Project goal:
Monitoring and Evaluation of anadromous fish at a sub-basin scale requires a long-term commitment as most outcomes will not be realized for 7 to 20+ years.  Within the first 7 years of this projects (prior to 2011) will be used to establish the program, all it's elements and establish a baseline to compare with future data collection. This project is designed to ultimately achieve these goals:

1.  Determine if there is a meaningful biological change at the population scale for summer/fall, spring Chinook, sockeye, and steelhead in the Okanogan basin (7-20+ year time frame).  

2.  Determine if there is a meaningful change in selected physical habitat parameters over time (12-20+ year time frame).

3.  Determine if selected water quality parameters are changing over time in the Okanogan basin (5-20+ year time frame).

4. Determine if change is occurring in VSP parameter from the cumulative habitat restoration actions occurring throughout the Okanogan basin (12-20+ year time frame).

5. Administer contracts and ensure that this effort continues (long-term) in a scientifically sound manner that is closely coordinated across the Okanogan River Basin, Geo-political boundaries, Upper Columbia ESU, Columbia River basin, and Pacific Northwest region (20+ year time frame).

This program is designed to address a multitude of questions and at the same time eliminate duplication of work, reduce costs, and increase monitoring efficiency.  The implementation of valid statistical designs, probabilistic sampling, standardized data collection protocols, consistent data reporting methods, and selection of sensitive indicators will increase monitoring efficacy.  For this program to be successful, all organizations involved must be willing to cooperate and freely share information.  Cooperation includes sharing monitoring responsibilities, adjusting or changing sampling methods to comport with standardized protocols, adhering to statistical design criteria, and strict use of informatics to distribute and archive data.  In those cases where the standardized method for measuring an indicator is different from what was used in the past, it may be necessary to measure the indicator with both methods for a few years so that a relationship can be developed between the two methods.  

Primary Goal for 2012 and 2013:
Continued implementation of existing standardized OBMEP protocols with adjustment made to improve analytical and reporting tools.  Up to now, our efforts have largely focused on development of the infrastructure to collect high quality data and establishing a baseline of status data upon which future comparisons can be based.  As we transition from our our first round of data collection into our second we can enhance understanding of the anadromous fish populations and habitat within the Okanogan River basin with expanded trend analysis that is primarily focused on summer steelhead.  These data can also be used in the Okanogan River basin as the basis for evaluating the overall effectiveness of salmon recovery and restoration projects.


Although we cannot hope to answer all possible management questions we will attempt to address as many fundamental questions related to management and recovery of anadromous salmonids as our funding allows.  Including basic uncertainties about targeted fish population processes, with respect to both the trends in abundance and the factors regulating salmonid population dynamics.  This program will help resource managers prescribe well coordinated management actions and evaluate diagnostic units where progress or or failures are occurring relative to measures of abundance, productivity, distribution, and trends.

The Colville Tribes have used, extended, and modified the structure and methods employed by the Monitoring Strategy for the Upper Columbia Basin (Hillman 2004) for use in the Okanogan subbasin in the design of the OBMEP program.  OBMEP is aligned tightly with the priorities expressed in documents and guideline put out by The Columbia Basin Monitoring and Evaluation Project (CSMEP), Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership (PNAMP), Northwest Power and Conservation Council's (NPCC) Fish and Wildlife Program, Subbasin Plans, NOAA Fisheries guidance, 2008 BIOP and monitoring appendix P, the Upper Columbia Salmon recovery Plan, Upper Columbia Biological Strategy, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Washington Department of Ecology, and the Independent Scientific Review Panel (ISRP).  
The Okanogan subbasin plan calls for its vision to be supported by nine priority themes that represent the large scale agreement between all stake holders within the subbasin. The eighth theme is “continue Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation” and OBMEP is specifically linked to this activity;  

“Continued Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation: To apply adaptive management and make informed decisions will require an on-going commitment to research, monitoring and evaluation. Research allows important questions to be answered in a scientific rather than subjective manner and allows the best possible decisions on how and why to take a specific course of action. A considerable lack of knowledge exists in the Okanogan and this situation will continue to exist without continued research efforts. Evaluation of monitoring data, remote sensing data, and information from areas outside the Okanogan subbasin will also provide a mechanism to determine if progress is being made toward achieving the priority themes, and objectives contained in the subbasin plan. To track progress and inaugurate an adaptive management process, the subbasin plan relies upon a sound monitoring framework outlined under the Okanogan Basin Monitoring and Evaluation Program (OBMEP). This program was developed concurrently with Bonneville and NOAA fisheries IMW pilot studies in the Wenatchee, John Day and Salmon River systems; with guidance provided by the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership; the Coordinated Systemwide Monitoring and Evaluation Projects; the federal Research Monitoring and Evaluation Program, and, is directly linked to the Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery plan as the monitoring vehicle for listed stocks in the Okanogan subbasin. This monitoring plan will also continue to evolve as the region continues toward a fully integrated regional monitoring approach, but has at its core, the ability to effectively track status and trend for fish populations and habitat indicators in the interim.  Specific monitoring elements targeting hatchery and wild fish performance, disease, genetics, fish morphology, ecological interactions and other parameters will be added as additional production programs come on line.”(Okanogan Subbasin Plan, Management Plan, page 9).

Within the Okanogan subbasin, independent research projects and piecemeal monitoring activities were conducted by various state, federal, tribal, agencies, and to some extent by watershed councils or landowners, until the creation of OBMEP. Today these efforts are coordinated into a cohesive overall framework for RM&E efforts related to salmon and steelhead fish stocks.

OBMEP is specifically designed to address status and trend monitoring for the Okanogan subbasin over the next 20+ years. Benefits to generating information on listed and non-listed fish will accrue in three different ways: (i) by supporting direct management of these species with respect to exploitation and recovery planning; (ii) by supporting the planning, development and implementation of restoration and recovery actions directly benefiting the listed and non-listed populations; and (iii) by supporting the planning, development and implementation of management actions indirectly impacting salmonid populations.

Sampling Design:

The Colville Tribes have used, extended, and modified the structure and methods employed by the Monitoring Strategy for the Upper Columbia Basin (Hillman 2004) for use in the Okanogan subbasin in the design of the OBMEP program.  OBMEP is aligned tightly with the priorities expressed in documents and guideline put out by The Columbia Basin Monitoring and Evaluation Project (CSMEP), Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership (PNAMP), Northwest Power and Conservation Council's (NPCC) Fish and Wildlife Program, Subbasin Plans, NOAA Fisheries guidance, 2008 BIOP and monitoring appendix P, the Upper Columbia Salmon recovery Plan, Upper Columbia Biological Strategy, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Washington Department of Ecology, and the Independent Scientific Review Panel (ISRP).  The intent of status/trend monitoring is to accurately describe existing conditions in the Okanogan River basin and to document changes in conditions over time. This requires temporal and spatial replication and probabilistic sampling. As adapted from Hillman (2004), we implemented the EMAP sampling framework, a statistically based and spatially explicit sampling design, to quantify trends in juvenile and adult salmonids and status and trends in stream and riparian habitats.  For more information see Hillman (2004).

In the Okanogan basin, EMAP sites were selected according to the generalized random tessellation stratified design (GRTS+) (Stevens 1997; Stevens and Olsen 1999; Stevens and Urquhart 2000; Stevens 2002).  Briefly, the GRTS design achieves a random, nearly regular sample point pattern via a random function that maps two-dimensional space onto a one-dimensional line (linear space).  A systematic sample is selected in the linear space, and the sample points are mapped back into two-dimensional space.  The GRTS design is used to select samples for all panels. OBMEP site selection process began with collaboration with Tony Olsen and the EPA regional office located in Corvallis, OR who provided the random sample of 300 possible sites. Once selected OBMEP then verified these sites for access, secured landowner permissions when necessary, and reduced the list to the 150 sites spilt between the United States and Canada portions of the Okanogan basin. A map of these sites can be obtained off our web-site at:  http://nrd.colvilletribes.com/obmep/uscansites.htm

The Monitoring Strategy for the Upper Columbia Basin (Hillman 2004) recommends a suite of biological and physical/environmental indicators suitable for status and trend monitoring. Not all indicators listed in the Hillman document are relevant for the Okanogan subbasin. The protocols provide general instructions for collecting data, but specific methodologies that alter temporal, spatial, and economic realities make sampling some of the indicators more feasible than others. The indicators selected and the methods used to collect these data were adapted from Hillman (2004).  Protocols were developed specifically for the Okanogan Basin Monitoring and Evaluation Project (OBMEP) to be compatible with both the Monitoring Strategy for the Upper Columbia Basin (Hillman 2004) and the Ecosystems Diagnosis and Treatment (EDT) model input fields. The EDT process was previously used to identify limiting factors for anadromous fish in the assessment portion of the Okanogan Subbasin Plan and its ongoing use will require periodic updates of these data to establish a baseline then future iterations by which to make trend comparisons.

To summarize data management activities to date, considerable investments have been made in developing a functional database system that allows for data to be collected in the field and assimilated with a minimum of man power and repetitive analysis. However, what remains to be completed is to connect this database with the regional data repositories like Stream-net. Work at this scale is beyond our scope but we acknowledged that OBMEP will play a roll in helping the region close this gap. OBMEP generates data and provides information, knowledge and expertise to BPA, NPCC, CSMEP, the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership (PNAMP) and other established regional monitoring programs in the Columbia River basin. We will continue to provide input and products derived from our own experiences in the Okanogan. On a more local scale, OBMEP provides information to state-wide salmon recovery efforts and regional forums across the upper Columbia ESU and Columbia Cascade province. We coordinate monitoring and evaluation efforts with the Upper Columbia Regional Technical Team and with the Wenatchee subbasin RM&E program (BPA #200301700). We work hard to ensure that data collected from our efforts can be “rolled-up” with data from other regional populations for broader, spatial scale application.

The Okanogan River is an international watershed and the OBMEP project does not stop at international borders.  We facilitate collecting seamless data by collaborating with the Okanogan Nation Alliance (ONA), who in turn facilitates collaboration with other Canadian stakeholders such as Environment Canada, the Ministry of Land, Water, and Air Protection, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. We developed clear guidance for the collection of all field data.  To vet our standardized field protocols, the Canadian effort in the Okanagan River basin was phased in one-year after data collection began in the United States portion of the Okanogan River basin.  By 2011,  Canada will have it's first full panel rotation completed. The phased approach allowed us to assess the compatibility of our guidance documents through field testing.   Within the Okanogan subbasin, our efforts are coordinated with other management agencies and stakeholder groups that are collecting information to ensure that no duplication of efforts occurs within this watershed. Data are consolidated within the OBMEP program and onto a server located at our offices and also distributed to NMFS, UCSRB, DART, and summarized into annual reports and presentations that are provided to BPA and other regional stakeholders on both sides of the border.

There have been numerous recent administrative and scientific calls for a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation program to provide consistent, region-wide information about the status of salmon populations and their response to management actions (Botkin et al. 2000, ISAB 2001, ISRP 2001).  In addition, the Biological Opinion on the Federal Columbia River Power System requires the development and implementation of a coordinated monitoring and evaluation program (NMFS 2000a).  The call for developing a consistent, region-wide monitoring program has been strong and widespread.  Once implemented, the OBMEP project increases our ability to conduct effective recovery planning and address a number of outstanding scientific agendas.  This comprehensive monitoring program provides a scientifically robust method for evaluating the status of the Okanogan River anadromous fish populations while contributing information essential for evaluating the ESU for progress toward recovery goals such as the de-listing criteria defined by the regional TRT’s (NMFS 2000b).  A basin-wide monitoring program also provides the means to develop and refine appropriate performance measures and standards for conservation actions, thus giving managers the information to quantitatively assess the impact that composite restoration actions have on fish populations. This work will help to address actions outlined in the NMFS 2000 Biological Opinion for the the Federal Columbia River Power System (Actions 180-184, 188, 190, 191, 193, and 195-7 specifically population and habitat status monitoring for anadromous salmonids within the Okanogan River.