Larry Cassidy, Chairman
Northwest Power Planning Council
851 SW 6^th Avenue, Suite 1100
Portland, OR 97204-1348

Dear Mr. Cassidy:

Enclosed please find the recommendations of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes for amendments to the Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. An original hard copy is enclosed, along with a diskette of this same information. We also electronically mailed a copy to on Friday May 12, 2000.

Over the past several months, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes have worked with the region’s fish and wildlife managers through the coordinated efforts of the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority in an attempt to obtain a consensus amendment recommendation for your consideration. We regret that a consensus was not achieved. The enclosed recommendation is basically the final draft of the document that the region’s fish and wildlife managers had worked on over the past several months, with our own very minor revisions that we made to the document after consensus was not achieved in the time allotted.

Of primary importance to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes is the fact that the Program has to carry the federal government obligation to the Tribes and those Treaties, Executive Orders, and Agreements that the Tribes of the Columbia River Basin solemnly entered into with the United States. Federal consultation is a component of fulfilling this requirement, as is called for in the Power Act, and as is necessitated because the Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program is the product of federal law.

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes submit this recommendation with the intent that the recommendation provides a foundation of goals, objectives, policies and principles required for the protection and restoration of the fish, wildlife and their habitats in the Columbia River Basin.

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes do not recommend specific Program measures at this time, but rather, it is our understanding that any revisions, modifications or additions to the specific Program measures (specific actions) will be determined through a collaborative subbasin planning effort. We are committed to working with the state and federal entities in the development of these actions if and only if the federal and state entities are committed to working with us. We also understand that the existing Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program measures will remain in place until the subbasin plans are adopted.

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes are actively involved with the development, pursuit of approval and funding, and immediate implementation of "early" or "emergency" actions with the federal and state entities through our collective co-management responsibilities. Admittedly, we are frustrated at having to revisit planning stages for implementation activities that we have been pursuing since at least 1981.

We anticipate further development of these proposed amendment recommendations during the comment period, and hope to successfully work with the region in developing a successful Program. Thank you for attention to these matters of High Significance to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes.

Sincerely,

Lionel Boyer
Fisheries Policy Representative

Cc: FHBC
Brian Allee, CBFWA

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