AMENDMENT June 2011

This contract was amended June 2011 to extend the performance period to August 31, 2011 and add funds to serve the need of expenses associated with developing and implementing the Columbia Habitat Monitoring Program (CHaMP) (WE 189:9.14, add $87,000), ongoing work associated with ISEMP to facilitate ISEMP subbasin coordination (WE 189: 9.4, add $19,000), partially fund implementation of Entiat habitat effectiveness monitoring (WE 157: 9.7, add $20,000) and partially fund implementation of status and trend fish monitoring (WE157:9.10; add $30,000).

AMENDMENT February 2011

This contract was amended February 8, 2011 to add one new work element and amend an existing work element:

Added WE 189: 9.14: Develop and Implement CHaMP
Added milestone to WE 157:9.8: Entiat IMW- Effectiveness- Fish Monitoring - to add Winter Sampling.  Cost efficiencies in the summer 2010 Entiat IMW Effectiveness Fish Monitoring and other field work allows us to conduct fish monitoring in the winter period without requiring a budget amendment.

In support of habitat restoration, rehabilitation and conservation action performance assessments and adaptive management requirements of the 2008 Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinion (FCRPS BiOp), the Bonneville Power Administration is working with NOAA and other regional fish management agencies to monitor status and trends of fish habitat for each major population group (MPG) in the Pacific Northwest identified through the Endangered Species Act (ESA).   Status monitoring provides information on the quantity and quality of current habitat and thus maximizes spatial coverage with a given number of sample sites.  Trend monitoring is used to detect changes in habitat through time and thus requires repeat samples at given sites.  Minimizing sampling and measurement error is crucial in order to differentiate this variability from natural variability though time and space.  In order to compare information across multiple MPGs, BPA is adopting a standardized fish habitat monitoring protocol, the Columbia Habitat Monitoring Program (CHaMP) for the Columbia River Basin monitoring programs.  

CHaMP is a Columbia River basin-wide habitat status and trends monitoring program built around a single habitat monitoring protocol with a program-wide approach to data collection and management which meets FCRPS Action Agency (2010) programmatic prescriptions for habitat monitoring.  CHaMP was developed by the Integrated Status and Effectiveness Monitoring Program (ISEMP) to capture habitat features that drive fish population biology and will result in systematic habitat status and trends information that will be used to assess basin-wide habitat condition and correlated with biological response indicators to evaluate habitat management strategies.  CHaMP is integrated with ongoing Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Program (PNAMP) and Recovery Planning efforts, as well as the collaborative process across Columbia Basin fish management agencies and tribes and other state and federal agencies that are monitoring anadromous salmonids and/or their habitat.  

The CHaMP is being proposed by the ISEMP and eight collaborating agencies  to help BPA meet the requirements of the 2008 FCRPS BiOp and RPA 56.3.  This program will provide information on the status/trends in habitat conditions, and will support habitat restoration, rehabilitation and conservation actions, performance assessments, and the adaptive management requirements of the 2008 FCRPS BiOp.  In addition, the CHaMP meets RPA 56.3, RPA 57, and RPA 3 by characterizing stream and fish responses to watershed restoration and/or management actions in at least one population within each steelhead and Chinook MPG which have, or will have, fish in-fish out monitoring (identified in RPA 50.6).  The watersheds identified for CHaMP include: Hood River, Wind River, Toppenish, Klickitat, Fifteen Mile, Lower Mainstem JD, North Fork JD, Upper Mainstem JD, Middle Fork JD, South Fork JD, Umatilla, Upper Grande Ronde, Catherine Ck, Imnaha, Lolo Ck, Tucannon, Asotin, SF Salmon, Big Ck, Lemhi, Pahsimeroi, Yankee Fork, Wenatchee, Entiat, Methow, and Okanogan.  These watersheds were chosen to maximize the contrast in current habitat conditions and also represent a temporal gradient of expected change in condition through planned habitat actions.  CHaMP collaborators will be supported by cross-project data management, stewardship and analysis staff, annual pre- and post-season meetings, annual field protocol and data management tool implementation training sessions.  

Work elements 189: 9.14 was added to develop and implement the basin-wide Columbia Habitat Monitoring Program (CHaMP).  Terraqua, Inc. staff, including Michael B. Ward as  Lead Coordinator, will provide coordination and help organize and implement the work necessary to assist those collaborators implementing the CHaMP in 2011 to be ready for the 2011 field season.

WE 157:9.8b: Entiat IMW- Effectiveness-Fish Monitoring was added under this CCR to add planned for fish monitoring in February/March in the Entiat Intensively Monitored Watershed.

This contract contains work elements that are funded under the "Fast Track" budget, including:  Tasks 9.6b, 9.9, 9.10, 9.11, and 9.13.

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:

In 2010,

- 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.

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

This contract represents an increase in scope and budget of about 56 percent over the previous Terraqua Release #4 of Contract 27480 primarily due to the expansion of ISEMP monitoring and coordination activities in the Entiat and Methow subbasins (particularly the Fast Track work elements listed above).

To offset the expanded costs associated with this expanded scope of work, Terraqua 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 #4:

- The total effort and cost of coordination-related and development tasks (Tasks 8.1 through 8.5) has remained about the same ($135K versus $129K in Release #4) 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 9.13).

- The slight budget increase for task 9.6 over Release #4 Task 8.6 reflects constant laboratory fees and a 17% increase in the number of samples that will be processed.

- Task 9.7 represents a 25% expansion of habitat effectiveness monitoring work in the Entiat.

- The budget for Task 9.8 represents a new task of fish effectiveness monitoring in the Entiat.

- The budget for Task 9.9 is higher than in Release #3 because the larger scope of work requires more crew.  All crew training falls within this work element.

- Task 9.10 Entiat Status/Trend Fish is new for Terraqua this year and was previously performed by another ISEMP subcontractor whose contract was already in place when Fast Track money was budgeted to this work.

- Task 9.11 Methow Status/Trend habitat is new for Terraqua and is a result of Fast Track budgeting.