BOARD01564

• Board Meeting Date: 3/29/1999
• Description: Colorado River Basin Issues - Glen Canyon Adaptive Management Program - Status Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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1998 PROGRESS REVIEW
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GLEN CANYON DAM OPERATIONS BIOLOGICAL OPINION

This is Reclamation's third progress repOrt for implementation of the RPA for the 1994 Glen
Canyon Dam Operations Biological Opinion. Each review included at least one meeting
between the staffs of Reclamation and the Service. The first progress report was prepared on
November 27, 1996, and the Service formally responded in April 1997, The second report was
completed on December 5. 1997. with no formal response received from the Service,

As of the end of 1998, five of the seven elements of the biological opinion are ongoing, with one
item completed and another awaiting followup action by the Service.

Following is a discussien of each element.

ELEMENT 1
Reclamation shall develop an adaptive management program (AMP.)

, PROGRESS ELEMENT 1
The Record of Decision for the Operations of Glen Canyon Dam was signed on October 9,
1996, formally sanctioning the preferred altemative as described in the EIS, Including the AMP
,and establishment of the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center (GCMRC.) Through
the efforts of the interim Transition Work Group, work on the, AMP continued until a charter was
developed and put into place establishing the Adaptive Management Work Group (AMWG.) .
The AMWG now operates as a Federal Advisory Committee (FAC,) with Mr. Steve Magnussen
appointed as the Secretary of the Interior's designee. FAC members have been designated for
the 25 participants. ,and the first ~MWG meeting was held during September 1997. The AMWG
established a Technical Work Group. which has been meeting regularly since September 1997.
A Science Advisory Board, providing independent scientific review of the AMP, will begin work in
1999. '

Specific management objectives and prioritized information needs for endangered species
affected by operations of Glen Canyon Dam have been developed by the Technical Work Group
and adopted by the Adaptive Management Work Group. The objectives and information needs
are intended to help define measurable standards of desired conditions for each enda,ngered
species and come directly from the RPA, reasonable and prudent measures (RPM,)
conservation measures, and incidental take statements in the 1994 opinion, and from measures
and take statements in the 1996 and 1997 opinions. The objectives and information needs also
provide the basis for the long-term monitoring and research program for endangered species,

On April 23, 1998, fourteen stakeholders' from the Adaptive Management Program met and
developed scheduling priorities for information needs. The results indicate a concem to focus in
areas of biology, especiafly endangered species. The prioritization was approved by the AMWG
in July 1998. The GCMRC will use that information in programming monitoring and research
from FY2000-2004.

STATUS OF ELEMENT 1
COMPLETED, The AMP has been developed and implemented.

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