Monitoring and Evaluation : Yakima/Klickitat Fisheries Project, Final Report 2000.

The monitoring and evaluation objectives and tasks have been developed through a joint process between the co-managers, Yakama Nation (YN, Lead Agency) and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). The Science/Technical Advisory Committee (STAC), which consists of core members from the co-managers, employs the services of a work committee of scientists, the Monitoring Implementation Planning Team (MIPT) to develop the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Plan. The process employed by STAC to verify these designated activities and the timing of their implementation involved the utilization of the following principles: (1) YKFP monitoring should evaluate the success (or lack of it) of project supplementation efforts and its impacts, including juvenile post release survival, natural production and reproductive success, ecological interactions, and genetics; (2) YKFP monitoring should be comprehensive: and, (3) YKFP monitoring should be done in such a way that results are of use to salmon production efforts throughout and Columbia basin and the region. Utilizing these principles, STAC and MIPT developed this M&E action plan in three phases. The first phase was primarily conceptual. STAC and MIPT defined critical issues and problems and identified associated response variables. The second phase was quantitative, which determined the scale and size of an effective monitoring effort. A critical element of the quantitative phase was an assessment of the precision with which response variables can be measured, the probability of detecting real impacts and the sample sizes required for a given level of statistical precision and power. The third phase is logistical. The feasibility of monitoring measures was evaluated as to practicality and cost. The Policy Group has determined that the M&E activities covered by this agreement are necessary, effective and cost-efficient