AMENDMENT DESCRIPTION

This contract amendment (CCR 12877) will facilitate the ISEMP's continued effort to standardize and document data collection, under which the program has begun adapting its existing protocols and writing 6 new protocols that contain standard operating procedures, sample design, data handling, analysis, and operational requirements.  These protocols will continue to ensure that data collection methods in the Upper Columbia in the 2008 field season and beyond will be documented and carried out in a standardized manner by data collectors aligned with the Upper Columbia Data Management Strategy.  In addition, as part of the ongoing effort to design efficient and useful data management tools, the ISEMP is updating the Aquatic Resource Schema (ARS, the database that houses the myriad data generated in the Upper Columbia annually) and building new, and updating existing, Automated Template Modules (ATM, the tools by which local data collectors enter their data into the ARS).  
Part of protocol development, and central to the development of the ARS and ATMs, is the documentation of the metadata for each protocol.  This work needs to be done in a timely manner so that the Scientific Data Management team at NOAA can update the ARS in time to allow for the ISEMP to create new ATMs and update existing ATMs for the coming 2008 field season.  This work requires knowledge of databases, familiarity with the protocols, and access to the data collectors.  

The Upper Columbia Data Steward possesses all the required skills and knowledge to perform this task quickly and efficiently.  However, part of the Data Steward’s responsibilities is to load historical data from the Upper Columbia into the ARS by June 2008, which is a time-consuming task.  In order to facilitate the Data Steward prioritizing the documenting of protocol metadata and to allow the loading of historical data to continue as scheduled, the ISEMP is proposing to fund a technician for 12 weeks from April through June to load the historical data into the ARS, work that would otherwise require a significant portion of the Data Steward’s time.  The technician would have the database skills necessary to be able to perform the task in an efficient and timely manner and would be closely supervised by the Data Steward.  The transfer of the data loading task to the temporary employee will allow the Data Steward to work on tasks that require more advanced skill sets that the Data Steward possess.  This amendment to the UCSRB’s contract with BPA is for work beginning April 1 through June 30 in the amount of: 25 hrs/week, 12 weeks @ $15/hour = $4,500, with 9% overhead = $4,905.

Project #2003-017-00 (Project) seeks to develop two novel monitoring and evaluation programs: (i) subbasin-scale pilot status and trend monitoring efforts for anadromous salmonids and their habitat in the Wenatchee, John Day and South Fork Salmon River subbasins, and (ii) effectiveness monitoring for suites of habitat restoration projects in selected watersheds within the three target subbasins.  This work – critical for implementing the 2000 NMFS FCRPS Biological Opinion (RPA Actions 180, 181, and 183) (BiOp) – builds on current status and trend monitoring programs within each of these subbasins.  Several regional and local organizations are funding and implementing these programs.  In short, this project will integrate 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.  This Scope of Work (SOW) will enable the Bonneville Power Administration (Bonneville) to help implement the Project's data management goals within the Upper Columbia region.  Specifically, within this SOW, the Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery Board (UCSRB) will oversee the administration of BPA funds to help implement the Data Steward position.

The UCSRB is developing a long-term agreement between funding entities and the UCSRB for the purpose of collaboratively funding the stewardship of the Upper Columbia region’s fish and aquatic resource data using existing Integrated Status and Effectiveness Monitoring (ISEMP) data management tools that were specifically created for use with the Upper Columbia Monitoring Strategy.  This long-term agreement is not in place as yet and since the existing infrastructure is insufficient for handling the large amounts of data being collected by the ISEMP contractors in the Wenatchee and Entiat subbasins in an efficient and timely manner, the ISEMP is helping fund the Data Steward position for one year.  The amount contributed under this BPA contract is not the full amount necessary to complete the deliverables outlined and a match will be used to fully fund the Data Steward position for the contract period.  

The Data Steward will assist all ISEMP contractors and other agencies that manage monitoring data related to fish and aquatic resources in the Upper Columbia region and do so in a coordinated fashion.  The development of a Data Steward position is founded on several successful data management developments led by the ISEMP in the Upper Columbia in recent years.  For example, the need for a coordinated data management system was specifically identified as a key objective in the Upper Columbia Regional Technical Team’s (RTT) draft Strategic Plan.   BPA and NOAA Fisheries have developed the Status,Trend and Effectiveness Monitoring (STEM) Databank, Aquatic Resources Schema (ARS)  and Automated Template Module (ATM) tools for the Wenatchee and Entiat River basin under the ISEMP.   All of these long-term status and trend monitoring efforts need to be coordinated and managed to serve local and regional needs under programmatic initiatives such as the Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinion (FCRPS BiOp) mandates, Endangered Species Act recovery implementation, PUD hatchery program monitoring requirements, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s fish and wildlife program, and State and Tribal salmon recovery and management efforts.  The Data Steward would provide technical expertise to the ISEMP contractors and other data collectors working in the Upper Columbia and would create or utilize data management tools to organize, upload, store, analyze, and report monitoring data for the Upper Columbia ESU/DPS.

Programmatic fisheries and aquatic resource management programs, such as those identified above, require a burgeoning amount of data in order to answer increasingly complicated and inter-dependent questions that help to inform a larger and more diverse set of interests.  Current ways of storing and processing fisheries and habitat data is uncoordinated.  Individual agency computers do not effectively meet the novel, evolving, and collective needs of these agencies and the public in recovery planning, effectiveness monitoring, and decision making.  By not coordinating data management needs, there is a risk of duplication of effort and wasting of resources.  Also, many agencies need data to be more accessible through a coordinated, centralized, web-based data management system.  Consequently, the development of a regionally coordinated data management system is a necessary step to effective monitoring and evaluation.