Contract Description: Since its inception in FY2003, Project #2003-017-00 (the Integrated Status and Effectiveness Monitoring Program; ISEMP) has been developing two novel monitoring and evaluation programs: (i) subbasin-scale pilot status and trend monitoring efforts for anadromous salmonids and their habitat in the Wenatchee/Entiat, John Day and South Fork Salmon River basins, and (ii) effectiveness monitoring for suites of habitat restoration projects in selected watersheds within the three target subbasins. This work is critical for the development of a federal research, monitoring, and evaluation (FRME) program for the Columbia River Basin, which is now a requirement under the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries (NOAA-Fisheries) 2000, 2004 and 2008 Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinions (BiOps, NMFS 2000, NOAA 2004, NMFS-NWR 2008).  In 2008, the ISEMP became a component of BPA’s BiOp Program to help ensure that provisions of the BiOp are satisfied.  ISEMP builds on current status and trend monitoring programs within each of the pilot basins. Several regional and local organizations are funding and implementing these programs. In short, this project has integrated existing and new monitoring and evaluation activities in three pilot subbasins to help ensure that provisions of the BiOp are satisfied. This contract is one of several contracts that will implement this project. The final report for this contract will contain data that will 1) be submitted to NOAA Fisheries (also a contractor under this project) for use in a project level integrated Annual Report and 2) be submitted to BPA as a contract final report according to the terms of this contract.  Terraqua's role has been, and continues to be, to enable the Bonneville Power Administration to continue to implement Project #2003-017-00 in the Wenatchee and Entiat and other pilot subbasins. Objectives of this work have been, and continue to be:

- Coordinate contract development between Bonneville and entities participating in implementation of the ISEMP program in the Wenatchee/Entiat and other pilot subbasins.

- Coordinate contract implementation between Bonneville and entities participating in the ISEMP program in the Wenatchee/Entiat and other pilot subbasins to ensure that implementation activities meet the purpose and needs of the ISEMP program.

- Implement selected monitoring and analysis activities.

- Coordinate the design and testing of a data management system to support the program with local ISEMP contractors including the development of field protocols coupled with metadata necessary for proper data management .

- Analyze and report results related to the implementation of monitoring activities.

This contract represents an increase in scope and budget of about 25 percent over the previous Terraqua Release #3 of Contract 27480 primarily due to the expansion of ISEMP monitoring and coordination activities in the Entiat subbasin and expanded field work support of repeat habitat sampling and snorkel/redd survey field assistance.

To offset the expanded costs associated with this expanded scope of work, Terraqua has: maintained the same rates for key positions as were charged in previous years; has elevated lower-cost staff to assume some of the responsibilities previously executed by more senior staff; and has reduced the scope of some coordination elements that were more prominent in earlier releases as those elements have been completed or institutionalized to the point they are relatively maintenance-free. The following list describes details associated with some of the significant scope/budget differences compared to Release #3:

- The total effort and cost of coordination-related tasks (Tasks 8.1 through 8.4) has remained about the same ($98K versus $94K in Release #3) and reflects a balance of increased cost-of-business, increased efficiencies, and an expanded scope of work for the Entiat IMW project.   Similarly, there is no significant change in the budget for project management (Task 8.10) or ISEMP program annual reporting (Task 8.11).

- The budget increase for task 8.6 over Release #3 Task 7.6 reflects a 5% increase in laboratory fees and a 18% increase in the number of samples that will be processed.

- Task 8.7 represents a 20% expansion of effectiveness monitoring work in the Entiat.

- The budget for task 8.8 includes capacity for a doubling of snorkeling effort and elimination of the steelhead redd support that was in Task 7.8 of Release #2.

- In Task 8.9, we will perform 2 and 1/2 times more work than in Task 7.9 of Release #3..

- The budget for Task 8.11 has decreased to one-quarter of last year's budget to reflect the amount of effort that actually went into producing this past year's annual review.

-  Task 8.12 is a new analysis effort that will help BPA begin to re-evaluate its approach to smolt trapping.  Bonneville Power Administration and the co-managers of salmonid populations in the Columbia Basin rely heavily on these estimates of population abundance making the accuracy of these estimates of paramount importance to the management of salmonids in the Columbia Basin.