Contract Description: The Integrated Status and Effectiveness Monitoring Program (ISEMP, 2003-017-00) is an ongoing collaborative effort to design, test, implement and evaluate Status and Trends Monitoring for salmon and steelhead populations and their habitat, and watershed-scale Effectiveness Monitoring for management actions impacting salmon and steelhead populations and habitat in the Interior Columbia River Basin.

ISEMP explicitly addresses work requirements of many 2008 FCRPS Biological Opinion RPAs (56.1, 56.2, 56.3, 57.1, 57.2, 57.3, 57.4, 57.5) and is directly related to additional 2008 FCRPS Biological Opinion implementation strategy requirements and recommendations. ISEMP takes a pilot-project approach to the research and development of monitoring by implementing experimental programs in several major subbasins of the Interior Columbia: the Wenatchee, Entiat, Methow, John Day, South Fork Salmon and Lemhi River basins. The overall goal of the project is to provide regional salmon management agencies with the data, information and tools necessary to design efficient and effective monitoring programs.

Specifically, ISEMP generates quantitative guidance on and examples of: the robustness and limitations of population and habitat monitoring protocols, indicators and metrics; sampling design approaches for the distribution of monitoring effort in time and space; analytical approaches to the evaluation of monitoring data, information and programs; effective data management and communication designs that support the use, standardization and compilation of implementation, compliance, status, trends and effectiveness monitoring data by regional data generators and decision makers; and finally the design and implementation of watershed-scale restoration actions to maximize both the biological impact and associated learning opportunities resulting from the design and implementation strategy.

Through its work to date, ISEMP has developed expertise in the coordination and implementation of large-scale monitoring data collection programs. Applying this experience, ISEMP coordinates the installation, maintenance and calibration of in-stream PIT tag arrays across the Snake River basin and is designing and coordinating the implementation of a Columbia River basin-wide stream habitat status and trends monitoring. These programmatic implementation facets of ISEMP leverage previous experience with logistics and social factors to effectively implement comprehensive, standardized monitoring research and development at an unprecedented scale.  

This contract is one of several contracts that will implement this project.

The final report for this contract will contain data that will 1) be submitted to NOAA Fisheries (also a contractor under this project) for use in a project level integrated Annual Report and 2) be submitted to BPA as a contract final report according to the terms of this contract.  Quantitative Consultants, Inc. role has been, and continues to be, to enable the Bonneville Power Administration to implement Project #2003-017-00 in the Salmon River subbasin and other pilot subbasins.

The ISEMP project relies heavily on instream PIT tag detection systems (IPTDS) to generate estimates of adult and juvenile abundance, survival, and distribution. Unlike many data collection approaches, IPTDS technology is commonly deployed in remote locations with limited seasonal access with the expectation that IPTDS infrastructure will operate autonomously in a reliable and continuous fashion. Thus the ability to remotely monitor site diagnostics and data in real-time is critical to the effective use of IPTDS technology. Beginning in 2009, ISEMP has tested and developed IPTDS components to identify a reliable and cost-effective suite of standardized infrastructure that supports real-time site diagnostics and data access. Additionally, ISEMP has developed an automated process for data upload, reduction, parsing, and distribution to regional databases (e.g., PTAGIS).  In 2011, the scope of ISEMP was expanded to coordinate the installation and long-term administration of instream PIT Tag arrays in the South Fork Clearwater River, Lolo Creek, the Grande Ronde River, Joseph Creek, the Imnaha River, and the mainstem upper Salmon River. Additionally, ISEMP was tasked to undertake the operation and administration of existing PIT tag arrays in Valley Creek (upper Salmon River) and Big Creek (Middle Fork Salmon River). ISEMP was identified as the project lead for this work owing to efforts beginning in 2005 to implement instream PIT tag arrays in the South Fork Salmon River and Lemhi Rivers as part of the ISEMP project. In concert with the installation and operation of these arrays, ISEMP, in cooperation with the Nez Perce Tribe, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, PTAGIS, NOAA, and Biomark has undertaken the development of standardized data storage/retrieval and analysis approaches specifically for adult and juvenile interrogation data generated by instream PIT tag array systems.

The Salmon portion of the ISEMP project began in 2005 with the completion of a study design (attached and available at http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/research/divisions/cbd/mathbio/isemp/docs_salmon.cfm#2005), which received a positive review by the Independent Scientific Review Panel in 2006 (ISRP 2006-1; attached and available at http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/research/divisions/cbd/mathbio/isemp/docs_salmon.cfm#2005). Implementation of the ISEMP project in the Salmon subbasin was funded in FY2008, with on-the-ground actions commencing in FY2009.