The vision for this program is a Columbia River ecosystem that sustains an abundant, productive, and diverse community of fish and wildlife, supported by mitigation across the basin for the adverse effects to fish and wildlife caused by the development and operation of the hydrosystem. This envisioned ecosystem provides abundant opportunities for tribal trust and treaty-right harvest, non-tribal harvest, and the conditions that allow for restoration of the fish and wildlife affected by the construction and operation of the hydrosystem.
The vision will be accomplished by protecting and restoring the natural ecological functions, habitats, and biological diversity of the Columbia River Basin. Where this is not feasible, other methods that are compatible with self-sustaining fish and wildlife populations will be used, including certain forms of production of hatchery fish. Where impacts have irrevocably changed the ecosystem, the program will protect and enhance habitat and species assemblages compatible with the altered ecosystem.
