interests are taken into account in balancing issues and needs throughout the Basin; facilitate 

 multi-state or international watershed efforts where necessary; ensure that adequate funding 

 exists for watershed efforts; prioritize funding between watershed efforts and other Basin 

 activities; and give priority in funding habitat and watershed measures to subbasins that are 

 prepared to develop or implement a watershed approach, that provide the greatest benefit for the 

 cost, and/or that address species of concern. The systemwide body is not to be a regional 

 watershed council or river basin commission that decides on what watershed activities will be 

 implemented or prescribes specific objectives that determine local watershed activities. 



This systemwide body needs to allow for the representation of the state, tribal and federal 

 sovereign entities in the Basin, and to have the authority to carry out the responsibilities 

 described above, so as to promote consistency, efficiency and accountability in watershed efforts 

 and prevent the forum shopping that paralyzes decision making and implementation. The 

 federal agencies and the states need to defer to and use this body to shape the overall watershed 

 approach, and act consistent with that approach. Developing a dispute resolution process or 

 processes is essential to the functioning of the systemwide body. 



The approach assumes that full representation and participation of all interests wiU occur 

 at the local level and that sufficient representation to address regional issues will occur at the 

 systemwide level. Effective and efficient decision making will not happen if every entity, 

 agency, and interest must have a representative in every phase of the management process at the 

 systemwide level. For just one example, the Basin's tribes would need to decide, and are in the 

 process of discussing, how they might select fewer than thirteen representatives for an on-going, 

 systemwide body. 



In the short-term, the region needs to start working toward this approach by developing 

 better coordination and representation in the present process. Implementing a viable systemwide 

 approach over the long term may and probably will take federal and possibly state legislation. 



Commentary : The small group concluded that the systemwide aspect of the watershed 

 approach requires expanding beyond the state representation of the Council to include all three 

 types of sovereign entities - tribes, states and federal agencies. The current arrangement 

 encourages interests to lobby federal agencies separately for funding and activities. The region 

 needs to act together in a combined forum that agrees on how to approach basin-wide or 

 systemwide issues, a process or forum in which no entity, including the federal agencies, may 

 ignore and act independently. The group agreed that this systemwide/watershed approach could 

 be pursued without changes in the substantive obligations of the Northwest Power Act, although 

 legislative changes in governance structure and implementation may turn out to be necessary to 

 produce an effective systemwide body. 



The group agreed that a systemwide body would be needed to coordinate activities, 

 ensure funding to watershed groups and determine the appropriate investment levels for the 

 program as a whole and among the watersheds. Without the systemwide body, one problem, for 

 example, is the risk of over- investment of system funds in specific watersheds. But while 

 specific watershed funding levels should be set at the systemwide level, the local watershed 

 groups should decide how to spend their allocation. The group tentatively agreed to the concept 



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