Facilitation of the Estuary/Ocean Subgroup and the Expert Regional Technical Group, Fiscal Year 2013 Annual Report

Abstract

This project covers facilitation of the Estuary/Ocean Subgroup (EOS) for federal research, monitoring, and evaluation (RME) and the Expert Regional Technical Group (ERTG) for estuary habitat restoration. The EOS is part of the research, monitoring, and evaluation effort that the Action Agencies (Bonneville Power Administration [BPA], U.S. Army Corps of Engineers [Corps], 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 EOS is tasked by National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Action Agencies (AAs) to design and coordinate implementation of the federal RME plan for the lower Columbia River and estuary, including the river’s plume in the ocean. Initiated in 2002, the EOS is composed of members from BPA, the Corps, NMFS, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL’s) Marine Sciences Laboratory, and other agencies as necessary