Collaborative, Systemwide Monitoring and Evaluation Program Proposal 35033 for Mainstem/Systemwide Province ISRP Review Meeting July 16, 2002; Portland, Oregon CBFWA, NMFS, USFWS, ODFW, WDFW, IDFG, MDFWP, CRITFC, FPC presented by David Marmorek, ESSA Technologies

Outline Rationale for the project Proposed project organization Addressing possible concerns with collaboration Specific objectives Proposed approaches Significance to regional programs / proposed projects

Rationale: Overall questions that M & E should address Tier 1. What are spatial distributions of stocks in the Columbia River Basin? How are these distributions changing over time? How do they relate to overall ecosystem status? Tier 2. What are trends in stock abundance, condition and survival over whole life cycle, and at different life history stages? How do these relate to habitat and climate? Tier 3. How do stock and habitat indicators respond to specific classes of management actions? What improvements in M & E are needed to give more reliable answers to these questions?

The project is organized to provide the collaborative base that’s essential for M & E sponsored by the key entities that conduct fish monitoring programs in the Columbia Basin: CBFWA NMFS 4 state fish agencies: ODFW, WDFW, IDFG, MDFWP USFWS CRITFC the Fish Passage Center closely involves federal, tribal and coordinating agencies provides action agencies with the means to accomplish what they need to do under Biological Opinions

Proposed Project Team Organization ¼ly Work Plans Inter-agencyWork Groups

Addressing possible concerns with a collaborative approach to M&E Collaboration can be “inefficient”. Without collaborative process, M&E is far less efficient: more difficult for NMFS and USFWS to get data / metadata harder to influence monitoring done by States, Tribes, FPC less consistency in methods, designs; duplication of efforts Project will have strict monitoring of deliverables by CBFWA, milestone based payments

Addressing concerns (cont’d - 2) Different agencies have different M&E objectives there are many common M&E objectives (e.g. salmon, assessing all H’s) as well as differing ones (e.g. bull trout) develop consistent approaches for common objectives, complementary approaches for differing objectives, identify / resolve overlaps amongst programs

Addressing concerns (cont’d - 3) Science by multi-agency Committee doesn’t work. overall direction by small Core Group (8 people); groundwork for collaboration already established through this proposal rigorous design done by small, efficient work groups review done by larger group to get buy-in, do implementation larger buy-in by state agencies has been essential for other successful M&E efforts (e.g. EMAP)

Addressing concerns (cont’d - 4) Will Core Group always reach consensus? Certainly not! Consensus not required to make incremental progress on M&E. Can explore competing M&E approaches with pilot projects / analyses, rigorous inter-comparisons. Majority decision making of Core Group to ensure efficiency Funding decisions ultimately up to NWPPC and BPA.

Specific Objectives serve M&E needs of NMFS & USFWS (Biological Opinions, Recovery Plans), NWPPC Fish & Wildlife Program document, integrate, make available existing monitoring data (salmon, steelhead, bull trout, other species); critically assess strengths and weaknesses of these data for answering key questions (stock status and responses to management actions); design and implement improved monitoring and evaluation methods to fill information gaps, provide better answers.

Proposed Approach Build on NMFS’ 3-tier structure (BIOP, Jordan et al. 2002) Integrate / coordinate M & E activities systemwide, working collaboratively across multiple scales and objectives Design M&E program around life histories of each species Use future check-ins, decision points to guide M&E needs Build on critical assessment of existing data; make useful data / metadata broadly available Integrate with NWPPC/NMFS evolving data management Fill data gaps in most cost-effective way, expand coverage, learn from pilot studies before broad scale implementation

Approach: Sequence of Activities Future decisions, existing data M & E review, critical needs Results from pilot projects Catalog & review of M & E across 3 tiers M & E designs to fill gaps Systemwide M & E program Internet -accessible data, metadata, catalogues Pilot M & E projects / analyses implemented Data / analysis for mainstem & sub-basin decisions

Potential Uses [Tiers] Approach: Build on Existing Data and Fill Gaps Example Datasets Potential Uses [Tiers] 1. Intensively studied stocks; long time series Trends in survival and abundance over life cycle [2, 3] Fill gaps in spatial and temporal coverage 2. Existing regional surveys with synoptic presence / absence data General indication of distribution, status trends [1, 2] Adjust for biases or do probability-based surveys 3.Regionally representative, probability-based surveys (e.g. EMAP) Assess future trends in distribution and abundance [1, 2, 3] Link to other data beyond spawning / rearing life stage Correlate with historical time series; ensure continuity

Smolts / sub-adults per spawner Look at the whole life cycle! Freshwater Spawning / Rearing Habitat Actions Smolts / sub-adults per spawner Eggs Hydro- system Actions In-river Transported Harvest Management Estuary Habitat Actions Estuary Figure 4. To describe what data we have S/R Survival through hydrosystem Ocean Resident Fish (e.g. bull trout) Anadromous Fish (e.g. chinook)

Significance to Regional Programs

Relationship to Existing Projects (see handout for other systemwide proposals) Provides a coordinated mechanism for integration of separate studies, detecting gaps, avoiding duplication Speeds implementation of NWPPC Information Study Supports, but does not duplicate bull trout RME Strengthens data quality for harvest stock assessment groups (e.g. U.S. v Oregon TAC) Contract management time provided by CBFWA Coordination contract and Foundation funding Complements and supports, but does not duplicate, ESSA’s Multi-watershed Innovative Proposal

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Time Allocation by Agency and Objective

ESSA ‘Multi-watershed’ Proposal (18-month Tier 3 Pilot Project) CBFWA Systemwide, Collaborative M&E Program Watershed restoration hypotheses worth testing in existing projects Tier 3 Habitat Inventory Activities Other tiers, H’s Pilot test of selected hypotheses in selected watersheds using existing data Determine Deficiencies in Experimental Designs / Monitoring Simulate improvements Improved M & E designs for Tier 3 Tiers 1 and 2 Develop improved experimental designs, monitoring protocols Implemented M & E