The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) have provided a useful draft of a restoration plan for Pacific lamprey. The plan nicely summarizes considerable background and historical information on the lamprey and points to areas where little information presently exists. However, the technical and editorial quality of the plan needs improvement. The study design lacks specificity and technical details, for example no specific index reaches or plots are identified either in tables or maps, yet they are a critical part of the study design. Similarly, the monitoring and evaluation portion of the study design fails to identify specific restoration benchmarks, such as numbers of returning adult lamprey or larval lamprey densities in index plots, that could be used to judge program progress or success. The draft will require considerable revision if it is to be a clear and persuasive document justifying and guiding the restoration program planned by the CTUIR and the Council. Although funding to begin this work has been assured, development of a high-quality plan and rigorous study design are essential for the project’s success, including continued successful competition for Fish and Wildlife Program funds, defense of restoration of a non-salmonid species, and justifying both the concept and decision criteria for moving toward artificial production, which remains technically and socially controversial. Toward that end, we provide advice for improvement below. This advice is directed to the project sponsors rather than policy-makers.
