The goal of this project is to facilitate the estuary/ocean subgroup (EOS) and related activities for federal research, monitoring, and evaluation (RME) in the lower Columbia River, estuary, and ocean and thereby aid the action agencies in estuary-related aspects of implementation of the 2008 Biological Opinion (BiOp) on Operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System.

Comprehensive RME by the Action Agencies (Bonneville Power Administration [BPA] and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), as stipulated in the 2008 BiOp, is ongoing in earnest.  This process includes the EOS, whose members include the Action Agencies, the Estuary Partnership, NMFS, and PNNL.  Since 2002, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been contracted annually by BPA to facilitate the EOS.  A major milestone for the EOS was completion of the Estuary RME Program document  in January 2008.  The framework and many of the elements from the Estuary RME Program were built into the BiOp and vice versa.

This scope of work covers six estuary/ocean RME topics during FY10.  First, the EOS will continue to meet to coordinate implementation of the federal estuary RME effort.  The EOS meetings will require facilitation and documentation.  Second, the BiOp’s Reasonable and Prudent Alternative No. 37 (NMFS 2008) calls for the Action Agencies to convene an Expert Regional Technical Group (ERTG) to use “…habitat metrics to determine the estimated change in survival…” resulting from off-site mitigation actions in the lower river and estuary.  The project sponsor will work cooperatively with the Action Agencies to continue work of the ERTG initiated in FY09 by convening periodic meetings to assess survival benefits from estuarine habitat restoration.  Third, estuary/ocean RME is conducted by numerous research organizations through multiple projects funded by several agencies.  To assure efficiency, avoid redundancy, and share results for their common good, coordination meeting of estuary/ocean RME participants is necessary; this coordination meeting will be steered through the EOS.  In addition, the biennial Columbia River Estuary Conference, planned for April 2010 in Astoria, Oregon, will be coordinated through the EOS.  Fourth, federal RME efforts regionally are coordinated through the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership (PNAMP), an assemblage of federal, state, and tribal agencies whose goal is “…to coordinate important scientific information at the appropriate scales needed to inform public policy and resource management decisions.”   PNAMP has an integrated status and trends monitoring effort focused on the lower Columbia River that will require coordination with the EOS.  Fifth, the Estuary Restoration Prioritization Strategy was started by BPA in 2009 will require input from the perspective of estuary RME.  And, sixth, information from the RME coordination efforts and meetings, along with technical reports and peer-reviewed publications, will form the basis for an initial roll-up or synthesis report.  In sum, the EOS and related activities are essential to implementation of estuary/ocean RME as required by the 2008 BiOp.