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Program and the development of its Strategy for Salmon. The major strength of the Strategy 

 is its basinwide approach to addressing impacts at every stage of the life cycle for all 

 activities that impact salmon. 



While the framework the Council established has identified all the necessary elements for an 

 effective recovery and rebuilding effort, the measure of its success will depend on future 

 actions. For example, the Council was unable to establish certain elements of rebuilding 

 plans, including rebuilding targets for all salmon stocks, and rebuilding schedules, as well as 

 survival targets, and performance standards. 



Successfully fleshing out these important details of rebuilding plans will require sufficient 

 funding from the Bonneville Power Administration (Bonneville) and others, the cooperation 

 of many implementing agencies, and input from the National Marine Fisheries Service's 

 (NMFS) recovery planning effort. 



In its 1993 biological opinion for operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System, 

 NMFS included a number of measures necessary to achieve stability of listed Snake River 

 salmon populations that went beyond the Council's Strategy. For example, NMFS 

 established flow targets for both the spring and summer juvenile migration periods that 

 exceeded Council measures "aimed at providing" certain flows in the Snake and Columbia 

 rivers through only June 15. This year was the first time in history that the Columbia River 

 system was operated to meet hard flow targets for salmon. We expect that additional flow 

 related measures will have to be revisited by the Council in light of NMFS's 1993 biological 

 opinion and in response to future biological opinions for salmon and other listed species. 



The Council's mandate is to rebuild all anadromous fish stocks impacted by hydropower 

 development to protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife populations to achieve 

 healthy and harvestable populations. This will necessitate actions beyond the requirements 

 for population stabilization under the Endangered Species Act. 



