FAQs

Who are the partners involved?
The partnership agreement provides the foundation for a new working relationship among the Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration, Bureau of Reclamation, the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon.

What does the agreement hope to accomplish?
The partnership agreement will utilize the tribes’ commitment and know-how to recover salmon populations and the commitment and resources of the federal water management agencies to address the impacts of hydropower projects on fish. The partnership agreement identifies specific commitments of the federal government to help the Columbia River’s fish populations through a variety of restoration and recovery projects, incorporating an adaptive management approach into hydropower operations, continuing the operation of the Fish Passage Center, and streamlining the Independent Scientific Review Panel process used to evaluate and approve salmon restoration projects.

What is the timeframe of the agreement?
The partnership agreement’s ten-year tenure will provide active on-the-ground fisheries management, create reasonable certainty and stability for fish populations and communities, and allow managers to help the basin’s fish populations more in the next ten years than they’ve been able to in the past.

What is the history behind this agreement?
Since 1973, the Tribes have resorted to the courts in order to obtain relief from the effect of the hydro system on salmon runs subject to treaty fisheries. In 1993, the Tribes joined existing litigation as amici parties (or friends of the court) that was filed by NGO’s and the states over NOAA’s biological opinions for operations of federal mainstem Columbia and Snake River dams. Oregon Federal District Court Judge Redden overturned the subsequent 2000 and 2004 biological opinions and encouraged the federal government to collaborate with the states and tribes in the development of the new biological opinion. This agreement is a result of that collaboration.

What will the partnership do to benefit fish?
This agreement provides funding for over 200 projects that will benefit fish runs throughout the Columbia River Basin. This includes 86 restoration projects, 63 recovery projects, 47 research, monitoring and evaluation projects, and numerous projects that are designed to benefit sturgeon, lamprey and wildlife. In addition to helping salmonids listed under the Endangered Species Act, the agreement provides specific actions that will benefit adult and juvenile lamprey (hydro operations, management and research), sturgeon (genetics research and production), sockeye, coho, steelhead, rainbow trout and other non-listed species.

Can the agreement be modified or reviewed during its ten-year duration?
A comprehensive review of all actions implemented under the MOA and the status of each Ecological Significant Unit will be completed four years from now in June 2012 and seven years from now in June 2015. At any time during the agreement, the tribes may recommend additional protection measures to the federal water management agencies.