In 2005 the Council completed one of the largest locally led watershed planning efforts of its kind in the United States, an effort that resulted in separate plans for 58 tributary watersheds or mainstem segments of the Columbia River. These subbasin plans were developed collaboratively by state and federal fish and wildlife agencies, Indian tribes, local planning groups, fish recovery boards, and Canadian entities where the plans address transboundary rivers. The planning effort was guided by the Council and funded by the Bonneville Power Administration. The subbasin plans remain part of the program; the current version is the 2026 Fish and Wildlife Program.
Subbasin plans identify priority restoration and protection strategies for habitat and fish and wildlife populations in United States portion of the Columbia River system. The plans help guide the implementation of the Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, helping to direct roughly $300 million per year of Bonneville electricity revenues to protect, mitigate and enhance fish and wildlife affected by hydropower dams. Subbasin plans provide this guidance by providing the context in which proposed projects are reviewed for funding through the Council’s program.
Subbasin plans also integrate strategies and actions funded by others, thus ensuring that each plan serves the Council’s purposes under the Northwest Power Act and also accounts for Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act requirements, and other laws governing natural resource management, as fully as possible.
Process to develop and amend into the Program subbasin plans
Subbasin plans were the culmination of a multi-year effort in the 2000s to reorganize and strengthen the Fish and Wildlife Program. In 2000, the Council adopted a set of amendments to the Program to begin a comprehensive revision of the Program. In those amendments, the Council reorganized the Program around a comprehensive framework of scientific and policy principles. The fundamental elements of the revised Program framework are the vision, which describes desired accomplishments regarding fish and wildlife; the basinwide biological objectives, which describe physical and biological changes needed to achieve the vision, consistent with the scientific principles; implementation strategies, which will guide or describe the actions needed to achieve the desired ecological conditions; and a scientific foundation, which links these elements and explains why the Council believes certain kinds of actions should result in desired habitat conditions and why these conditions should improve fish and wildlife populations in the desired way.
Adoption of a coordinated plan for the mainstem Columbia and Snake rivers consistent with the overall Program framework was the second step in the comprehensive revision of the Program. The Council completed the mainstem amendments in 2003.
Subbasin plans constituted the third step in the complete revision of the Program. The Council proposed to amend the Program in the form of subbasin plans so that the Council could adopt into the Program more specific biological objectives and measures for tributary subbasins and specific mainstem reaches. The Council intended to incorporate these specific objectives and measures (in the form of implementation strategies) into the Program through locally developed, integrated subbasin plans for up to 62 subbasins and mainstem reaches of the Columbia River.
For this purpose the Council organized Subbasin Planning Groups, which were formal or informal groups of representatives of states, tribes, local governments, and others in one or more subbasins participating in subbasin planning. The Council intended subbasin plans developed by these groups to contain three elements: a technical assessment, an inventory of past and current efforts, and a management plan of objectives and strategies. The subbasin-level groups often contained a number of subgroups, such as a technical assistance committee, a citizen involvement or citizen advisory committee, a planning team, and so forth. In most cases, the subbasin planning group was coordinated by an individual or entity(s) selected by a state/provincial coordinating body to “lead” the planning effort in that subbasin. A key role of the coordinator was to help ensure broad participation by local stakeholders. The “lead entity”(sometimes more than one) held contracts and was ultimately responsible for delivering the technical assessment and then the subbasin plan as a whole.
Once this planning structure was in place, the Council worked with the Bonneville Power Administration to secure funding support for the subbasin planning. Bonneville provided $15.2 million out of its regular fish and wildlife program budget to support the planning groups to develop subbasin plan recommendations that could be considered for amendments to the Council’s fish and wildlife program. This was the first time in the history of the Council’s program that funding has been made available to the public to help develop recommendations for fish and wildlife program amendments.
The result of this effort were more than 60 subbasin plans submitted to the Council as program amendment recommendations through May 2004. With the assistance of the Independent Scientific Review Panel and public comment, the Council reviewed and adopted the plans into the Program from December 2004 through June 2005. Subbasin plans for two subbasins in Montana were added to the Program in 2010-11. The Council reviewed all components of a proposed plan, but only the management plan components were formally adopted as part of the fish and wildlife program.
The subbasin plans became the source of specific actions and projects recommended by the Council for Bonneville funding and implementation, providing the context for the review of proposals for funding by the Independent Scientific Review Panel and the Council.
Subbasin plans are intended to contain three elements: a technical assessment, an inventory of past and current efforts, and a management plan of objectives and strategies. The Council will review all components of a proposed plan, but only the management plan component will be formally adopted as part of the fish and wildlife program.