 | RESCAT-2007-407-00 | Proposal Version 1 | Existing Project | Pending BPA Response | 2007-407-00 | Upper Snake River Tribe (USRT) Coordination | The primary goal USRT is to facilitate Tribal unity to protect and nurture all Compacting Tribes’ rights, languages, cultures and traditions in addressing issues related to the Upper Snake River Basin. The member tribes of USRT include the Burns Paiute Tribe, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, and Shoshone-Paiute Tribes, and the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe. USRT will ensure the protection, enhancement and restoration of the Tribes’ rights, resources, and activities that are reserved by Treaties and Executive Orders, protected by federal laws and agreements, or are the subject of aboriginal claims asserted by the Tribes. This project proposal requests funding from BPA to facilitate and coordinate the USRT participation in regional activities, involving implementation of the Fish and Wildlife Program. The USRT have identified fish and wildlife objectives in the NPCC's subbasin plans and will update them through the Program amendment process.
The Northwest Power Act directs the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NPCC) and Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to consult with the region’s appropriate Indian tribes in the development and the implementation of the Fish and Wildlife Program. The Power Act also calls for fish and wildlife management coordination (including funding) to assist protection, mitigation, and enhancement of fish and wildlife resources in the Columbia River Basin. Facilitation and coordination of USRT will assist the Council and BPA in achieving Fish and Wildlife Program objectives in a cost effective manner (i.e., planning coordination, project implementation coordination, etc.) consistent with the legal rights of the Tribes.
In 1980, in response to growing concerns about declining fish and wildlife populations and a predicted energy deficit, Congress passed the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act (Act). The Act created the NPCC and charged it with creating a program to “..protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife..on the Columbia and its tributaries, affected by the development, and operation of [hydroelectric projects] while assuring the Pacific Northwest an adequate, efficient, economical, and reliable power supply..” [Section 4.(h)(5)]. To implement the NPCC’s Program, the Act directed the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to provide funding [Section 4.(h)(10)(A)]. The NPCC adopted the first Program in 1982 and, through fish and wildlife manager and public participation, amended it, and included subbasin plans.
The Act directs the BPA to “exercise such responsibilities [for operating the hydropower system]..to adequately protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife, including related spawning grounds and habitat, affected by such projects or facilities in a manner that provides equitable treatment for such fish and wildlife with other purposes for which such system and facilities are managed and operated” [Section 4.(h)(11)(A)]. Section 4.(h)(11)(B) directs the BPA to consult with the fish and wildlife agencies and tribes “in carrying out the provisions of this paragraph [Section 4.(h)(11)(A)] and shall, to the greatest extent practicable, coordinate their actions.”
A 2007 workgroup developed a Regional Coordination definitions document for the Fish and Wildlife Program (FinalCoordinationDefinitionsMbrsApproved_7Nov2007.doc) which stated: Coordination is the “Sovereigns’ ability to represent its interests and engage in the processes that affect those interests as they relate to the Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. Coordination is done at various levels among and between fish and wildlife managers and tribes, BPA, NPCC, and various other entities as they relate to the Program.” In the 2009 Program, the NPCC acknowledged "..knowledge of the plans and activities of other regional participants is essential for the Council to ensure that the projects it recommends for funding are coordinated with and do not duplicate the actions of others."
The three original USRT Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, Shoshone-Paiute Tribes, and the Burns Paiute Tribes have historically received BPA coordination funding in collaboration with USRT and CBFWA. However, the most recent active member in USRT; the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe (FMPST) have not received coordination funding to date. The FMPST is organized in accordance with Section 16 of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Prior to Euro-American contact, Indians whose decedents are members of the FMPST were nomadic and occupied a very large territory that included parts of what are now California, Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada. Aboriginal boundaries have been described as extending through well into the Columbia and Snake River drainages. The FMPST Indian Reservation, established on 14 August 1865, straddles the Nevada-Oregon border and is within the Great Basin and the Owyhee/Snake River watersheds. The Reservation grew in 1878 when Bannock, Northern Shoshone, and other Northern Paiute, left reservations in Idaho and Oregon to escape the famine and federal mismanagement and reside at Fort McDermitt. The FMPST vast aboriginal territory and shared subsistence use within the Columbia River Basin unites them with other modern day Columbia Basin Tribes. In 2010, because of their shared ancestry with the USRT and increased participation in Colombia Basin Fish and Wildlife activities the FMPST became Charter members of USRT. FMPST also petitioned membership in Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority (CBFWA) and a legal evaluation was completed to determine their eligibility. Legal analysis verified FMPST’s requirements for membership and they officially joined CBFWA at a members meeting in Boise in 2011.
Currently, the FMPST is a member of USRT and CBFWA, and an active co-participant in Columbia Basin fish and wildlife management and policy activities. The Northwest Power Act sets standards for which the Program measures must meet, including that they will “complement the existing and future activities of the Federal and region’s State fish and wildlife agencies and appropriate Indian tribes” [Section 4.(h)(6)(A)]; and, “be consistent with the legal rights of appropriate Indian tribes in the region” [Section 4.(h)(6)(D)]. In reviewing amendments to the Program, “the Council, in consultation with appropriate entities, shall resolve ..[any] inconsistency in the program giving due weight to the recommendations, expertise, and legal rights and responsibilities of the Federal and the region’s State fish and wildlife agencies and appropriate Indian tribes” [Section 4.(h)(7)]. Without funding, FMPST will not have the ability to participate fully in coordination or project related activities within the Program. This proposal will include a request for additional funding to facilitate the FMPST towards equal participation in the Program.
Although the Individual USRT tribes successfully execute fish, wildlife, land, air and/or water programs on their individual reservations, the Tribes have struggled with limited funding and technical capacity to assert a pro-active strategy to protect their rights and resources. By coordinating and consolidating common rights protection activities through the BPA funded Fish and Wildlife activities; USRT has lessened the stress on individual Tribal governments. USRT offices are located in downtown Boise, ID where a single focus point for USRT member tribes increases and improves communication to coordinate their natural resource related activities with Tribal governments separated by hundreds of miles within the upper Snake River Basin.
Work will be conducted by the Executive Director of USRT and, with the additional funding requested, a newly created Assistant Director position; Director of the USRT Fish and Wildlife Program. Coordination activities are accomplished through quarterly USRT Commission meetings, additional ad hoc USRT Commission meetings throughout the year, monthly USRT Technical Work Group meetings and subsequent product development, presentation and approval to USRT Commission. Attendance at NPCC, CBFWA, regional and basinwide forums and workgroups, and participation in other Columbia Basin Tribal, federal, and state government meetings where policies, programs, and actions that affect fish and wildlife are planned and implemented with reporting back to USRT Commission. Additionally, the new position/additional funding will allow for continued work on quantifying fish and wildlife impacts and losses incurred by FCRPS to help define BPA obligations for mitigation above Hells Canyon Dam and will seek other funding sources other than BPA for completion of the final document and will assist USRT tribes in tribal and project data coordination to regional data frameworks for annual reporting.
The effectiveness this work will be monitored following the Independent Scientific Review Panel Memorandum (ISRP 2007-14) which provided NPCC input on evaluation of regional coordination projects. In the memo “..ISRP recognizes that developing metrics for and conducting scientific reviews of coordination or administrative proposals is challenging, as evidence by the ISRP’s recommendation category for some of these proposals which was “administrative.” The ISRP also believes that different types of coordination and administrative proposals call for different reporting approaches.” The memo summarizes primary categories: metrics of output and metrics of impact. “Metrics of Output include numbers of meetings, numbers of participants, degree of representation among coordinated parties, information exchange reporting. Metrics of Impact include changes in behavior, value to the members, user evaluation of product utility, lack of redundancy, member assessment of effectiveness and impact, benefits to fish and wildlife of enhanced coordination activities (specific projects/resources benefited by project, effect of coordination). | Heather Ray (Inactive) | | | 10/25/2011 | 03/05/2014 | Heather Ray (Inactive) | Upper Snake River Tribes | Programmatic | None | Resident Fish, Regional Coordination, and Data Management Category Review | Resident Fish, Regional Coordination, and Data Management Categorical Review | BiOp |
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