Middle Snake Subbasins Management Plan
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Middle Snake Subbasins Management Plan May 2004 Written by Ecovista Contracted by Shoshone-Paiute Tribes Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................5 1.1 Contract Entities and Planning Participants....................................................................................6 1.1.1 Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of Duck Valley Indian Reservation.............................................6 1.1.2 Northwest Power Conservation Council ...........................................................................7 1.1.3 Bonneville Power Administration......................................................................................7 1.1.4 Project Team......................................................................................................................7 1.1.5 Planning Team...................................................................................................................7 1.1.6 Technical Teams ................................................................................................................8 1.2 Public Outreach and Government Involvement..............................................................................9 1.2.1 Technical Team Participation ...........................................................................................9 1.2.2 Planning Team Participation.............................................................................................9 1.2.3 Public Meeting Outreach...................................................................................................9 1.2.4 Ecovista Website Information..........................................................................................10 1.3 Review Process.............................................................................................................................10 2 VISION FOR MIDDLE SNAKE SUBBASINS ...............................................................................12 2.1 Vision Statement...........................................................................................................................12 2.2 Guiding Principles ........................................................................................................................12 2.3 Definitions and Qualifications ......................................................................................................13 3 PROBLEMS, OBJECTIVES, AND STRATEGIES .......................................................................14 3.1 Problem Statements, Objectives, and Strategies...........................................................................14 3.2 Biological Components.................................................................................................................15 3.2.1 Aquatic Species................................................................................................................16 3.2.2 Terrestrial Species ...........................................................................................................32 3.3 Environmental Components .........................................................................................................33 3.3.1 Aquatic Ecosystem...........................................................................................................34 3.3.2 Terrestrial Ecosystem ......................................................................................................42 3.4 Socioeconomic Components.........................................................................................................60 4 RESEARCH, MONITORING, AND EVALUATION PLAN........................................................66 4.1 Data Gaps......................................................................................................................................68 4.2 Research Needs.............................................................................................................................71 4.3 Monitoring and Evaluation ...........................................................................................................76 5 COORDINATION WITH EXISTING PROGRAMS.....................................................................88 5.1 Endangered Species Act Considerations ......................................................................................88 5.1.1 Consistency with applicable performance measures in Biological Opinion. ..................88 5.1.2 Consistency with existing recovery plans ........................................................................90 5.2 Clean Water Act Considerations...................................................................................................99 5.2.1 Consistency with Idaho State’s Water Quality Management Plan..................................99 5.2.2 TMDLs in Middle Snake subbasins................................................................................102 6 PRIORITIZATIONS........................................................................................................................106 6.1 Aquatic Prioritization..................................................................................................................106 6.2 Terrestrial Prioritizations ............................................................................................................112 6.2.1 Rules for Prioritization ..................................................................................................112 6.2.2 Recommendations ..........................................................................................................113 7 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS..........................................................................121 7.1 General Recommendations .........................................................................................................121 7.2 Social Impact Conclusions..........................................................................................................122 8 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................124 Middle Snake Subbasins Management Plan i May 2004 9 TECHNICAL APPENDICES..........................................................................................................128 Appendix A—Participation Summary................................................................................................128 Appendix B—Letters of Endorsement ...............................................................................................131 Appendix C—Statements of Loss ......................................................................................................132 Middle Snake Subbasins Management Plan ii May 2004 List of Tables Table 1. The Project Team for the Middle Snake subbasins. ........................................................ 7 Table 2. Members of the Planning Team for the Middle Snake subbasins ................................... 8 Table 3. Technical Team members for the Middle Snake subbasins. ........................................... 8 Table 4. Problems statements and biological objectives in the Middle Snake subbasins. These must be taken in context with associated strategies and discussion comments in plan section 3.2: Biological Components. .......................................................................... 15 Table 5. Summary of white sturgeon objectives for individual river reaches in the Middle Snake subbasins (from IDFG 2003c). ................................................................................... 19 Table 6. Overview of known or suspected predatory relationships which may negatively impact native species within the Middle Snake subbasins. .................................................... 30 Table 7. Problems statements and environmental objectives in the Middle Snake subbasins. These must be taken in context with associated strategies and discussion comments in plan section 3.3: Environmental Components. ........................................................... 33 Table 8. Problems statements and socioeconomic objectives in the Middle Snake subbasins.... 61 Table 9. Data gaps identified as strategies to achieve aquatic biological and environmental objectives. ................................................................................................................... 68 Table 10. Data gaps identified as strategies to achieve terrestrial biological and environmental objectives. ................................................................................................................... 70 Table 11. Aquatic research needs identified as strategies to achieve biological and environmental objectives (plan sections 5.3.1: Aquatic Species and 5.4.1: Aquatic Ecosystem). Hypotheses for testing and the scale at which research is to be conducted is provided, where possible............................................................................................................. 72 Table 12. Terrestrial research needs in the Middle Snake subbasins identified as strategies to achieve biological and environmental objectives (plan sections 5.3.2: Terrestrial Species and 5.4.2: Terrestrial Ecosystem). ................................................................. 74 Table 13. Indicators and expected biological outcome used to evaluate success of implemented strategies in achieving aquatic objectives