Facilitation of the Estuary/Ocean Subgroup for Federal Research, Monitoring and Evaluation FY08 Annual Report.

The Estuary/Ocean Subgroup (EOS) is part of the research, monitoring, and evaluation (RME) effort that the Action Agencies (Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation) developed in response to obligations arising from the Endangered Species Act as applied to operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS). The goal of the EOS project is to facilitate activities of the estuary/ocean RME subgroup as it coordinates design and implementation of federal RME in the lower Columbia River and estuary. In fiscal year 2008 (FY08), EOS project accomplishments included (1) subgroup meetings; (2) participation in the estuary work group of the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership; (3) project management via BPA's project tracking system, Pisces; (4) quarterly project status reports; and (5) a major revision to the Estuary RME document and its subsequent regional release (new version January 2008). Many of the estuary RME recommendations in this document were incorporated into the Biological Opinion on FCRPS operations (May 2008). In summary, the FY08 EOS project resulted in expanded, substantive coordination with other regional RME forums, a new version of the federal Estuary RME program document, and implementation coordination. This annual report is a FY08 deliverable for the project titled Facilitation of the Estuary/Ocean Subgroup