On March 10, 2022, the ISRP received a response and revised proposal for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Grande Ronde Salmonid Life Cycle Monitoring Project (#1992-026-04) submitted for the Anadromous Fish Habitat and Hatchery Review.
This project contributes to foundational ecosystem knowledge that supports restoration projects in the Grande Ronde basin. The ISRP recognizes the project’s importance for producing: 1) monitoring data for more than 40 restoration projects, 2) regional assessments of SARs for spring Chinook salmon and summer steelhead, 3) data and development of two major life cycle models, and 4) biological data for the Grande Ronde Synthesis Report. Furthermore, the proponents disseminate results and coordinate with other projects by participating in the annual State of the Science Meetings, providing information for the Atlas, contributing extensively to the development and implementation of the Atlas, and supporting major publications from the Grande Ronde projects as co-authors.
Based on a review of the response and revised proposal, the ISRP recommends that the project “Meets Scientific Review Criteria (Conditional).” The ISRP finds that the revised proposal is an improvement over the original submission, but several of the ISRP’s response requests are not fully addressed. The ISRP thus recommends the proponents respond to the following conditions in a letter by July 2022:
- Condition 1. Provide data and analysis to support the Grande Ronde Model Watershed (GRMW; project #199202601) Synthesis Report and to satisfy this project’s goals for evaluating restoration impacts.
- Condition 2. Clarify methods for and results of analysis and interpretation regarding habitat conditions and restoration effectiveness.
Maintaining scientifically rigorous monitoring of fish and habitat in the Grande Ronde is especially important for the Fish and Wildlife Program because the Grande Ronde is one of the few subbasins in the Columbia River Basin that has collaboratively developed many of the components needed to integrate the findings of RM&E efforts and quantitatively evaluate the benefits to fish and wildlife.
See the ISRP’s full memo for details.
