The responses do little to diminish the ISRP concerns, in some cases avoiding the concerns entirely. The proposal and response are inadequate. The ISRP maintains its preliminary recommendation of "Not fundable."

ISRP's preliminary comments (June 2006): The proposal was inadequately presented. Justification for the $5M requested needs to be more carefully made before this project can meet the ISRP review criteria. As written, with exception of Little Klickitat falls study, this is a generic proposal that could fit (or really, not fit) almost any catchment in the arid portion of Columbia system. It is not specific to the Klickitat, Little Klickitat, or Rock creek. It mentions that a few habitat surveys have been done but ignores their results. It shows inadequate understanding of existing habitat, fish and wildlife, and potential for restoration/enhancement. The ISRP notes that some of the road relocation/sediment reduction strategies in the County could be beneficial to the fish and wildlife resources. However, the proposal does not adequately demonstrate the priority of these strategies or the actual benefits to fish and wildlife. A large portion of the proposal is to determine if steelhead pass Little Klickitat Falls.

Proposal readability suffers greatly from having 34 pages of objectives and methods in tabular form. The proposal would be improved by a clearer separation of the watershed assessment and fish passage/monitoring components. Portions of the proposal appear redundant with assessments done in Lower Klickitat by the Yakama Nation. The proposal does not provide evidence of collaboration with the Yakama Nation.

There is major expenditure associated with reducing the sediment input from roads. The ISRP is concerned over the following quote from the proposal summary Work Elements section: "Traffic is the number one factor affecting sediment inputs to streams; hence, little used roads are seldom major contributors of sediment." The concern is that this is a fundamental misunderstanding that could affect any road system assessment. Sediment input to streams is caused by poorly designed and maintained roads, especially their drainage ditches and culverts, whatever the frequency of use.

Klickitat County raises a potential issue concerning public availability of data collected with BPA funds that deserves the Council's inquiry: "The Klickitat Management Plan emphasizes the need for quality control and requires that all data collected in support of the program be available to the public. Data collected in the past using BPA funds have been treated as proprietary in most cases. Hence, that data is not available to support public policy, public decisions regarding habitat improvement, and/or habitat protection."