General Overview for Upper Columbia BPA contract:
A unique well coordinated standardized monitoring and evaluation program(s) exists in the Upper Columbia River Basin.  Monitoring and evaluation programs are funded by a combination of  federal (BPA, BOR, USFWS), State, Tribal, and regional (PUDs) entities.  WDFW will be the research lead for the project and obtain all necessary environmental compliance permits for the project.  Colville Confederated Tribes will be the primary contractor for the Okanogan Basin.  While all these various program contribute data to estimate VSP parameters for steelhead and spring Chinook salmon, these programs also share common deficiencies related to precision and accuracy of the abundance estimates.  Existing M & E activities combined with recent advances in PIT tag technology provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the data generated in order to make proper management decisions concerning ESA listed species.  The overall objectives of the project are to: 1) estimate run escapement of hatchery and wild steelhead in each of the four primary populations, 2) estimate the precision of redd counts for both steelhead and spring Chinook and 3) evaluate the accuracy of the steelhead spawning ground survey design and determine the proportion of spawners outside the survey area.  In 2014, we also intend to conduct a steelhead radio telemetry study to independently validate estimates generated from PIT tags and to estimate steelhead population characteristics (overwinter survival, number of redds per female).  These tasks address in part or fully the critical uncertainties identified under Supplementation in the Columbia River Basin Research Plan (2006-03) and steelhead population characteristics (abundance, productivity, and ratio of hatchery fish) under the Fish and Wildlife Program.  Additionally, all of the studies in this proposal are directly consistent with RPAs for the FCRPS BiOp.

Specific to CR - 234541:  
Considerable effort and expense has gone into marking salmonids with PIT tags and detecting them as they pass through detection facilities. The Upper Columbia has rapidly expanded our effort to deploy remote PIT tag detection arrays through the efforts of ISEMP (Wenatchee and Entiat), the BOR and USGS (Methow), and the PUD hatchery M & E programs. Individual fish are detected at multiple locations throughout their life cycle providing an opportunity to observe movement and life history patterns that we have never been able to before. Likewise, summary information from PIT tag detection arrays is also very valuable and unique in that we can evaluate how individuals and groups (populations, subpopulations) of fish are using particular areas. Recording and uploading all of this data “real time” is necessary for the complex questions that need answering. Quantitative Consultants Inc. (QCI) will provide the knowledge and expertise for implementation of all periphery hardware including the software for automating PIT tag data downloads and uploads to PTAGIS including an interface for each site on the evaluators desktop.  QCI will also provide steelhead modeling tools providing the summary analysis and population level estimates of PIT tag detections at stream specific arrays.