]Credit will be given for past mitigation actions associated with each hydropower project. Achieving these goals will necessitate basinwide coordination of all resident fish projects and with other basin activities to ensure consistency with the program's systemwide approach.

Additionally, it is the Council's expectation that these fisheries shall be enhanced to allow for consumptive subsistence and recreational fisheries for the region's Indian tribes, as well as consumptive and non-consumptive recreational fisheries for sport anglers. The Council recognizes that fishing pressure on inland fish of the Columbia River Basin has increased appreciably since curtailment of ocean salmon fishing seasons.

A number of resident fish populations throughout the basin are depressed to an extent that they require immediate attention. To be effective, the fish and wildlife program must focus on funding measures that provide immediate on-the-ground benefits to fish and wildlife. To that end, the Council has established the following principles and priorities.

10.1A Principles

To promote comprehensive and cooperative watershed management; ecosystem diversity; productivity and stability as integral components of fish management strategies in the Columbia River Basin; and to conserve the natural genetic diversity within native resident fish species, sub-species and unique stocks, the following principles shall be applied:

Protect, mitigate and enhance resident fish populations to the extent they were or are affected by construction and operation of dams.
Protect, mitigate and enhance resident fish in hydropower system storage projects to the fullest extent practicable from negative impacts associated with water releases.
In areas below storage projects, protect, mitigate and enhance resident fish that are affected by altered annual flow regimes, daily load following, temperature modifications and nutrient trapping.
Substitution is appropriate for lost salmon and steelhead in areas that previously had anadromous fish, but where anadromous fish access is now permanently blocked by hydropower development and where in-kind mitigation cannot occur.
Substitution should occur in the vicinity of the salmon and steelhead losses being addressed, but substitution and mitigation measures may occur on or off-site.
Flexibility in approach is needed to develop a program that complements the activities of the fish and wildlife agencies and tribes and that is based on the best available scientific knowledge.
For substitution purposes, resident fish may include landlocked anadromous fish (e.g., white sturgeon, kokanee and coho) as well as traditionally defined resident fish species.

10.1B Priorities

The Council has the following priorities for Columbia River Basin resident fish. Bonneville shall implement the program consistent with the ranking criteria adopted by the Council from the priorities listed below. (See Section 3.1B.2.)

Accord highest priority to rebuilding to sustainable levels weak, but recoverable, native populations injured by the hydropower system, when such populations are identified by the fishery managers; then to resident fish substitution measures in areas that previously had salmon and steelhead, but where anadromous fish are now irrevocably blocked by federally operated hydropower development. Because these losses have endured mostly unmitigated for more than 50 years, and because in-kind mitigation cannot occur, the Council intends that in any project ranking and selection process, projects satisfying these priorities be clearly distinguished from other projects. The distinction between these two highest priorities is a narrow one, applicable only to marginal choices among such projects.

Accord high priority to measures that meet the following criteria (not in rank order):

Resident fish projects that also provide benefits for wildlife and/or anadromous fish.
Populations that support important fisheries. This priority applies to introduced and native species, including trout, sturgeon, kokanee, burbot, bass, perch and others.
Development of biological and integrated rule curves that will protect resident fish in storage reservoirs.
Protecting the health of existing resident fish populations.
Other native stocks that may be at risk due to the construction and operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System.
Resident fish mitigation and substitution projects for which a showing has been made that all reasonable precautions will be taken, based on the best available scientific knowledge, to not adversely affect habitat for native resident fish and anadromous fish.
Projects that address biological objectives that have been adopted by the Council.
Among resident fish mitigation activities, preference will be given to measures that address losses at hydropower facilities for which an assessment of losses and gains is completed and approved by the Council.
Substitution measures in areas that previously had salmon and steelhead, but where such fish are now permanently blocked by federally licensed or regulated hydropower facilities.

10.1C Biological Objectives

The Council believes that elements of the framework concept outlined in Sections 2, 3 and 4 need to be applied to resident fish as well as to salmon and steelhead. For this reason, the Council calls for the identification of specific resident fish biological objectives and, to the extent appropriate, associated measures and success indicators. The Council also calls for development of specific rebuilding schedules and an associated monitoring program. This approach should ensure that resident fish actions taken under the program are oriented to results.

Biological objectives relate the needs of fish and wildlife to the development and operation of the hydropower system. Hydropower project development and operation has affected resident fish directly or indirectly by affecting flows and temperature above and below the facilities, passage at or within a project, and reservoir elevations and volumes. Resident fish biological objectives should describe the biological characteristics needed to address these impacts, halt population declines, protect and rebuild populations, and, ultimately, achieve the overall program goals. Resident fish biological objectives should address hydropower-caused losses; they should not be inconsistent with the conservation of genetic and biological diversity, and, henceforth, they should receive peer review before being adopted into the program.

Resident fish program measures are specific actions to be undertaken to achieve biological objectives, with related timetables for achievement. Success indicators for each action/measure would provide a measurable index that relates the resident fish program measures to the type of biological or physical change intended.

Fishery Managers and Council

10.1C.1 The fishery managers are to complete assessments of resident fish losses and gains related to construction and operation of each hydropower facility throughout the Columbia River Basin and submit to the Council for approval. Use existing loss estimates, where available, and accomplish in a consistent manner. Include assessment of and proposed crediting approach for ongoing and past mitigation activities at each project. The Council will review the recommended loss and gain assessments in a public review process and adopt assessments into the program.

10.1C.2 The fishery managers will develop, as soon as possible, detailed biological objectives for resident fish in each subbasin or other appropriate watershed unit, including objectives for harvest and escapement and artificial and natural production, and submit them to the Council for public review and incorporation into this program. Biological objectives should address any loss and gain assessments that have been adopted under Section 10.1C.1 because the Council will use these objectives to measure progress against the hydropower debt.

Bonneville

10.1C.3 Fund the completion of the assessments of resident fish losses throughout the Columbia River Basin, as called for in Section 10.1C.1, and the development of specific, quantified biological objectives, as called for in Section 10.1C.2. The Council expects Bonneville to act immediately to implement resident fish mitigation and resident fish substitution measures in this program and complete all major actions by 2006. Implementation of resident fish mitigation and substitution measures is not to be delayed pending the completion of loss assessments or the development of specific biological objectives. The Council is convinced that prompt action may forestall Endangered Species Act listings for several species of native resident fish, including kokanee salmon, white sturgeon, bull trout, westslope cutthroat trout and burbot, among others.

10.1D Crediting New and Existing Mitigation

Fish Managers, Bonneville, Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation

10.1D.1 Initiate consultations by October 1, 1995, to develop a consistent, systemwide method for determining the amount of credit to be given for existing and future resident fish substitution and mitigation activities undertaken to address the impacts of the federal hydroelectric facilities. The crediting system should reflect the following principles:

The hydropower system must protect, mitigate and enhance resident fish affected by the hydroelectric facilities of the Columbia Basin. This obligation will be discharged when these effects are fully addressed, i.e., when mitigation actually offsets the loss caused by a hydropower facility and when the operator provides adequate operation and maintenance funding to sustain the mitigation for the life of the hydroelectric project.
Mitigation agreements may predict a certain level of mitigation, as long as provision is made for funding operation and maintenance and monitoring and evaluation to determine if the predicted benefits were realized. Submit recommendations to the Council for review and approval by June 1996. Implementation of resident fish mitigation and substitution measures is not to be delayed pending the development of the crediting methodology.

Council

10.1D.2 The Council will review the recommended crediting system in a public review process and adopt a system into the program.

10.1E Project Implementation and Selection

The Council expects that measures listed in the resident fish section of the program will be implemented and that these measures will increase resident fish populations. In this regard, the Council calls for the Annual Implementation Workplan to include a list of ranked resident fish projects demonstrating that the program is being implemented. Proposed actions that deviate from the program should be clearly marked and an explanation of the need for deviation provided. The Council will evaluate the proposed workplan and, if necessary, will consider amendments to this section to ensure that resident fish measures are implemented.

The Council recognizes that over time, the desirability of implementing certain projects may change. Likewise, desirable projects that are not currently foreseeable may become evident over time. Proposals for amendment of the program to address these situations can be submitted to the Council. Each proposed project should address and include:

documented or agreed-upon resident fish losses attributable to the hydroelectric facility at issue;
adaptive management principles that define anticipated results in terms of hypotheses to be tested (in quantitative terms if possible) and appropriate monitoring and evaluation to determine whether and why those results have been achieved;
a description of the extent to which the project complements activities of fish and wildlife agencies and tribes;
compliance with the policies set out in this program;
likelihood of achieving significant biological results;
an assessment of trade-offs with anadromous fish and wildlife activities;
a management plan with sound biological objectives;
consultation and coordination with interested parties
estimated costs and a schedule for implementation and evaluation; and
information on the extent to which it meets the standards of the Northwest Power Act.

Relevant Parties

10.1E.1 By 2006, implement resident fish projects currently identified in the program.

[1] Gains could include those found at the project site (i.e., in the reservoir or immediately below the dam) and also those found away from the project site (e.g., where reservoir raises the water table in the surrounding area and forms pothole lakes amenable to resident fish production).