CCR- 47311 provides a 3 month extension to this contract valued at $192,600. Work is only extended/funded for the following WEs: B, G, H, I, J and L.  This extension was negotiated by CRITFC and the BPA CO to provide additional time to negotiate the terms of the Master Agreement, and inclusion of work elements utilizing a unmanned aerial drone.


The purpose of this work is to continue the development of a long-term, high quality monitoring program in two watersheds supporting listed Snake River spring Chinook that are key to the viability of the major population group of the Grande Ronde subbasin. This program involves assessment of standard fish habitat conditions but includes a variety of other monitoring aims including, for example: assessment of abundance, distribution, and growth of juvenile salmonids and other fish species; development of water temperature models; development of low flow models; mapping of current and potential natural riparian vegetation; life cycle modeling; modeling of fish/habitat relationships and macroinvertebrate/habitat relationships using various statistical procedures; analysis of land use impacts on aquatic habitat conditions; development of a database of restoration activities; etc. The overall program intends to integrate trends in habitat quantity and quality to predict survival trends of the listed spring Chinook. An equal purpose is to assess whether combined habitat restoration actions plus natural recovery capacity of the stream systems is sufficient to cause net habitat improvement, accounting for continued land uses in the basins and climate change. As stated in the original project proposal, the testing and application of methodologies developed here to other watersheds of the Columbia River basin will help determine their validity in other geographic areas, contributing to habitat assessment approaches that are standardized throughout the region.