DESCRIPTION
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife successfully completed all goals associated with the ongoing monitoring for the Asotin Creek Intensively Monitored Watershed project. The project agreement started on 1 January 2017 and was amended and extended several times to include the 2018 field season. The project also received a cost increase to allow for the complete replacement of three Instream PIT Tag Arrays in the Asotin Subbasin.
The initial contract was extended in June 2017 to the end of the federal fiscal year (30 September 2017) to cover the majority of the field season and complete the project. The project agreement was then extended again on 15 November 2017 with a cost increase ($26,000) from the new PSMFC agreement with the RCO. With this amendment the project was extended until 30 June 2018. A final time extension was granted on 15 June 2018 to extend the project until 31 December 2018; this was followed by a final cost increase effective 15 July 2018. This cost increase was specific to the Instream Array replacement.
The multiple amendments, extensions and cost increases are mostly due to the fluid nature of the PSMFC funding mechanism and the Salmon Recovery Funding Board processes and should not be viewed as any fault of the project or the sponsors in getting the fieldwork completed. This project has always completed the vast majority of its fieldwork and data collection from June through the month of October. This field schedule doesn’t align with the SRFB funding calendar or the federal fiscal year.