On November 13, 2000, the Council and Bonneville Power Administration (Bonneville) opened a "High Priority" solicitation to the region to identify immediate actions that will assist Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed anadromous fish in the Basin. On December 15, Bonneville received 96 proposals that offered actions ranging from replacing culverts to acquiring riparian habitat to testing selective fishing gear.
During January 2001, the Independent Scientific Review Panel (ISRP), with the assistance of three Peer Review Group members, reviewed and ranked the set of proposals. The review process differed from the standard ISRP Provincial Review Process in several ways. Subbasin summaries were not provided, the ISRP did not conduct a site visit, project sponsors did not make oral presentations, and a response loop was not included. Consequently, the proposal review was not as interactive or rigorous as the provincial reviews. Moreover, the review did not benefit from the contextual information provided by a provincial review, making the fit of the proposals within a subbasin strategy less apparent.
