The project sponsor's response clarifies the objectives and value of the project and adequately addresses the ISRP's comments from the preliminary review.

The role the data collections and monitoring effort contributing to steelhead management was thoroughly presented. The ISRP query about smolt age and smolts/spawner as metrics of production was clarified with examples of data collected by the project. In response to the ISRP question regarding management actions taken as an example of the project, sponsors identify that steelhead supplementation was discontinued because of the project data. The ISRP recommends to the sponsors that they continue to identify uses for the data in developing management actions for steelhead, not just for the viability assessments of this species. Sponsors identify that genetic analyses will involve analyses beyond Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, Fst, and assignment tests, and will include evaluation of straying, effective population size, and estimation of ESA-recovery unit adult run size at Lower Granite Dam. The ISRP appreciates the clarification of differences in the approaches of Idaho Natural Production Monitoring and Evaluation Program and Idaho Steelhead Monitoring and Evaluation Studies. Finally, while the ISRP acknowledges that annual abundance estimates are not typically published in peer reviewed journals, we believe that when placed in a management context the data that is being produced by this project would be of high quality. For example, contrasting effective population size estimates with census population sizes is unreported for most species, and would be publishable.

Reporting of results in the proposal is good, but the ISRP encourages the sponsors to further explore opportunities to publish information produced by the project as further evidence of its value.

These remaining ISRP concerns with this project should be addressed in subsequent ISRP reviews. In addition, it may be time to conduct a more in-depth review of monitoring in Idaho. It is not clear who collects data how, when, and where in Idaho and how this collection feeds into NOAA TRT analyses, etc.