At the Council’s request, this is the ISRP's review of a response from WDFW for proposal 2006-003-00, Desert Wildlife Area O&M (Wetland Enhancement) to the ISRP’s preliminary review in the FY 2007-09 project selection process. The project sponsor developed and thought they had provided a complete response, but the Council and ISRP received a partial response. With issues left unaddressed, the ISRP recommended "Not Fundable." Subsequently, the Council recommended funding for the project conditioned on an ISRP review of the full response. This review completes the intended FY 2007-09 project review cycle.
Final Recommendation: Meets Scientific Review Criteria
The ISRP finds that the proposal, with the clarification provided in the response, meets the ISRP’s review criteria. The sponsors have adequately responded to the most serious concerns raised in the ISRP’s preliminary review. However, the responses to several items need improvement — in any future proposals for this work. The ISRP suggests that the sponsors expand the search for collaborators involved in similar projects and bolster information transfer. Specifically, the persistence of the created wetland habitat and the wildlife response should be documented and reported (at a later date) in a scientific paper submitted to a journal so others can benefit from the work. In future reviews, the ISRP will be interested to see the results of this project and how these issues were addressed.
