The Columbia River Operations and Administration contract will provide the necessary support to the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs to fund a Coordinator position to coordinate tribal accord projects with the many forums of the Columbia River Basin, to the extent they relate to the Accords, United States v. Oregon, US – Canada Treaty, Regional Implementation Oversight Group, Northwest Power and Conservation Council, CRITFC coordination, Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority, ACOE and BOR operations, Willamette BiOp, Mid Columbia Recovery Plan Steering Committee, Pacific lamprey coordination.  The Coordinator will represent the CTWS in the forum and policy level authority on behalf of the CTWS.  The Coordinator will provide policy and technical recommendations to Tribal Council and the Branch of Natural Resources as necessary.  Funds from this contract will partially support an Administrative Assistant and Fisheries Department Manager to provide coordination and administrative support to Accord projects.  This includes integration of Accord projects with other Branch of Natural Resource duties and providing contracting, travel and payroll processing support.  Funds from this project will also partially fund a database coordinator to design and implement databases for which accord data can be stored, analyzed and accessed to meet coordinated assessments goals.

The Regional Implementation Oversight Group (RIOG) is the forum for senior policy level representation to make policy level decisions regarding the implementation and effectiveness of the Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinion and other related BO's.  The RIOG is composed of the:

Five regional federal agencies:  NOAA, BPA, the Bureau, the Corps and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Four state governors:  Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
Tribal governments:  Colville, Spokane, Kootenai, Warm Springs, Umatilla, Yakama, Nez Perce, Kalispel and Salish-Kootenai.