The Estuary Partnership works with Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to identify and review habitat restoration projects, this page describes that process.
Because over 50% of native habitat has been lost since the late 1880’s, a major priority of our Management Plan calls for habitat to be restored and protected. In 2016, our partners approved habitat coverage goals for the lower Columbia River which include:
- no net loss of native habitats as of 2009,
- recover 30% by river reach of historic extent for priority habitats by 2030, and
- recover 40% by 2050.
The implementation of these goals relies very heavily on our regional partners! From 2000 – June 2023, the region has accomplished 284 projects representing 35,342 acres restored or protected (these numbers get updated in August every year).
BPA has provided multiple restoration and conservation partners with funding to identify, develop, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of a large number of projects. Their funding includes:
- Identifying and prioritizing protection and restoration actions
- Working with interested landowners to assess and acquire lands or easements for conservation
- Working with landowners and other stakeholders to assess feasibility, develop engineering designs, secure permits, and construct restoration projects
- Undergoing technical evaluation by our Project Review Committee and BPA’s Expert Regional Technical Group and
- Collecting pre- and post-construction action effectiveness data to evaluate the success and effectiveness of restoration actions for adaptive management.
The main objective of this funding is to identify restoration and protection projects that improve the access and quality of rearing and spawning habitat for juvenile salmonids as they outmigrate through the lower river. These projects help satisfy mitigation requirements established in the Biological Opinion for the Federal Columbia River Hydropower System (BiOp), and projects must fall within the lower Columbia River and its tributaries within the area of contemporary tidal influence.
Under this regional restoration program, BPA requires restoration projects to be reviewed by a subset of the Science Work Group – our Project Review Committee around the 30% design stage. We solicit partners for project readiness up to three times per year (Spring, Fall, Winter). The evaluation documents including the application are located below.
To be considered for funding under this program, project objectives must align with review criteria established by both the Estuary Partnership and the Expert Regional Technical Group (ERTG). ERTG determines to what extent restoration projects satisfy mitigation requirements included in the BiOp. Both of these review criteria are included in the set of documents on the right. If interested in learning more, please contact Catherine Corbett or Jason Karnezis at BPA.