Summary:  The overall purpose of the STAR project is to summarize and present information about project implementation progress, and the outcome of actions, that result from the 2008 Columbia Basin Fish Accord agreement (Accord), in support of the National Ocean and the Atmospheric Administration’s 2008 Biological Opinion for Federal Columbia River Power System Operations (BiOp).  The reports are meant to convey information and inform judgment in a manner meaningful to the target audiences of the Yakama Nation Tribal and General Councils, program managers, and project implementation practitioners.  Additionally, the reports are designed to provide information regarding the status and trend of species and priority associated habitat variables of particular importance to the Yakama Nation, in order to track detectable responses and gauge the effectiveness of actions over time.

Background:  A principal purpose of the Accord agreement is to implement projects that contribute to improved survival and productivity of salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to the levels anticipated in the BiOp.  Written into the Accord is a commitment by the Yakama Nation to assess implementation efforts and report the impact of these projects, including (a) an annual reporting of progress (section C.2), and (b) the evaluation of implementation results (section C.3), in order to estimate whether the actions proposed and implemented by the Tribe are having the intended outcome, and producing the expected benefits – in support of the regional recovery goals articulated in the BiOp.

The design of the Status and Trend Annual Report (STAR) project is intended to give meaningful substance to the Accord promise of effective evaluation and reporting.  Documenting the implementation effect of Accord actions taken by the Yakama Nation – including the status and trend of key species – also serves to validate the assurances given about the expected contributions of BPA-funded projects to the estimated survival benefits expected to accrue to populations of listed salmon and steelhead.  STAR reports too overly broad in nature will not address the need to track activities and report on progress at a scale small enough, and in a manner sufficiently useful, to enable local adaptive management evaluation and adjustment.  With information summarized at ESU/DPS, population/subbasin, and assessment unit scales, the STAR project will serve both as a high-level reporting mechanism for the Yakama Nation Tribal Council and managers, and as a more narrowly tailored resource to inform practitioners about refinements needed in implementation strategies.  
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Project Status /Background

In 2013-2014, the STAR project released four high-level summary status reports, initiated as draft versions in the prior contract term.  The emphasis in the summary status reports is  to:  (1) track the Yakama Nation's implementation of the projects described in the Accord agreement; and (2) provide estimated habitat quality improvement and species benefits from the implemented projects (or suite of projects) by reporting trends in the status of ESA-listed salmon and steelhead populations, based on key limiting factors and the progress being made in addressing those identified ecological limitations (see, 2008 Fish Accords, section C.3.). The topics covered by the status reports are: Yakama Nation's Accord supported habitat restoration work, hatchery and reintroduction work, and status and trends for priority species. Additionally, STAR produced a summary report on the status of action implementation in hydrosystem operations and hydrological restoration as they impact salmonid, lamprey and sturgeon populations of concern to the Yakama Nation – in the observed and projected performance reported elsewhere within the region, such as for purposes of compliance reporting by the action Agencies under the FCRPS BiOp. In 2015 the four reports were combined into one, comprehensive report.

These reports are currently being used to inform the Tribal and General Council as well as help project managers when educating various audiences about the purpose and benefits from Accord-funded Yakama Nation Fisheries projects. These types of comprehensive program-wide summaries have not been previously produced by or for Yakama Nation Fisheries. Each of these reports is developed in close coordination with the BPA, other action agencies, and relevant resource managers and implementing entities.  

Note: Yakama policy and program staff are not indifferent to the sensitivities associated with reporting on hydrosystem operations.  We appreciate the perception of risk inherent in an independent review, and the concern that a report may prove to be insufficiently connected to or grounded in ongoing performance reporting under the BiOp.  We understand the potential for disagreements or misunderstanding from a review that could draw inconsistent or differing conclusions about the effectiveness of actions and adjustments in operations – negotiated in the BiOp and incorporated into the Accords – as implemented by the Action Agencies. However, the language of the Accord agreement encompasses the hydrosystem performance reporting we expect to be a component of the STAR project:  “The Action Agencies acknowledge that the Tribes’ ability to monitor and verify performance of the FCRPS under the BiOps is essential to their participation in this MOA, and the Action Agencies support such monitoring and verification … .” (Section II.D., at p.5).

The scope of STAR project reporting is consistent with the language of the Accord, and reflects the expectations of the Yakama Nation about the role of the STAR project.  Rather than an independent analysis, our reports are a summary and interpretation of existing evaluations in order to best inform the target audiences from a Tribal/regional Yakama perspective about the areas and concerns that are most important to them. Remember that project staff serve a Tribal Membership that will be asked in the coming years what they think about the consequences of this 10-year Accord arrangement with BPA. To address their needs and inform their consideration will require report products that conclude whether we think progress is being made under the BiOp.  To meet that objective requires an approach to reporting grounded in the answers to two questions: (1) whether the actions we and the region said we were going to take, got done; and (2) whether the results of those actions are what we thought and said would be the outcome.
    
To help manage the appearance of risk or uncertainty in answering these questions, we proceed openly and collaboratively in the development of the report products.  Because the potential for misunderstanding or disconnect may linger, it is important to say what the hydrosystem report is intended to be, and what it is not.  To be clear, we conduct no independent analysis of effectiveness in our review.  Our approach is to compile and synthesize a summary of the available analyses and evaluation developed by others (for example, in the 2013 Comprehensive Evaluation).  Our purpose is to report what others are concluding about the effectiveness of actions, in a manner that is discernable to and digestible by the Tribal Council and members to whom we report.  

In addition to producing the topic-based and comprehensive (combined) status and trends reports, and in order to facilitate assembling and summarizing this significant amount of information in an organized, efficient and flexible manner, in FY15 the STAR project has been developing and populating an intranet-based (within Yakama Nation Fisheries Program) reporting and summary tool. This tool incorporates elements already developed by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), given to the Yakama Nation as open-source material, and adapts them to suit the summary and reporting needs of the Yakama Nation. Capitalizing on the time and effort already spent developing and testing this system by CTUIR is the most efficient use of resources. The system includes components for assembling (already publicly available) information into one location where it can be easily queried and displayed with simple, scalable mapping software. It is already being used to create efficient updates to the time-sensitive information contained in the YN comprehensive STAR report (e.g. species status and trends and project implementation progress), and to quickly answer management questions of senior staff and YN Tribal Council. Summarizing and querying such information via manual processes is both inefficient and not feasible within available staff time and resources. The system is easily up-datable and inclusive to inform managing actions and will ultimately enable partially-automated generation and updating of habitat, hatchery, harvest, hydro information, and focal species status reports at multiple scales. The reporting system is for internal use and is not open to the public, but it will be used to update status reports and provide material for mid-level summaries.

The STAR Information Management System (IMS) covers the Yakama Nation treaty trust natural resource use area of 12 million acres, and consolidates information extracted from other sources into one place for easy summary, updating, and reporting. Sources for information include: Pisces, DART, PUD Reports, BPA Annual Reports, Stream Net, NOAA's status reviews, and information reported by various state agencies. In the 2014 contract year, the YN staff recognized that for the STAR project to assist with local adaptive management decisions and to generate timely summaries, there was a need for greater flexibility and responsiveness to information requests. Therefore, in 2014, in addition to completion of the high-level summary reports, we developed the groundwork for the mid-layer of the information query and reporting system (STAR Information System) and conducted a pilot for  the more detailed bottom layer of the reporting system.

In FY15 the mid-layer of information summary tools was further developed to suit staff needs, and the bottom (source) layer was further populated. Products include technical information summaries at the assessment unit and subbasin level (e.g., tables, graphs, and maps summarizing project implementation information and associated estimated benefits for a specified region), and user defined or ad-hoc reports. The staff can query the system themselves or the STAR coordinator can extract the requested information. The system has been useful in responding to managers' and leaders' information requests. During 2015 STAR project staff began to add the remaining H information to the STAR Information System, inclusive of all YN Accord-funded projects. The addition of the remaining Hs will lead to better informed management and leadership on all priority fisheries restoration topics. These details  include: new habitat/watershed functionality rankings from expert panels (similar to 2008 Accord Appendix G) for the Yakima and Klickitat subbasin by assessment unit, and limiting factor information. STAR is starting to add priority RM&E information in order for managers to assess if any restoration response is detectible, first on a pilot basis to assess summary priorities.
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Current Contract

Building on what was accomplished and learned during FY2015 STAR-IMS implementation, the contract manager will continue in FY2016 to develop and populate the detailed and mid-level system to include a larger suite of project and monitoring information, and to update information that was entered in the previous year. The system will continue to be developed in an iterative manner so that efforts can build upon progress and remain focused on priority products most useful for staff. The habitat section will continue to be updated and refined, with the addition of more detailed information about potential outcomes and benefits, such as updated expert panel assessments and priority habitat and species RM&E status and trend summaries. Species status and trends and (basic) production project implementation information, and continuing hydrosystem improvements will also be updated. This information will be used to populate an updated version of the YN Fisheries Comprehensive Status and Trends report, due for release in the first half of 2016. This report will help inform staff and leadership with updates on implementation progress and potential benefits of the 2008 Accord funded projects. If time allows, STAR may begin to integrate some (basic) project information for some non-BPA funded project information that complements YN Accord projects, in order to help support better-integrated restoration planning and the evaluation of proposed work into the future.

The web-enabled STAR-IMS improves reporting efficiencies, consistency, information security, timeliness and accessibility within a secure environment. The system allows for increased collaboration with other regional information management efforts. This will assist in improving data management across the Yakama Nation Fisheries program as a whole and in sharing with partners. In 2016, STAR proposes to help test implementation of priority STAR-IMS information summary components and tools for use by other projects within the program. The system is flexible and can be adapted to many uses, such as generating automated summaries for fish passage reporting requirements, and improved documentation, transparency and consistency of RM&E information. This will better position the YN for potential participation in regional information sharing needs and requirements. In addition, STAR will begin to explore sharing priority information summaries generated from the STAR-IMS system to the general public, likely through the yakamafish-nsn.gov website.
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Future Direction / Potential Challenges

In FY2017 we will continue to develop and update the STAR Information System and its products by: a) continuing to incorporate updates to Accord funded project information; b) updating status and trend information for priority species; c) update priority RM&E status and trend datasets for targeted locations to help track potential restoration response; d) incorporate any updated information from the expert panel evaluative process; and e) include in summaries some priority non-BPA funded project information that complements YN Accord projects for the entire treaty trust natural resource use area. Reporting requests continue for all of the information that informs restoration planning and prioritization decisions, since impacts and benefits of Accord and non-Accord funded projects do not occur in isolation, as well as for continued improvement in our ability to track benefits and support future effectiveness evaluations. In FY2017 we will also update the high-level status reports, as well as maintain and update other levels of the STAR Information System.

This carefully designed approach will ensure that the STAR Information System is capable of managing information that is current so that sound decisions are made about projects in support the FCRPS BiOp. The STAR Information System and its associated reports are essential to the YN for: a) validating that Accord-funded activities are providing the benefits and improvements anticipated under the BiOp, b) supporting adaptive management to derive maximum project benefit, and c) instilling improved efficiency, security and timeliness in information processing and reporting. The STAR products have been developed to meet the needs of the YN’s leaders, program and project managers for these purposes.