The purpose of this grant is to provide funding assistance to the University of Idaho to develop the infrastructure necessary to perform research in the areas of genetics, pathology, and ecological interactions and to provide distance-learning capabilities.

On July 20, 2000, the CRITFC and the University of Idaho signed a memorandum of agreement to establish a collaborative research program focusing on fish culture, pathology, genetics, supplementation research, and education. The program will be based at the University of Idaho's Hagerman Fish Culture Experiment Station (HFCES) located near Hagerman, Idaho. This proposal is designed to provide additional facilities at HFCES to enhance the capacity to develop monitoring and evaluation tools and perform research that can guide the implementation of the NPPC Fish and Wildlife Program. This component provides the facilities that are necessary to implement the development of population management plans including Benefit Risk Analyses (B/RA), Research, Monitoring and Evaluation plans (RM&E), and Hatchery and Genetic management Plans (HGMP) that are described in following sections of this proposal.