Accuracy - The accuracy of a measurement is the degree of closeness of measurements of a quantity to that quantity's actual (true) value, i.e., how close a measurement is to the “true value.”
Action agencies - U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bonneville Power Administration and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation that own, operate, or manage the Federal Columbia River Power System dams and related infrastructure.
Adaptive management - A scientific policy that seeks to improve management of biological resources, particularly in areas of scientific uncertainty, by viewing fish and wildlife program actions (projects) as vehicles for learning. Projects that implement the program are designed and implemented as experiments so that even if they fail, they provide useful information for future actions. Monitoring and evaluation are emphasized so that the interaction of different elements of the system is better understood.
Alluvial - Detrital material, such as clay, sand, and gravel that is deposited along the river or stream channel.
Anadromous fish - Fish that hatch in freshwater, migrate to the ocean, mature there and return to freshwater to spawn; for example, Chinook salmon, Pacific lamprey, and steelhead salmon.
Anadromous fish substitution - The protection, mitigation, or enhancement of resident fish and wildlife to address losses of salmon and steelhead in those areas currently blocked to anadromous fish as a result of hydroelectric dams.
Baseline - Historical or current conditions against which change can be measured. When referring to a baseline passage or flow measure in the mainstem, the baseline indicates the starting point as described in the Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinion.
Basinwide - An activity or an issue that extends over the entire Columbia River watershed.
Biological diversity - Biological diversity within and among populations of salmonids is generally considered important for three reasons. First, diversity of life history patterns is associated with a use of a wider array of habitats. Second, diversity protects a species against short-term spatial and temporal changes in the environment. And third, genetic diversity is the so-called raw material for adapting to long-term environmental change. The latter two are often described as nature’s way of hedging its bets – a mechanism for dealing with the inevitable fluctuations in environmental conditions – long and short term. With respect to diversity, more is better from an extinction-risk perspective.
Biological indicators - The general measures of success for the regional effort that in some cases will extend beyond the narrow responsibility of the federal hydropower system. These indicators will focus on fish populations, productivity, fish survival, hatcheries, predation, harvest, and wildlife habitat.
Biological objectives - Biological objectives should clearly describe physical and biological changes needed to achieve the vision in a quantifiable fashion. They will serve as a benchmark to evaluate progress toward the subbasin vision and should have measurable outcomes. Biological objectives should 1) describe and quantify the degree to which the limiting factors will be improved, and 2) describe and quantify changes in biological performance of populations that will result from actions taken to address the limiting factors.
Biological opinion - A document that is the product of formal consultation under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), stating the opinion of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on whether or not a federal action is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of ESA-listed species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat.
Biological performance - The responses of populations to habitat conditions, described in terms of capacity, abundance, productivity, and life history diversity.
Biological potential - The biological potential of a species means the potential capacity, productivity, and life history diversity of a population in its habitat at each life stage.
Blocked areas - Areas in the Columbia River Basin where hydroelectric projects have created permanent barriers to anadromous fish runs. These include the areas above Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams, the Hells Canyon Complex and other smaller locations.
Bonneville Power Administration (Bonneville) - The sole federal power marketing agency in the Northwest and the region’s major wholesaler of electricity. Created by Congress in 1937, Bonneville sells power to public and private utilities, direct-service customers, and various public agencies in the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana west of the Continental Divide, (and parts of Montana east of the Divide) and smaller adjacent areas of California, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. The Northwest Power Act charges Bonneville with additional duties related to energy conservation, generating resource acquisition, and fish and wildlife.
Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior - An agency that administers some parts of the federal program for water resource development and use in western states. The Bureau of Reclamation owns and operates a number of dams in the Columbia River Basin, including Grand Coulee, Hungry Horse, and several projects on the Yakima River.
Bypass system - A channel or conduit in a dam that provides a route for fish to move through or around the dam without going through the turbine units.
Carrying capacity - The number of individuals of one species that the resources of a habitat can support. That is, the upper limit on the steady-state population size that an environment can support. Carrying capacity is a function of both the populations and their environments.
Clean Water Act - A federal law, theAct employs a variety of regulatory and non-regulatory tools to regulate direct pollutant discharges into waterways, finance municipal wastewater treatment facilities, and manage polluted runoff. The goal is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters so that they can support “the protection and propagation of fish, shellfish, and wildlife and recreation in and on the water.”
Climate - The average weather (usually taken over a 30-year time period) for a particular region and time period. Climate is not the same as weather, but rather it is the average pattern of weather for a particular region. Weather describes the short-term state of the atmosphere. Climatic elements include precipitation, temperature, humidity, sunshine, wind velocity, phenomena such as fog, frost, and hail storms, and other measures of the weather.
Climate change (also referred to as “global climate change”) - The term “climate change” is sometimes used to refer to all forms of climatic inconsistency, but because the Earth’s climate is never static, the term is more properly used to imply a significant change from one climatic condition to another. In some cases, climate change has been used synonymously with the term, “global warming;” scientists, however, tend to use the term in the wider sense to also include natural changes in climate.
Columbia River Basin - The Columbia River and its tributaries.
Columbia Basin Fish Accords - The accords areagreements between the action agencies, several tribes, and some states that are 10-year action-agency commitments for projects to benefit fish affected by the FCRPS. The focus is on ESA-listed anadromous fish and actions to support the FCRPS Biological Opinion. The accords also include some other actions for non-listed fish.
Columbia River Treaty - The Treaty between the United States of America and Canada Relating to Cooperative Development of the Water Resources of the Columbia River Basin, 1964. The Canadian Entity (B.C. Hydro) and the U.S. Entity (represented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bonneville Power Administration) are responsible for ensuring the provisions of the Columbia River Treaty are fulfilled. It became effective on September 16, 1964. The treaty also authorized the construction of Libby Dam on the Kootenai River in Montana, which creates a reservoir that extends into British Columbia.
Conservation easement - A deed in which a property owner (grantor) grants a real-property interest to another entity (grantee) to conserve natural values of the property such as water quality or unique native habitats. The grantor retains all rights not restricted by the easement. Conservation easements often have perpetual terms and offer the grantee the right to enforce the easement’s terms against both the grantor and successor owners.
Construction and Inundation Losses - The wildlife losses that occurred as a direct result of construction of a dam and the flooding of the area upriver of the dam.
Consultation - All federal agencies must consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) when any activity permitted, funded, or conducted by that agency may affect a listed species or designated critical habitat, or is likely to jeopardize proposed species or adversely modify proposed critical habitat. There are two stages of consultation: informal and formal.
Conversion rate - The survival rate of adult salmon as they migrate upstream past dams and reservoirs.
Coordination - Within the program, coordination is not an action or a subject by itself -- it is incidental to the need to make progress on a substantive program area that requires the coordinated work of more than one entity. What type of “coordination” needs to occur in any particular instance is wholly dependent on the work that needs to be accomplished and the particular entities identified that need to work together to accomplish it.
Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of the Army (the Corps) - An agency with the responsibility for design, construction, and operation of civil works, including multipurpose dams and navigation projects.
Cost-effective - As defined in the Northwest Power Act, with regard to actions that implement the Council’s fish and wildlife program, where equally effective alternative means of achieving the same sound biological objective exist, the cost-effective alternative is the one with the lowest economic cost.
Critical uncertainties- Critical research uncertainties are questions concerning the validity of key assumptions implied or stated in the program.
Direct mortality - Direct mortality is that which occurs directly from some event along the downriver passage through (or around) the hydropower system, that is, mortality directly associated with the hydropower system.
Dissolved gas - The amount of chemicals normally occurring as gases, such as nitrogen and oxygen, which are held in solution in water, expressed in units such as milligrams of the gas per liter of liquid. Supersaturation occurs when these solutions exceed the saturation level of the water (beyond 100 percent).
Distinct population segment - A vertebrate population or group of populations that is discrete from other populations of the species and significant in relation to the entire species. The smallest division of ataxonomicspeciespermitted to be protected under the U.S.Endangered Species Act.
Drawdown - The distance that the water surface of a reservoir is lowered from a given elevation as water is released from the dam for various purposes. It can also refer to the act of lowering reservoir levels below their normal operating elevations.
Ecological function - The role, or function, that species have within the community or ecosystem in which they occur.
Ecosystem - The set of species and biological communities, including all biotic and abiotic factors and their interactions, existing in a particular environment and geographic area.
Ecosystem Function - The ability of a river to sustain healthy populations of fish, wildlife, and plants, that is enhanced by environmental conditions that support healthy populations.
Effectiveness monitoring - Assessing whether certain actions and projects are having the intended affect and contribute to overall mitigation, protection, enhancement, and recovery efforts in the basin. This may require establishing a causal relationship or a correlation between the action and the change observed; i.e. statistical cause-and effect and correlation relationships. This can be at one of two scales: to detect a localized effect (project or stream reach level effect), and to detect a watershed level effect (intensively monitored effect).
Endangered - The classification provided to an animal or plant in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.
Endangered Species Act - Federal legislation, as amended in 1973, intended to provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered and threatened species depend may be conserved, and provide programs for the conservation of those species, thus preventing extinction of native plants and animals.
Environmental characteristics - The environmental conditions or changes sought to achieve the desired changes in population characteristics.
Environmental risk assessment - Process to identify and evaluate the potential negative impacts of proposed actions on the environment.
Escapement - The numbers of salmon and steelhead that return to a specified point of measurement after all natural mortality and harvest have occurred. Spawning escapement consists of those fish that survive to spawn.
Estuary - The part of the wide lower course of a river where its current is met and influenced by the tides. In both the vertical and horizontal planes, the estuary is a complex transitional zone without sharp boundaries between freshwater and marine habitats.
Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU) - A distinct population segment for Pacific salmon (the smallest biological unit considered to be a “species” under the Endangered Species Act). A population will be considered an ESU if: 1) it is substantially reproductively isolated from other co-specific units, and 2) it represents an important component in the evolutionary legacy of the species.
Extirpated – The loss of a discrete subpopulation within a species.
Extinction - The loss of an entire species.
Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) - TheFederal Columbia River Power System comprises 31 federal dams and one non-federal nuclear power plant located primarily in the Columbia River Basin. The Bonneville Power Administration sells the output of the FCRPS and also constructed and operates a regional transmission system. Fourteen federal multipurpose hydropower projects are at the core of the FCRPS. Twelve of the projects are operated and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day, McNary, Chief Joseph, Albeni Falls, Libby, Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, Lower Granite, and Dworshak dams. The Bureau of Reclamation operates and maintains the Hungry Horse Project and the Columbia Basin Project, which includes Grand Coulee Dam. The FCRPS also includes the mainstem effects of other Reclamation projects in the Columbia and Snake basins, Corps projects in the Willamette River Basin, and other power-producing federal projects in the Northwest.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) - The Commission issues and regulates licenses for construction and operation of non-federal hydroelectric projects and advises federal agencies on the merits of proposed federal multipurpose water development projects.
Fish and wildlife agencies - This category includes the Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior; the Idaho Department of Fish and Game; Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks; the National Marine Fisheries Service of NOAA Fisheries, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce; the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife; and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Fish and wildlife agencies and tribes – The federal and region’s state fish and wildlife agencies and Indian tribes.
Floodplain - Land adjacent to a stream or river that is periodically flooded.
Flow(s) - The rate at which water passes a given point in a stream or river, usually expressed in cubic-feet per second (cfs).
Flow augmentation - Increased flow from release of water from storage dams.
Focal species - A species that has ecological, cultural or local significance or protected legal status, and is used to evaluate the health of the ecosystem and the effectiveness of management actions. A set of focal species is established for each subbasin plan [see Appendix N].
Forebay - The part of a dam’s reservoir that is immediately upstream of the powerhouse.
Genetic diversity - All of the genetic variation within a species. Genetic diversity includes both genetic differences among individuals in a breeding population and genetic differences among different breeding populations.
Habitat - The locality or external environment in which a plant or animal normally lives and grows. As used in this program, habitat includes the ecological functions of the habitat structure.
Habitat unit (HU) - A value derived from multiplying the Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) for an evaluation species by the size of the areas for which the HSI was calculated (HU = HSI x size of habitat)
Harvest - The total number or poundage of fish caught and kept from an area over a period of time. Note that landings, catch, and harvest are different.
Harvest management - The process of setting regulations for the commercial, recreational, and tribal fish harvest to achieve a specified goal within the fishery.
Harvest rates - The portion of an evolutionarily significant unit (ESU) that is expected to be harvested based on the management goals set by the fish and wildlife agencies and tribes.
Hatchery – Generally refers to an artificial production facility designed to produce fish for harvest or spawning escapement. A conservation hatchery differs from a production hatchery in that a conservation hatchery specifically seeks to supplement or restore natural-origin populations. In this program, “hatcheries” may also refer to any of a suite of activities that includes assistance provided by human technology to animal reproduction. In the context of Pacific salmon, this assistance may include, but is not limited to, spawning and rearing in hatcheries, stock transfers, creation of spawning habitat, egg bank programs, captive broodstock programs and cryopreservation of gametes.
Hatchery population - A population of fish that depends on spawning, incubation, hatching, or rearing in a hatchery or other artificial production facility.
Hydroelectric power or hydropower - The generation of electricity using falling water to turn turbo-electric generators.
Hydrosystem - The federal and non-federal hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River and its tributaries.
Implementation monitoring - Monitoring conducted to determine whether an activity was performed and completed as planned. All actions under the program must have implementation monitoring that must be reported to Bonneville. In some cases this may be as simple as a photo point and a brief description.
Invasive species – A species that establishes and reproduces rapidly outside its native range. It may threaten the diversity or abundance of native species through predation, competition, parasitism, hybridization with native populations, introduction of pathogens, or the physical or chemical alteration of the invaded habitats.
Irrigation - Water diverted from surface-water bodies or pumped from groundwater and applied to agricultural lands though ditches, canals, dikes, pumps, pipes, and other water conveyance systems for the purpose of raising crops in areas that do not have sufficient moisture under natural conditions.
Juvenile salmon - Fish from approximately one year of age until sexual maturity.
Kelt - Steelhead that return to the sea after spawning and may return to natal streams to spawn again.
Kokanee - A land-locked form of sockeye salmon.
Lamprey or Pacific lamprey - Pacific lamprey are dark bluish gray or dark brown in color and can reach 30 inches in length and weigh over a pound. Pacific lamprey are anadromous. They enter freshwater streams of the Columbia River Basin from July to October and spawn the following spring. Juvenile lamprey will stay burrowed in the substrate of the streams for 4 to 6 years, During the ocean phase of two to three years, Pacific lamprey are scavengers, parasites, or predators on larger prey such as salmon and marine mammals.
Life history - The multitude of physical stages and behaviors exhibited by a species in the completion of its life cycle.
Limiting factors - Physical, biological, or chemical features (for example, inadequate spawning habitat, high water temperature, insufficient prey resources) experienced by fish that result in reductions in abundance, productivity, spatial structure, or diversity. Key limiting factors are those with the greatest impacts on a population’s ability to reach its desired status.
Listed species - A species, subspecies, or distinct vertebrate population segment that has been added to the federal lists of endangered and threatened wildlife and plants as they appear in sections 17.11 and 17.12 of Title 50 of the Code of Federal Regulations (50 CFR 17.11 and 17.12).
Mainstem - Refers to the main channels of the Columbia and Snake rivers. The program includes a mainstem plan with specific objectives and actions for the federal operating agencies and others to implement in the mainstem Columbia and Snake rivers to protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife affected by the development and operation of hydroelectric dams.
Mainstem passage - The movement of salmon and steelhead around or through the dams and reservoirs in the Columbia and Snake rivers.
Mid-Columbia Public Utility Districts - PUD No. 1 of Grant County, PUD No. 2 of Chelan County, and PUD No. 1 of Douglas County.
MPG (Major population group) – A set of populations that shares genetic, geographic (hydrographic), and habitat characteristics within an evolutionarily significant unit.
Native species - A species whose presence in a region or ecosystem is due to natural processes and not to human activities.
Natural-origin fish – Populations of fish that have completed their entire life cycle in the natural environment and may be the progeny of wild, hatchery, or mixed parentage
Natural production - Spawning, incubating, hatching, and rearing fish in rivers, lakes, and streams without human intervention.
Non-native species – An introduced species living outside its native distributional range, which has arrived there by human activity, either deliberate or accidental. These species can have a distinct advantage in competing with native species because they escape a large percentage of the pathogens and parasites from their native range and are slow to pick up new infections in their newly invaded range. There is convincing evidence that non-native species are continuing to increase in the Columbia Basin aquatic habitats, and climate change is likely to further accelerate their expansion, often at the expense of native species.
Northern Pikeminnow - A giant member of the minnow family, the Northern Pikeminnow is native to the Columbia River and its tributaries and a known predator of young salmon.
Northwest Power Act - The Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act (16 U.S.C. 839 et seq.), which authorized the creation of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. The Act directs the Council to develop the Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program to protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife, including related spawning grounds and habitat on the Columbia River and its tributaries, to establish an Independent Scientific Review Panel to review projects implementing this program that are proposed for funding by the Bonneville Power Administration, and to make final recommendations to Bonneville on implementation of projects.
Nutrient cycling - Process by which nutrients are continuously transferred between organisms within an ecosystem.
Objectives – The biological and non-biological changes needed to achieve the program vision in a quantifiable fashion. This is a broader term that includes biological objectives, defined above. Objectives serve as a benchmark to evaluate progress toward the vision and should be, as feasible, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
Off-site mitigation - The improvement in conditions for fish or wildlife species away from the site of a hydroelectric project that had detrimental effects on fish and wildlife, as part or total compensation for those effects. An example of off-site mitigation is the fish passage restoration work being conducted in the Yakima River Basin for the detrimental effects caused by mainstem hydroelectric projects.
Passage - The movement of migratory fish through, around, or over dams, reservoirs, and other obstructions in a stream or river.
Passage efficiency - The percentage of the total number of fish that pass a dam without passing through the turbine units.
Passage survival - The proportion of anadromous fish that survive passage through the dams and reservoirs while migrating in the main channels of the Columbia and Snake rivers.
Performance measures - Performance measures are metrics that are monitored and evaluated relative to performance standards (benchmarks) and performance targets (longer-term goals) to assess progress of actions and inform future decisions.
PIT-tags - Passive Integrated Transponder tags are used for identifying individual salmon for monitoring and research purposes. This miniaturized tag consists of an integrated microchip that is programmed to identify individual fish. The tag is inserted into the body cavity of the fish and decoded at selected monitoring sites.
Plume - The area of the Pacific Ocean that is influenced by discharge from the Columbia River, up to 500 miles beyond the mouth of the river.
Population - A group of organisms belonging to the same species that occupy a well-defined locality and exhibit reproductive continuity from generation to generation.
Precision - The degree to which repeated measurements show the same results. It is also called reproducibility or repeatability.
Predator - An animal that lives by killing and eating other animals for food.
Productivity - A measure of a population’s ability to sustain itself or its ability to rebound from low numbers. The terms “population growth rate” and “population productivity” are interchangeable when referring to measures of population production over an entire life cycle. Productivity can be expressed as the number of recruits (adults) per spawner or the number of smolts per spawner.
Rearing - The juvenile life stage of anadromous fish spent in freshwater rivers, lakes, and streams or hatcheries before they migrate to the ocean.
Recovery - The re-establishment of a threatened or endangered species to a self-sustaining level in its natural ecosystem to the point where the protective measures of the Endangered Species Act are no longer necessary.
Recovery plan - A strategy for conserving and restoring a threatened or endangered species. An Endangered Species Act recovery plan refers to a plan prepared under section 4(f) of the Act and approved by the Secretary of the relevant federal agency, including: (1) A description of site-specific management actions necessary for recovery; (2) objective, measurable criteria that can be used as a basis for removing the species from threatened or endangered status; and (3) estimates of the time and cost required to implement recovery. (For Pacific salmon, “Secretary” refers to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce.)
Recruitment - The number of young-of-year fish entering a population in a given year.
Reference stream - Reference streams are similar in physical and biological character to streams in which an integrated production effort will take place. No new supplementation should occur in reference streams.
Removable Spillway Weir - A fish passage technology that is an overflow structure installed in a dam’s spillway bay. It provides a more surface-oriented passage route with less delay and stress for juvenile anadromous fish.
Reservoir - A body of water collected and stored in an artificial lake behind a dam.
Resident fish - Fish that spend their entire life cycle in freshwater. For program purposes, resident fish include landlocked anadromous fish (for example, sturgeon, kokanee, and coho), as well as traditionally defined resident fish species. For example, freshwater mussels, threatened bull trout, burbot, Westslope cutthroat trout, mountain whitefish, endangered Kootenai white sturgeon, green sturgeon, and resident life histories of the native anadromous species, e.g. kokanee [see Appendix N].
Riparian - Riparian areas and wetlands are habitats along the banks of streams, lakes, or rivers where terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are most closely linked. They are among the most diverse and dynamic habitats on the Earth, and are especially important sources of plant and animal species diversity in arid areas such as the interior Columbia River Basin. These habitats are critical to a broad range of wildlife.
Run - A population of fish of the same species consisting of one or more stocks migrating at a distinct time.
Salmonid - A fish of the Salmonidae family, which includes soft-finned fish such as salmon, trout, and whitefish.
Section 7 - The section of the Endangered Species Act that requires all federal agencies, in “consultation” with NOAA Fisheries or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to insure that their actions are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of listed species or result in destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat.
Self-sustaining population - A population of fish or wildlife that exists in sufficient numbers to replace itself through time without supplementation with hatchery fish or other type of human intervention. It does not necessarily produce surplus fish or wildlife for harvest.
Settlement - An agreement between natural resource trustees and responsible parties that specifies the terms under which liability is resolved.
Smolt - A juvenile salmon or steelhead migrating to the ocean and undergoing physiological changes (smoltification) to adapt its body from a freshwater to a saltwater existence, typically in its second year of life.
Smolt to Adult Return (SAR) rate -A measure of survival from smolt outmigration to adult return. Depending upon the species, tag type, and research/management question, smolt outmigration and adult returns may be enumerated at various locations (e.g., Bonneville to Bonneville, Dworshak Hatchery to Lower Granite, or tributary to tributary). Therefore, SARs must be explicitly defined based on the enumeration points. The SAR indicator incorporates all sources of mortality between the smolt and adult life stages.
Spatial - Spatial, in the context of the program, refers to the geographic distribution of individuals in a population unit and the processes that generate that distribution.
Spawn - The act of fish releasing and fertilizing eggs.
Species - A group of individuals of common ancestry that closely resemble each other structurally and physiologically and that can interbreed, producing fertile offspring. For purposes of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a species is defined to include “any distinct population segment of any species of vertebrate fish or wildlife which interbreeds when mature.” A population (or group of populations) will be considered “distinct” (and hence a “species”) for purposes of the ESA if it represents an evolutionarily significant unit (ESU) of the biological species. A population must satisfy two criteria to be considered an ESU: (1) It must be reproductively isolated from other conspecific population units, and (2) it must represent an important component in the evolutionary legacy of the species.
Spill - Releasing water through spillways at a dam rather than through the turbines.
Spillway - The channel or passageway around or over a dam through which excess water is released or “spilled” past the dam without going through the turbines. A spillway is a safety valve for a dam and, as such, must be capable of discharging major floods without damaging the dam, while maintaining the reservoir level below some predetermined maximum level.
Stacking - A procedural step used to calculate the relationship between wildlife species and their habitat in the course of calculating Habitat Units (HUs) for the purposes of mitigating for wildlife losses. Stacking can produce varied results if inconsistent species or habitat types are used in the calculation.
Status and Trend Monitoring - Used to assess status over time of fish, wildlife, and habitat that informs program evaluation and reporting needs. This type of monitoring is intended to span a time-period adequate to understand the trend and be able to detect a negative change that would require a change in program implementation to rectify.
Stock - A population of fish spawning in a particular stream during a particular season. Stocks of fish generally do not interbreed with stocks spawning in a different stream or at a different time.
Straying - The act of a fish breeding in a population other than that of its parents.
Strongholds - Generally characterized as large and relatively intact areas that support abundant, diverse, genetically strong populations of native salmonids that can serve as “anchor recovery areas” to help re-establish and re-build core populations in the basin. The concept of native fish strongholds is further defined as conservation reserves to protect remaining areas of high-quality habitat supporting abundant populations and a diverse number of native fish species.
Subbasin - A set of adjoining watersheds with similar ecological conditions and tributaries that ultimately connects, flowing into the same river or lake. Subbasins contain major tributaries to the Columbia and Snake rivers. There are 62 subbasins in the Columbia River Basin.
Subbasin management plans - Management plans set forth the desired direction for the subbasin taking into account the science, local conditions, concerns, treaty rights, and applicable law and policy. It is where the science and the social aspects come together. Management plans begin with a vision for the subbasin, then outlines biological objectives describing the desired environmental conditions, and then identifies a set of strategies to achieve the objectives. In addition, management plans include a monitoring and evaluation plan for the strategies that may be implemented. Plans should have a 10-15 year horizon recognizing that additional information and analysis may indicate the need for periodic refinement.
Subbasin planning - A coordinated systemwide approach to planning in which each subbasin in the Columbia system is evaluated for its potential to produce fish in order to contribute to the goal of the overall system. Subbasin planning emphasizes the integration of fish and wildlife habitat, fish passage, harvest management, and production.
Subyearling - A fish that is less than 1 year old.
Supplementation - The use of hatcheries to re-establish or increase the abundance of naturally reproducing populations through the release of hatchery fry and juvenile fish in the natural environment.
Tailrace - The canal or channel that carries water away from a dam.
Tailwater - The water surface immediately downstream from a dam.
Target species - A species singled out for attention because of its harvest significance or cultural value, or because it represents a significant group of ecological functions in a particular habitat type.
Terminal Fishery- A fishery created to provide a significant degree of spatial separation from stocks bound for other streams. The terminal fishery targets a hatchery stock of fish to avoid harvest of listed and weak stocks.
Terrestrial - Of or relating to the earth or its inhabitants; non aquatic.
Threatened - The classification provided to an animal or plant likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.
Transboundary - Refers to the United States and Canadian border.
Transboundary stocks/species – Stocks or species whose range or migratory routes cross the United States/Canada border.
Transportation - Collecting migrating juvenile fish and transporting them around dams using barges or trucks.
Treaty rights - Rights of Indian tribes that were reserved by the 1855 Stevens Treaties between certain Northwest Indian tribes and the United States government. These reserved rights include the right of “taking fish at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations” as well as the “privilege of hunting, gathering roots and berries and pasturing horses on open and unclaimed lands.” Certain of these rights have been well defined by judicial decisions, such as those pertaining to treaty fishing.
Tribes - In the Council’s fish and wildlife program, these include the Burns-Paiute Tribe; the Coeur d’Alene Tribes; the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation; the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde; the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation; the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation of Oregon; the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon; the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation; the Kalispel Tribe of Indians; the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho; the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho; the Shoshone-Paiutes of the Duck Valley Reservation; the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation; the Spokane Tribe of Indians; the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians of Oregon; and the Cowlitz Indian Tribe.
Turbidity - A measure of light penetration in a body of water. Higher turbidity indicates murkier water conditions.
United States v Oregon - The 1969 federal court decision that reaffirmed Indian treaty rights to fish. The decision only applies to Washington and Oregon treaty tribes and is the basis for allocating harvest of salmon in the Columbia River to those tribes.
Uplands - Land at higher elevations than the alluvial plain or low stream terrace; all lands outside the riparian-wetland and aquatic zones.
VARQ - Variable outflows for flood control from a storage reservoir during the spring which are tied to the water supply forecast, which can provide additional water releases for fish requirements and improve a project’s refill probability.
Water right - A legal authorization to use a certain amount of public water for specific beneficial use or uses.
Watershed - The area that drains into a stream or river. A subbasin is typically composed of several watersheds.
Weak stock - A stock of fish of which the long-term survival is in doubt. Typically this is a stock in which the population is small and is barely reproducing itself or is not reproducing itself. While ESA-listed stocks are considered weak stocks, the term also includes other populations that would not yet qualify for ESA listing.
Wild fish - Fish that have maintained successful natural reproduction with little or no hatchery influence.
Wildlife - Animals living in a natural state, unimpeded and undomesticated by humans.
Wildlife management - The application of scientific or technical principles to the practice of manipulating wildlife populations, either directly through regulating the numbers, ages, and sex ratios harvested, or indirectly by providing favorable habitat conditions and alleviating limiting factors.