In response to the Council’s February 18, 2020 request, the ISRP reviewed a draft report produced by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and Kootenai Tribe of Idaho titled Kootenai Synthesis Report (February 2020). The intent of the report is to address a condition that the Council placed on several projects (based on the ISRP review, ISRP 2012-6) as part of the Resident Fish, Data Management and Program Coordination Category Review, in July 2012.
The ISRP’s review includes detailed comments and suggestions intended to improve an already complex task, a report addressing nearly 30 years of research, monitoring, and evaluation. While the ISRP’s review identifies many positive aspects of the draft Kootenai Synthesis Report, the authors have not fully addressed the 2012 ISRP qualification. The intent of the request for the synthesis was to provide “a concise and comprehensive interpretation of data” on ecosystem responses to restoration actions “that can be used toguide current and future restoration” efforts. The draft synthesis report describes project objectives and details on implementation, but its descriptions of data analyses, results, and knowledge gained from the findings are incomplete. The ISRP encourages the authors to consider the review comments and suggestions in preparing the final Synthesis Report, which the ISRP looks forward to reviewing to determine if it meets the 2012 qualification.
