• Research, monitoring and evaluation help continually improve results for fish

    Research, monitoring and evaluation are critical to understanding how our conservation actions are working for important native fishes, improving results through learning, and ensuring that funding is used wisely.

     

    Cooler water temperatures and increased spawning within a restored watershed can be observed almost immediately.  However, detecting the direct benefits of habitat improvement on fish survival is a more lengthy process.  The salmon lifecycle spans two to six years, and long-term trends in fish abundance and productivity can take several generations to measure. Other factors that can limit long-term survival, such as toxics, make it difficult to isolate the biological effect of tributary and estuary improvement actions.

     

    Find out more about the Columbia Basin Federal Caucus agencies' RM&E for habitat actions at the Evaluating Progress tab.

     

    Biologists monitor fish and stream health and track fish trends in individual tributaries throughout the Columbia River Basin in order to assess the effectiveness of numerous individual habitat actions.