This amendment (CCR 24134) is a modification of the budget of greater than 5%.  The modification is necessary to insure funds are available for payroll, vehicle lease/maintenance, and rent/utilities due to the contract extension to 31 Aughust and to provide funds in the contracting line item for land acquisition tasks.  I have attached a modified BPA line-item budget as well as a Shoshone-Bannock Tribes budget with modification worksheet.  There is no change in the property inventory.



The Southern Idaho Wildlife Mitigation Program (SIWM) was created to to mitigate for habitat losses in Southern Idaho caused by hydropower development in the Middle and Upper Snake Provinces.  In the Middle Snake Province identified habitat losses include Anderson Ranch (9,619 HU), Black Canyon (2,230 HU), and Deadwood (7,413 HU) (Martin and Ablin-Stone 1986).  In the Upper Snake Province habitat losses were identified at 37,070 HU for the Palisades Dam (Sather-Blair and Preston 1985) and 10,503 HU for the Minidoka Dam (Martin and Meuleman 1989).  The program was created in 1996 with the formation of a working group composed of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDF&G), and Shoshone-Bannock Tribes (SBT).  The Shoshone-Paiute Tribes joined the program in 2002.  

SBT SIWM was created to meet the objectives for wildlife mitigation outlined in the Fish and Wildlife Program (NPCC 2000):  

• Quantify wildlife losses caused by the construction, inundation, and operation of the hydropower projects.
• Develop and implement habitat acquisition and enhancement projects to fully mitigate for identified losses.
• Coordinate mitigation activities throughout the basin and with fish mitigation and restoration efforts, specifically by coordinating habitat restoration and acquisition with aquatic habitats to promote connectivity of terrestrial and aquatic areas.
• Maintain existing and create habitat values
• Monitor and evaluate habitat and species responses to mitigation actions.

Mitigation by the SIWM program has resulted in the mitigation of 22,435 HU to date.  Mitigation of 10,992 HU can be attributed to efforts by SBT SIWM.  SBT continues to work toward acquiring additional properties to mitigate for habitat losses.  The acquisition of habitat to mitigate for losses due to hydropower development is the cornerstone of the NPCC Fish and Wildlife Program (NPCC 2001).  This is accomplished through the protection of either existing high quality habitat areas or sites with a high potential for restoration.  The process of protecting habitat is a multistep process outlined by the NPCC Fish and Wildlife Program (NPCC 2000) and SIWM MOA (SBT and BPA1997).  All easement and fee-title acquisitions must also be consistent with tribal land acquisition policies and agreed to by the tribal council.  

SBT also has management responsibility for three mitigation properties Rudeen Ranch and Soda Springs Hills acquired in the late 1990's , and Bannock Creek acquired in 2009.  Without management activities, habitat values would deteriorate over time and rate-payer investments in mitigation would be lost.  Management entails Operations and Management (O+M) to maintain and enhance acquired lands, monitoring habitat and wildlife populations to allow for adaptive management, and collaboration with other wildlife management entities to protect wildlife habitats and populations both on acquired lands and in southern Idaho as a whole.  SBT SIWM O+M responsibilities will increase with additional mitigation.    

O+M on Rudeen Ranch and Soda Hills has included fence construction and signage to control OHV use and exclude cattle, planting previously cultivated agricultural fields with native plant species, and noxious weed control following management direction put in place following acquisition.  

Monitoring in the past three years has focused on habitat mapping and HEP or follow-up HEP.  The monitoring information will be used to develop new management plans for all three properties.  Management plans will include proposed projects, weed control, vegetation restoration/improvement and effectiveness monitoring.  Management plan will also include access plan including travel management, fencing, and monitoring.

In addition to the creation of the management plans an overall habitat monitoring program will be developed.  The plan will describe the purpose, need, and methodology of monitoring techniques to accurately capture data on habitat conditions.  Data to be collected will include overstory inventory and ground/shrub cover point count methods outlined in Unnasch (2003) Monitoring and Evaluation Plan for Idaho Wildlife Mitigation Projects and/or the monitoring protocols under development by CBFWA.  Data will be added to long term vegetation data-sets to be analyzed after 5 years of data collection to measure changes in relative cover over time.

Following development the management and monitoring plans will be implemented on project lands.  Implementation will include grazing and and OHV control, weed management, vegetation restoration, and long term management.