A Federal research, monitoring, and evaluation (RME) program for the Columbia River Basin, has been called for under the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries (NOAA-Fisheries) 2000 Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinion (BiOp) and the Federal Columbia River Salmon Recovery Strategy (All-H Strategy).  Implementation of this regionally coordinated, programmatic approach to the Tributary Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation (RME) is being tested through pilot projects in the Wenatchee, John Day, and Salmon subbasins, prior to extending it to larger areas.  This project seeks to develop the pilot intensive RME program and an Intensively Monitored Watershed Study (IMW) in the John Day and Lemhi basins.

Development of an RME program will occur at two scales: 1) implementation of an experimental restoration action in a selected watershed using other watersheds as controls (IMW), and 2) development of a RME program throughout the John Day basin based on lesson learned from the IMW.  The IMW will allow for the full development of an RME program (establishment of status and trends, identification of limiting factors and restoration actions, implementation of the actions, and effectiveness monitoring) in an experimental framework to maximize learning that can be accomplished in a relatively short timeframe.  Developing an RME program for an entire basin will occur on a longer timeframe and will require input from other efforts within the basin (e.g. subbasin planning and technical recovery team efforts).  The basinwide RME effort will occur concurrently with the IMW and will include: limiting factors analyses, prioritization of restoration actions by watershed (e.g. potential for improvement, costs, practicality, etc.), experimental management designs, and design of long term implementation and effectiveness monitoring programs.   Implementing the subbasin scale RME program and the Intensive Monitored Watershed Study will require contracting with numerous individuals and agencies.  The overall coordination of these contracting efforts will reside with the project sponsor / PI - these activities will be captured in a contract with NOAA Fisheries.  Each subbasin will require a coordination staff.  In the John Day River basin, the following task will be contracted through Eco Logical Research to aid in achieving the project objectives.

The development of an Intensively Monitored Watershed study and a basinwide RME program to identify restoration potential and determine restoration effectiveness of watersheds will require the input from several experts from multiple agencies and organizations.  The purpose of objective 1 will be to coordinate this collaboration effort, aid in the development of the RME program, and document this process as the RME Plan.  The RME plan will coordinate the implementation of RME efforts consistent with the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership and the Federal Columbia River Power System RME Plan in the John Day basin.