In December of 2000, NOAA Fisheries issued a Biological Opinion on operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System (BiOp) for salmon and steelhead.

The analysis in the BiOp found that the FCRPS did jeopardize the existence of the listed fish in the Columbia Basin, and identified 199 "Reasonable and Prudent Actions" (RPAs) that the federal action agencies needed to undertake to mitigate for the effects of the hydrosystem. In addition, the federal agencies issued an "All H Paper" describing the habitat, hatchery and harvest actions that federal agencies and others would collaborate on to help recover the fish.

The 2000 BiOp was challenged in court, and in June 2003, Judge James A Redden remanded, or handed back, the 2000 BiOp to NOAA Fisheries to resolve several deficiencies, including reliance on federal mitigation actions that have not undergone ection 7 consultation under the Endangered Species Act and reliance on range-wide off-site non-federal mitigation actions that are not reasonably certain to occur. The Judge denied plaintiffs' motion to vacate the BiOp during the remand, and it remained in place as NOAA addressed the deficiencies. This web page hosts a variety of documents related to NOAA Fisheries' work to address the court's rulings.

Court Documents

Federal Defendant's Second Quarterly Status Report

• Exhibit A.1: Remand Workplan

• Exhibit A.2: Implementation Workplan

• Exhibit B: Collaboration Report

• Exhibit C.1: Implementation Evaluation Report Cover

• Exhibit C.2: Implementation Evaluation Report

Federal Defendant's First Quarterly Status Report

• Exhibit A: FCRPS Remand Workplan and Timeline

• Exhibit B: Current e-mail list for participants in this remand.

• Exhibit C: List of Exhibits and Documents September 29, 2003

• Document D: "Preliminary Estimates of Updated 'Indicator Metrics' Applied in the 2000 FCRPS Biological Opinion," (September 29, 2003)

• Document E: "Draft Report of Updated Status of Listed ESUs of Salmon and Steelhead," (February 19, 2003). Draft report on stock status by the Biological Review Team posted for public review on the Internet
  • Chinook
  • Steelhead
  • Coho
  • Sockeye
  • Chum

• Document F: "Independent populations of chinook, steelhead, and sockeye for listed evolutionarily significant units within the Interior Columbia River domain," draft, July 2003 (Recent product of the Interior Columbia Basin Technical Review Team)

• Document G: "Historical population structure of Willamette and Lower Columbia River Basin Pacific salmonids" (Recent product of the Willamette and Lower Columbia Basin Technical Review Team)

• Document H: "Interim Report on Viability Criteria For Willamette and Lower Columbia Basin Pacific Salmonids" (March 2003)

• Document I: Letter from NOAA Fisheries to the four governors and tribal chairmen that requests help starting with the designation of state and tribal technical representatives

• Document J: Rocky Reach Hydroelectric Project HCP BiOp

• Document K: Rock Island Hydroelectric Project HCP BiOp

• Document L: Wells Hydroelectric Project HCP BiOp

• Document M: "Land Resource Management Plan Revisions for the Boise, Payette, and Sawtooth National Forests - Biological Opinion" (June 9, 2003)

• Document N: "Programmatic Biological Opinion and Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Essential Fish Habitat Consultation for the Bonneville Power Administration Habitat Improvement Program (HIP) in the Columbia River Basin" (August 1, 2003)

• Document O: 2003 Check-In Report

• Document P: 2001 NOAA annual review of the FCRPS action agencies' implementation of the RPA findings letter

• Document Q: 2002 NOAA annual review of the FCRPS action agencies' implementation of the RPA findings letter