In response to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s request on September 25, 2024, the ISRP reviewed a proposal for a new project from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), titled Pacific Northwest Aquatic Restoration Partnership in the John Day River Basin (BPA project #2023-004-00). This is the ISRP’s first review of this project, which has an existing Statement of Work and funding through the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA).
As described in the USFS proposal and proposal submittal letter from BPA, the project was formed to implement a 2022 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between BPA and the USFS to work toward recovery of salmon, steelhead, and bull trout populations in the Columbia River Basin through targeted habitat restoration actions in the John Day River Basin, Oregon. The John Day River is the fourth longest free-flowing river in the contiguous United States, providing habitat for Chinook salmon, steelhead, bull trout, westslope cutthroat trout, and Pacific lamprey. If all goes according to plan, this proposal will implement nine partial culvert replacements, four full culvert removals, and six habitat/floodplain reconnection projects.
Although the project has the potential to provide significant benefits to anadromous salmonids and bull trout in the John Day Basin, the proposal is incomplete and lacks adequate detail, information, and depth for the ISRP to clearly understand and assess if the proposed actions are based on sound scientific principles and will result in the assumed benefits. The ISRP strongly believes that a complete proposal with sufficient detail is a necessary element of any project funded under the Fish and Wildlife Program and will serve the project well in the five-year duration of the project as well as future review processes.
Consequently, the ISRP recommends “Response Requested” and asks that the proponents provide a revised proposal to the ISRP within six months with a brief point-by-point response to the ISRP referencing where, and summarizing how, the issues were addressed in the revised proposal. Issues to address in the revised proposal and response include the need for SMART objectives, more details on project selection and design, a more complete description of how monitoring provided by other projects will inform this project, and a general description of how this project will adjust based on lessons learned from completed actions and changing environmental conditions.
