Snake River Salmon Recovery Board

What We Do

The Washington State Legislature created the Salmon Recovery Act of 1998 (RCW 77.85) in order to facilitate the development of localized plans for the recovery of endangered species of salmon. The following year, the governor’s salmon office released “Extinction is Not an Option-a Statewide Strategy to Recover Salmon” which provides guidance for the administration of salmon recovery efforts. In accordance with this document, a set of guidelines for salmonid recovery planning called “An Outline for Salmon Recovery Plans” was developed through a collaboration of the State of Washington, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NWPCC). The Snake River Salmon Recovery Board (SRSRB) was self-created pursuant to RCW 77.85.030 for the purpose of developing and implementing a salmon recovery plan for the Snake River Region. The Board is structured as a committee that recommends policies, programs, and funding consistent with the regional recovery plan (2011) to those with the authority to implement the recommendations.

Lead Entity

The Board is also the Lead Entity for the Snake River Region. The Lead Entity program was authorized by HB2496 for the purpose of developing a strong, locally-based effort to deliver habitat projects for salmon recovery supported by science and local communities. Lead entities develop strategies to ensure that salmon restoration funding is used to fund high priority projects to support healthy populations of salmon and steelhead. The Lead Entity Committee is a subcommittee of the Snake River Salmon Recovery Board comprised of local citizens and technical experts. This committee is responsible for scoring and ranking projects proposed for funding and providing a ranked list for the SRSRB to review and approve for Salmon Recovery Funding Board restoration dollars.

Lead Entity Roles

• Maintain a Lead Entity organization and have a coordinator.
• Administer a Lead Entity Committee of representative interests.
• Solicit project applications.
• Create a habitat project list (annually) and maintain habitat work schedule (3yr).

Funding

The Lead Entity Program is funded by the Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF) and Recreation Conservation Office (RCO) State General Fund.

Tucannon Habitat Programmatic

The Snake River Salmon Recovery Board also serves as the Tucannon Habitat Programmatic (FCRPS 2008 BiOp project) implementation lead.  The Tucannon Habitat Programmatic is a Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) habitat restoration “umbrella” project sponsored by the Snake River Salmon Recovery Board (SRSRB) for the purpose of implementing spring Chinook tributary habitat restoration mitigation requirements (2008 BiOp), within the Tucannon River.  The SRSRB maintains staff to coordinate BPA restoration funding and implementation sequence amongst the habitat restoration partners and ensure restoration actions are focused on habitat limiting factors identified and prioritized in the Tucannon Conceptual Restoration Plan. The SRSRB convenes quarterly meetings of the Tucannon Implementers Group seated by the Columbia Conservation District, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Nez Perce Tribe, Umatilla National Forest, and the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife.  This committee is responsible for identifying restoration projects, reviewing design, field visits and supporting implementation.  The SRSRB Regional Technical Team and SRSRB play an advisory role to BPA in project design and funding. Learn more about the Tucannon Habitat Programmatic.

SRSRB Board Members

The Snake River Region is managed by the Snake River Salmon Recovery Board, a cooperative group comprised of officials representing Walla Walla, Garfield, Asotin, Columbia, and Whitman counties. In addition, the board also includes the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and various state and federal agencies.