Nov 13, 2009: Request for comment

In September 2009, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council received a subbasin plan for the Bitterroot subbasin as a recommended amendment to the Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. The Montana Water Trust recommended the Bitterroot subbasin plan, which was developed in 2008 and 2009 by a number of agencies, groups and entities in the Bitterroot subbasin.

The Council now proposes to amend the Fish and Wildlife Program to incorporate the management plan portions of the recommended Bitterroot subbasin plan.

For the next 90 days, the Council welcomes comments on the proposed Bitterroot subbasin plan and the Independent Scientific Review Panel’s comments on the plan. The Council hopes to focus comments on the proposed plan as recommended and on the idea of incorporating it into the program. But people are also free under Section 4(h) of the Northwest Power Act to recommend alternative provisions for the subbasin plan or even an entirely different subbasin plan for the subbasin. Additional information about the requirements for subbasin plans can be found in Part VI of the Council’s 2009 Fish and Wildlife Program and at the Subbasin Plans page on the Council's website. 

Comments or recommendations related to the proposed subbasin plan for the Bitterroot subbasin must be submitted to the Council by February 11, 2010 to ensure consideration by the Council. See the sidebar on web page http://www.nwcouncil.org/fw/subbasinplanning/bb.htm for how to comment.

Background

Under the Northwest Power Act, Congress charged the Council with developing and periodically amending a fish and wildlife program for the Columbia River Basin to protect, mitigate and enhance fish and wildlife affected by the development and operation of hydroelectric facilities while assuring the Pacific Northwest an adequate, efficient, economical and reliable power supply. The Council adopted the most recent version of its Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program in February 2009.

The Fish and Wildlife Program currently includes management plans for fifty-seven Columbia River subbasins, including mainstem reaches and the estuary. The Council adopted the existing subbasin plans into the program following an extensive subbasin planning and program amendment process from 2002-05, described in detail in "Subbasin Plan Amendments: Findings and Respoonses to Comments." 

Subbasin Plans contain the Fish and Wildlife Program’s specific objectives and measures for the tributary subbasins, specific mainstem reaches, and the Columbia River Estuary. Each plan contains a vision and biological objectives for that subbasin and identifies strategies necessary to protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife in that subbasin. The subbasin plans thus reflect local policies and priorities while remaining consistent with the basinwide vision, biological objectives, and strategies.

Subbasin plans provide the basis for review of most fish and wildlife projects proposed for funding to implement the Fish and Wildlife Program. The Council expects that projects implemented through the program will be consistent with the goals, limiting factors, and actions indentified in the subbasin plans.

No subbasin plan for the Bitterroot subbasin was submitted during the 2004-2005 program subbasin plan amendment process. Aware that local planners in the area were working to develop such plans, the Council agreed in the 2008 Fish and Wildlife Program to consider any plans for the subbasin when it was developed. Meanwhile, the Council continues to support the development of plans for those remaining subbasins without subbasin plans.