FY 2000 proposal 198909800

Section 1. Administrative

Project location

Reasonable and Prudent Alternatives (RPAs)

Section 2. Past accomplishments

Section 3. Relationships to other projects

Section 4. Budget for Planning and Design phase

Task-based budget

Outyear objectives-based budget

Outyear budgets for Planning and Design phase

Section 5. Budget for Construction and Implementation phase

Task-based budget

Outyear objectives-based budget

Outyear budgets for Construction and Implementation phase

Section 6. Budget for Operations and Maintenance phase

Task-based budget

Outyear objectives-based budget

Outyear budgets for Operations and Maintenance phase

Section 7. Budget for Monitoring and Evaluation phase

Task-based budget

Outyear objectives-based budget

Outyear budgets for Monitoring and Evaluation phase

Section 8. Estimated budget summary

Itemized budget

Total estimated budget

Cost sharing

Other budget explanation

Schedule Constraints: The continued decline of spring/summer chinook salmon returning to Idaho result in insufficient adult returns to provide target supplementation treatments.

Reviews and recommendations

This information was not provided on the original proposals, but was generated during the review process.

Comment:

Comments: This is Idaho Fish and Game's portion of the supplementation study in Johns Creek, Crooked River, American River, Red River, White Cap Creek, Crooked Fork Creek, Brushy Fork Creek, Colt Killed Creek, and Big Flat Creek in the Clearwater Drainage. In the Salmon River drainage, it also includes mid-South Fork Salmon River, Sulphur Creek, Marsh Creek drainage, North Fork Salmon River, Lemhi River, Pahsimeroi River, Upper Salmon River, and Alturas Lake Creek.

This proposal provides an excellent discussion of statistical analysis – assumptions and procedures. There is strong integration with other efforts including referencing points of debate in the literature and describing sources of uncertainty. The proposal provides an excellent discussion on the issue of supplementation.

The abstract indicates that the project assumes at the outset that supplementation is a worthwhile procedure, and that problems with it found in evaluation will be "fixed," rather than taking the more responsible outlook that supplementation may or may not be a good thing, and that if insurmountable problems with it (unavoidable, fatal flaws) are found, it will be abandoned. Study of natural populations is only vaguely mentioned. Such study ought to be emphasized as the major basis of comparison for the supplemented populations. Otherwise, the research questions posed are apt.

The methods outlined cover most of the necessities in a general way, but specifics are lacking, e.g, Task 1.e, estimate late-summer parr densities from snorkeling surveys. How will the estimation be calculated? How will sample areas be chosen? How will these areas be covered by the divers (and under what standardized conditions of weather, time of day, time of night); what data will be recorded; and by what methods of calculation will the data be converted to density estimates? Unless such questions are answered, the appropriateness of the methods cannot be judged. The one authority (Schaeffer et al. 1979) on sampling shown for this task in companion proposals in the 89098 series is not referenced in this project's proposal, and, in any event, does not appear on the basis of its title to be fully appropriate. The wording of Task 1.h is unclear: "Compare natural production or supplements populations to unsupplemented populations and baseline data." This sounds undecided about what sorts of populations to compare with what other sorts. And why even consider comparing natural production with unsupplemented populations?--aren't the two things identical?

The specific part (treatment or control) each of these streams plays in the study is not presented, but the "Umbrella Proposal" outlines what appear to be reasonable procedures for addressing problems in the analysis. By now at least a preliminary analysis should now be available to provide a basis for a project assessment. Data from the three parts of the study should be compiled and analyzed as soon as possible, and subjected to a rigorous review. The review should include an assessment of the probability that the goals can be attained under present conditions for anadromous species in the basin.

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Sponsor comments: See comment at Council's website