This report is the Independent Scientific Review Panel’s (ISRP) preliminary review of proposals submitted for funding in the Columbia River Gorge and Inter-Mountain provinces. This report provides project sponsors an opportunity to respond to the ISRP’s preliminary comments and recommendations before the ISRP makes its final recommendation to the Council on December 1, 2000. This report is also intended to be available to inform the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority in its project prioritization effort. The report includes an overview of the evaluation process, identification of general issues, and detailed comments for each project in the set. The report was reviewed and commented upon by all of the ISRP review team members assigned to the subject province. All recommendations were reached by consensus.
The report was presented to the full ISRP for review prior to release. This report is the result of the first province reviews, and although the process can use some fine-tuning, the ISRP is enthusiastic about the new approach. The ISRP found the addition of subbasin summaries, site visits, and project sponsor presentations to be a major improvement in the peer review process.
