This paper is being provided for two purposes:
The draft Clearwater Plan was released before the Economic Recommendations were developed. Therefore, our suggestions should not be taken as criticism of the Clearwater Plan. Rather, we take this opportunity to suggest improvements in the draft plan related to economics, and we use the Clearwater Assessment and Plan as points of departure to show how the Economic Recommendations might be implemented. The Clearwater Assessment does include some socioeconomic information, and this information can be used as a basis for suggestions on how to make such economic information more useful to planners and the Council.
The IEAB has reviewed the Independent Science Review Panel's (ISRP) "Review of the Draft Clearwater Subbasin Plan." This paper builds on the ISRP review by showing how some of the ISRP recommendations are closely related to economic as well as biological concerns.
In summary, the Clearwater Subbasin Plan did not progress far enough to allow for meaningful economic analysis and interpretation of recommended actions as contemplated by the IEAB in the Economic Recommendations. In particular, recommendations for specific habitat and hatchery actions are not provided. Instead, the Clearwater Management Plan is focused on general goals and objectives. The Inventory provides a detailed list of ongoing projects in the region, but the Management Plan does not provide enough information about future priorities to suggest how future projects might be different from the status quo. The IEAB believes that more evaluation and bundling of ongoing, proposed and potential projects as examples of strategies and actions could focus a revised Clearwater subbasin plan and future subbasin planning efforts. This approach would also be more likely to provide opportunities for economic impact and cost-effectiveness analysis.
The Technical Guide for Subbasin Planners (the Technical Guide) is not mandatory. Given flexibility, a variety of interpretations for plan requirements, focus of effort, key terminologies, and methodologies for prioritizing actions may be adopted. Such variations among subbasin plans will not be helpful for the Council, because ultimately decisions will have to be made that cut across subbasins. A focus on ongoing, proposed and potential projects would focus limited planning resources on the most immediate and likely actions and their effects.
The Economic Recommendations are provided below with the associated sections of the Clearwater Plan identified. The Clearwater Plan information is discussed, and related ISRP comments are mentioned if relevant. Changes are suggested that would improve the usefulness of the economic information. Again, the Clearwater Plan should not be faulted if its economic information could be improved, because the authors did not have the Economic Recommendations available when the Plan was developed. Rather, this evaluation by the IEAB is intended to help improve the Management Plan as it moves from the current draft to the final version.
