Trout Unlimited (TU) will coordinate and write a subbasin plan for the Blackfoot Watershed.  This contract funds the initial planning, coordination, data gathering and analysis of the subbasin planning process, and covers the activities from  9.1.08 through 8.31.09  In 2000, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council called for subbasin plans based on local involvement to be adopted into their Fish and Wildlife Program in order to guide future BPA project funding. The Blackfoot Watershed is now one of only four subbasins in the Columbia Basin without a plan.  This watershed covers about 1.5 million acres and runs for approximately 132 miles from the Continental Divide  to the Clark Fork River near Missoula.

  A Blackfoot Sub-basin Plan will help guide and prioritize future BPA investments, and ensure that those investments are working toward high-priority restoration objectives for the basin.   This contract will fund the planning and coordination  efforts,  including a thorough analysis of existing watershed assessments, inventories, projects and research in the Blackfoot sub-basin.  Activities will include information and data-gathering from all relevant public and private stakeholders and on expanding on previous planning efforts to create a comprehensive summary of fish and wildlife resources and restoration needs in the Blackfoot sub-basin.  
The completed subbasin plan will prove invaluable for synthesizing information in this watershed, as well as for prioritizing future restoration and management efforts of BPA-funded programs and for local, state, federal, or tribal fish and wildlife programs.  In addition, this planning process will provide stakeholders with the opportunity to comprehensively view the historical and existing habitat conditions, integrate the projects and programs currently underway, and coordinate future management efforts.