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3.5 WHAT WOULD A FORUM LOOK LIKE IN ACTION 



This description of alternatives is necessarily brief. In order to illustrate what the 

 operatioi\s of a forum would be like in actual practice, a hypothetical scenario has been 

 prepared describing one of the alternatives - Forum 4 - and is provided below. This is 

 just for illustration purposes, and is not intended to prejudge the selection of any 

 particular alternative. 



A Hypothetical Scenario 

 THE FEDERAL CONSULTATION FORUM 



By 1995, the five Federal agencies with jurisdiction for Federal action on 

 the Columbia River had signed an agreement outlining a joint planning 

 cycle permitting planning decisions of all the agencies to be made in the 

 same time frame, and defining the consultation process between the 

 agencies. 



Under this agreement, each agency agreed to annually designate a staff 

 person who would be a full-time member of a Columbia River planning 

 and operations team. This team was set up to be in existence for a 

 minimum of two years. During the first year the team would be the staff 

 responsible for planning the operations for the follovkfing year, subject to 

 decisionmaking by the five agencies. During the second year the team 

 would actually manage the operations of the river based on the plan it 

 developed. The team would then be responsible for evaluating how well 

 the actual operations succeeded in meeting the objectives of the plan. 



Final Draft - September 15, 1993 64 



