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Lead
Entity Program
Process Overview
How do Lead Entities work?
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| Formed
in 2001, the Yakima River Salmon Recovery Board Lead Entity includes
representation from the jurisdictions of Benton, Yakima and Kittitas
counties, the Yakama Nation, and all city jurisdictions within
the watershed. |
Strategy
Each Lead Entity develops a recovery strategy to guide its selection
and ranking of projects. The strategy prioritizes geographic areas
and types of restoration and protection activities, identifies salmon
species needs, and identifies local socio-economic and cultural factors
as they relate to salmon recovery. These stakeholder-supported strategies
increase effective decision-making by Lead Entities and define and
clarify roles between Lead Entities and the broader salmon recovery
planning environment.
Project Sponsors
Potential project sponsors can use the Lead Entity Strategy as a tool
to identify and propose salmon habitat restoration and protection projects.
Project sponsors typically are public or private groups or individuals,
such as a Regional Fisheries Enhancement Group (RFEG), city, county,
tribe, state agency, community group, non-government organization or
private party. Project applicants fill out a project application and
submit it to the Lead Entity for consideration. To ensure the success
of projects funded through the Lead Entity process, project applicants
are required to submit letters of support from affected landowners.
The Lead Entity then applies its strategy through its local technical
and citizens committees to evaluate and prioritize the projects in
its own unique but consistent way.
Technical Committee
The technical committee, made up of local technical experts (including
WDFW’s own watershed stewards), rates the projects submitted
by project sponsors on their technical merit. These local technical
experts are often the most knowledgeable about the local watershed,
habitat and fish conditions. Their expertise is invaluable to ensure
priorities and projects are based on ecological conditions and processes.
They judge projects on the basis of their technical merits, benefits
to salmon and the certainty that the benefits will occur.
Citizens Committee
The technical committee submits its technical evaluation of projects
to the citizens committee. In addition to local citizens, participants
on citizens committees may include local, state, federal and tribal
government representatives, community groups, environmental and fisheries
groups, conservation districts, and industry. Representatives from
the Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups also participate on Lead
Entity citizen committees. The citizen committee is critical to ensure
that priorities and projects have the necessary community support for
success. Citizen committee members are often the best judges of the
community’s social, cultural and economic values, as they apply
to salmon recovery, and of how to increase community support over time
through the implementation of habitat projects. The citizen committee
ranks the project list, and submits it through the Lead Entity for
SRFB funding consideration.
Salmon Recovery Funding Board
The SRFB is made up of five Governor-appointed citizens and representatives
from five state agencies. There are eight types of projects that can
be submitted by applicants through the Lead Entity for funding consideration:
acquisition, in-stream diversion, in-stream passage, in-stream habitat,
riparian habitat, upland habitat, estuarine/marine nearshore, and assessments
and studies. The SRFB Technical Review Panel meets with Lead Entities
to learn about each Lead Entity’s watershed and project identification
process and to provide guidance on the Lead Entity’s draft strategy
and how proposed projects meet that strategy. The SRFB Technical Review
Panel evaluates projects based on their benefit to salmon and certainty
of success.
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