Executive Summa 



Historically, salmon and 

 stccllicad migrated through 

 much of the Columbia 

 River Basin, an area the size of 

 France, that includes portions of 

 seven states and British Columbia. 

 These fish once spawned as far 

 uprixer in the Columbia as the 

 headwaters at Columbia Lake, Brit- 

 ish Columbia, 1,200 miles from the 

 mouth of the river near Astoria, 

 Oregon. Salmon and steelhead 

 migrated up the Snake River, the 

 Columbia's largest tributai"y, as far 

 as Shoshone Falls, 615 miles from 

 the confluence and more than 900 

 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The 

 Columbia River Basin also supported 

 numerous populations of resident fish 

 — those that don't migrate to the 

 ocean — and wildlife. 



Beginning in the late 1800s and 

 increasing from the 1930s on, there 

 was a large decline of salmon and 

 steelhead in the Columbia River and 

 its tributaries, from an estimated peak 

 of 10-16 million adult fish returning 



to the basin each year to about 1 nnl- 

 lion in recent years. While loss of 

 habitat, harvest, and variable ocean 

 conditions have all contributed to this 

 decline, it is estimated that the por- 

 tion of the decline attributable to 

 the construction and operation of 

 hydroelectric dams in the Columbia 

 River Basin is, on average, about 5 

 million to about I 1 million adult fish. 

 Hydroelectric dams also adversely 

 affected resident fish and wildlife in 

 the basin. 



In 1980, Congress passed the 

 Pacific Northwest Electric Power 

 Planning and Conservation Act, 

 which authorized the states of Idaho, 

 Montana, Oregon and Washington to 

 create the Northwest Power Planning 

 Council. The Act directs the Council 

 to prepare a program to protect, miti- 

 gate and enhance fish and wildlife of 

 the Columbia River Basin that have 

 been affected by the constiiiction 

 and operation of hydroelectric dams 

 while also assuring the Pacific North- 

 west an adequate, efficient, economi- 



cal and reliable power supply. The 

 Act also directs the Council to inform 

 the public about fish, wildlife and 

 energy issues and to involve the 

 public in its decision-making. 



The Council's Columbia River 

 Basin Fish and Wildlife Program 

 is the largest regional effort in the 

 nation to recover, rebuild, and mit- 

 igate impacts on fish and wildlife. 

 The Council adopted the first pro- 

 gram in November 1982. 



The 2000 program marks a sig- 

 nificant departure from past versions, 

 which consisted primarily of a col- 

 lection of measures directing specific 

 activities. The 2000 Program estab- 

 lishes a basinwide vision for fish and 

 wildlife — the intended outcome 

 of the program — along with bio- 

 logical objectives and action strat- 

 egies that are consistent with the 

 vision. Ultimately, the program will 

 be implemented through subbasin 

 plans developed locally in the more 

 than 50 tributaiy subbasins of the 

 Columbia and amended into the pro- 

 gram by the Council. Those plans 

 will be consistent with the basinwide 

 vision and objectives in the program. 



THE Four Hs and their impact on Fish and Wildlife 







HYDROPOWER 



The program recommends that resources and 

 energy be directed away from breacliing the four 

 federal dams on the lower Snake River, recog- 

 nizing that the federal government has decided 

 breaching will not occur in the next five years 

 (coincidentally. that is the Council's statutory 

 planning horizon for the fish and wildlife pro- 

 gram ). Instead, the program recommends actions 

 to improve dam-passage survival that are biologi- 

 cally sound and economically feasible — actions 

 that benefit the range of species in the river and 

 fit natural hsh behavior patterns. 



Hatcheries 



The program requires that hsh hatcheries funded 

 through the program operate consistent with 

 refonns recommended to Congress by the ( 'ouii- 

 cil in l')99, refonns that would shift hatchery 

 production away from a primary focus on pro- 

 viding fish for harvest to also providing lish to 

 rebuild naturally spawning populations. 



HABITAT 



The program directs significant attention to 

 rebuilding healthy, naturally producing fish and 

 wildlife populations by protecting and restoring 

 habitats and the biological systems within them. 

 The program also recognizes the ocean as habitat 

 and includes strategies to increase our understand- 

 ing of its variable nature and, to the extent feasi- 

 ble, separate the etTects of the ocean environment 

 from those of the freshwater en\ ironment. 



HARVEST 



The program promotes increased fish harvest, 

 consistent with .sound biological management 

 practices, recognizing that harvest provides sig- 

 nificant cultural and economic benefits to the 

 reuion. 



2000 Columbia river basin Fish and Wildlife p 



