Upper Columbia Reg. Plan Implementation

The Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery Board (UCSRB) addresses salmon recovery through locally based efforts that include public involvement and the integration of sound scientific information. The Upper Columbia River Salmon Recovery Region is comprised of salmon-bearing streams in Chelan, Douglas, and Okanogan counties. The UCSRB is working to help our communities meet the recovery goals of the region by balancing the needs of the economy, salmon and the community. The UCSRB is composed of representatives from Chelan, Douglas and Okanogan counties, the Colville Confederated Tribes and the Yakama Nation. The UCSRB fosters collaboration and cooperation among entities participating in salmon recovery activities in the Upper Columbia region. The UCSRBs regional approach efficiently integrates local, state and federal programs, identifies where recovery funds need to be applied, coordinates habitat, hatchery, harvest, and hydropower components as they relate to salmon recovery, and informs organizations, industry, and the general public. A key goal of the UCSRB is to ensure that the plan is implemented in a voluntary manner. In its efforts this biennium, the UCSRB supported collaborative decision-making by organizing and facilitating meetings of the board, of its Regional Technical Team, of its Implementation Team, and began an All-H Workgroup effort. Additionally, the UCSRB has worked with the local Watershed Action Teams to support development of an online recovery plan implementation schedule and tracking tool. UCSRB staff has also worked with Action Agencies and regional Tribes to facilitate implementation of the Federal Columbia River Power System biological opinion. These efforts have resulted in an annual updated Recovery Plan implementation schedule; multi-year action plans; and implementation of a regional adaptive management framework. In efforts to coordinate monitoring and adaptive management, UCSRB staff provided significant input to HWS modifications. Additionally, UCSRB developed a list of consistent metrics across different reporting mechanisms; developed a regional guide for HWS users in order to ensure consistent data entry; refined list of identified data gaps and implemented a regional adaptive management framework.

The goal of the project is to encourage local involvement and local solutions to salmon recovery. The objective of the project is to provide capacity building at the regional level to develop salmon recovery plans.