1. An Overview of the Flathead Subbasin Planning Process

2. Northwest Power & Conservation Council

3. Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program
The Northwest Power Act of 1980 directs the Council to develop a program to protect, mitigate and enhance fish and wildlife of the Columbia River Basin that have been impacted by hydropower dams, and make annual funding recommendations to the Bonneville Power Administration for projects to implement the program.
Revised every five years

4. Purpose
Subbasin plans have been adopted as part of the Power Planning Council's 2000 Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program and will help direct BPA funding of projects that protect, mitigate and enhance fish and wildlife adversely impacted by the development and operation of the Columbia River hydropower system.

6. Organizational Structure

7. Parts of a Subbasin Plan
Assessment Compilation and Analysis of Existing Information
Inventory Identification of existing fish and wildlife related activities
Management Plan Visions, objectives, and strategies

8. Assessment Tools We used two tools in the Assessment Aquatics
QHA (Qualitative Habitat Assessment)
Terrestrial
TBA (Terrestrial Biome Assessment
Constanza asked me to cover how we prioritized watersheds for restoration or protection

9. Aquatic Assessment Tool
Qualitative Habitat Assessment (QHA)
QHA is a way for the technical team to organize existing, already public information about the condition of the aquatic habitats relative to the pre-European condition and relate that to specific focal species (bull trout or westslope cutthroat trout). The scores are strictly qualitative.
Where there’s a blue box, this is not limiting to the basin
Technical experts rank watersheds for both focal species on a scale from 1 to 4, both historically and currently
Riparian, channel stability, hab diversity, fine sediment, flows (high or low), O2, temp (high or low) pollutants, obstructions
Assign presence or absence of focal species in each watershed for each lifestage.
Assign degree of confidence to overall attribute and each HUC

10. Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes Volker mell volkerm@cskt.org
        
                                                                         8500 m
Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes Volker mell
                           

11. QHA results in a series of protection and restoration scores that help determine the priority for BPA-funded projects.

13. How we use QHA Current Aquatic Condition
Ranking of the current stream-habitat conditions at the HUC-4 scale in the Flathead Subbasin for resident salmonids

14. How we use QHA
Ranking of key stream-habitat attributes at the HUC-4 scale in the Flathead Subbasin for bull trout (can identify the most degraded attributes).

15. How we use QHA
Identification of limiting factors by focal species in each 4th-code HUC.

16. Grouping into Restoration and Protection Classes
Class 3.5: High Degree of Degradation Low Protection Value
Class 3: Mod. To High Degree of Degradation
Low to Moderate Protection Value
Class 2: Low to Mod. Degree of Degradation
High to Moderate Protection Value
Class 1: Most Intact Stream Habitat
High Protection Value
Restoration = Reference - Current * LSWeight
So the higher the score, the more degraded the stream, and
the more important it is to the focal species.

17. Near Term Opportunities
How we use QHA
Near Term Opportunities
Class 2 Waters (Low to Mod. Degree of Degradation
Class 1 Waters - Intact

19. Terrestrial Assessment Tool
Terrestrial Biome Assessment (TBA) :
Is biome based: Wetland, Riparian, Grassland/Shrub, Xeric Forest, and Mesic Forest
Divides the subbasin into subunit biomes (e.g. North Fork Flathead Grasslands or Mission Valley Wetlands)
Rates the biomes in each of these subunits by biome-specific indices (e.g. changes in area, fire interval, exotic species, grazing, habitat diversity, and road density) and identifies primary and secondary impacts in each subunit.
Result is an impact index (the current condition for wildlife relative to the historic condition) for each biome in each subunit.

20. How we use TBA
Limiting Factors by biome

21. How we use TBA
Prioritization of Subunits

22. How we use TBA Prioritization of Subunits
Class 1 Subunits: 60 to 85% of pristine

23. Prioritization of Subunits (cont.)
Class 2 Subunits: 40 to 60% of pristine

24. Prioritization of Subunits (cont.)
Class 3 Subunits: Less than 40% of pristine

27. The Inventory Outline: Current Management Activities
Existing Protected Areas
Existing Plans
Management Programs
Last 5 Years of Restoration and Conservation Projects
Annotated list of ongoing activities
Assessment of past and current activities: how well do they address the limiting factors and what gaps are there?

28. The Management Plan Outline: A Vision Statement
Objectives and Strategies
A Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Plan
An Adaptive Management Strategy
Vision-consistent with F&W program
Objectives must be Quantitative, Have a time frame, Linked to a limiting factor, Focal species specific, Life stage specific, Spatial