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Process Overview
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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 use the Regional Recovery Plans or Lead Entity strategy as a tool to identify and propose high priority 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 and/or Region 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 and/or recovery region for SRFB funding consideration.
Salmon Recovery Funding Board
The SRFB is composed of five citizens appointed by the Governor and five state agency directors. The Board brings together the experiences and viewpoints of citizens and the major state natural resource agencies. There are eight types of projects that can be submitted by applicants through the Lead Entity and/or region for funding consideration: acquisition, in-stream diversion, in-stream passage, in-stream habitat, riparian habitat, upland habitat, estuarine and marine nearshore, and assessments and studies (non-capital projects). The SRFB evaluation occurs in three phases: 1) the local lead entity, coordinating with its regional organization, will evaluate and rank applications in its area. The lead entity and region may use locally developed information and criteria to prioritize projects. 2) The SRFB will review all projects for eligibility. Applicants and their lead entities are encouraged to consult with SRFB staff early. Decisions regarding eligibility are reviewed first with the assigned SRFB grant manager. 3) The SRFB Scientific Review Panel will evaluate each project proposal for technical merits and will identify specific concerns regarding the salmon benefits and certainty of success.
Regional Recovery
The Endangered Species Act requires the federal government to develop recovery plans for salmon species at risk of extinction. The federal government measures the health of fish populations based on Evolutionarily Significant Units or Distinct Population Segments. The federal government determined that recovery plans should be developed for each unit or segment listed as a risk of extinction under the Act. To coordinate the work of recovery planning and implementation, seven regional organizations formed, roughly along the lines of the regional recovery areas. Six of the seven have written regional recovery plans and submitted them to the federal government for approval. Regional organizations relied on lead entities and local watershed groups when writing regional recovery plans and incorporated lead entities’ strategies into those plans.
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