The Council will continue to identify and provide regional leadership and coordination on a variety of fish and wildlife issues by bringing the appropriate expertise together and helping to craft strategic approaches to address these issues. When appropriate, the Council may convene participants and interested parties to discuss and address relevant issues pertaining to program implementation in the absence of an existing and ongoing forum.
The Council has benefited and will continue to benefit from the individual and coordinated efforts of groups, committees and organizations in implementing the program. Continued coordination of various program elements is expected, supported, and in some cases financed by the Bonneville Power Administration. Annually, the Council will convene a forum of regional coordination representatives and other interested parties to discuss the upcoming years' issues of regional significance that may include:
- Council-sponsored/requested topical science and policy forums, workgroups, and special panels to aid in program development and implementation
- Ongoing work to improve program reporting, evaluation, and assessment
- Key program-related regional forums where policies, programs, and actions affecting fish and wildlife are planned and implemented
- Coordination of subbasin or other level program activities
The Council will factor in the implementation priorities and its fish and wildlife program work plan into this annual discussion forum.
Program coordination funding
Entities receiving program coordination funding must participate in the annual forum and a subset of the resulting priority activities identified by the group, as appropriate for the particular entity. All related work should focus on activities that inform the Council on policy, program performance evaluation, and implementation decisions and are beneficial at a basinwide or regional scale.
All entities receiving funding for coordination of program activities must develop a work plan detailing the coordination elements, objectives, deliverables, and budget, as well as submit annual reports on this work, based on the upcoming year’s priorities as outlined in the annual forum.
Coordination with other regional programs
The Council will continue to pursue opportunities to implement the program in coordination with other federal, state, tribal, Canadian, and volunteer fish and wildlife restoration programs. The Council will continue to work with national programs that influence our work in the basin.
The Council will coordinate with organizations that track and monitor data on non-native species distribution, climate change, and human population change at the Northwest regional scale. There are also ongoing efforts to monitor trends in Northwest habitat quality, ocean conditions, and fish and wildlife that the Council will continue to track and participate in on an ongoing basis as it affects our program work. Continued coordination with these larger efforts is important as their products and reports can directly influence our work in the basin and help to guide decision-making.
