Decision Analysis
Decision Analysis of Actions Affecting Endangered Snake River Chinook Salmon
Contracting Agency: Bonneville Power Administration
Other Participants: Northwest Power Planning Council, National Marine Fisheries Service, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Columbia River Intertribal Fisheries Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Forest Service
For the past several years, the Bonneville Power Administration, the Northwest Power Planning Council, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and various state and tribal resource agencies have been attempting to work together to compare and enhance the population models used by all of the agencies to evaluate management options intended to enhance recovery of depleted Columbia River Basin salmon stocks.
ESSA has been contracted to review, evaluate and compare the behaviour of these models and attempt to resolve the fundamental differences among them through hypothesis formulation and testing. ESSA has led a multi-year co-operative research plan, PATH (Plan for Analyzing and Testing Hypotheses), involving 25 scientists from 11 agencies, as well as seven independent scientists.
Under ESSA's guidance, these federal, state, and tribal organisations have jointly assessed hypotheses that affect key management decisions, and completed a comprehensive decision analysis of alternative management scenarios, including actions in hydrosystem, hatchery, habitat, and harvest domains. The PATH group has also recently completed a quantitative analysis of experimental management actions.
PATH Publications:
Marmorek, D.R., C.N. Peters and I. Parnell (eds.). 1998. PATH final report for fiscal year 1998. Compiled and edited by ESSA Technologies, Ltd., Vancouver, B.C. Available from Bonneville Power Administration, Portland, Oregon. 263 pp.
[PDF- 1.9 mb]
Peters C.N. and D.R. Marmorek (compls./eds.) 2000. PATH: Preliminary Evaluation of the Learning Opportunities and Biological Consequences of Monitoring and Experimental Management Actions.
Prepared by ESSA Technologies Ltd., Vancouver, BC, 150 pp.
[PDF- 1.3 mb]
Marmorek D.R., I. Parnell, C.N. Peters, and C.A.D. Alexander (compls./eds.) 1999. PATH:
Scoping of candidate research, monitoring and experimental management actions: concurrently
reducing key uncertainties and recovering stocks. Working draft prepared by ESSA Technologies Ltd.,
Vancouver, BC, 232 pp.
[PDF- 1.6 mb]
Deriso, R.B., D.R. Marmorek, and I.J. Parnell. 2001. Retrospective Patterns of Differential Mortality and Common Year Effects Experienced by Spring Chinook of the Columbia River. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 58(12): 2419-2430
[PDF- 774 kb]
Marmorek, D.R. and C.N. Peters. 2001. Finding a PATH towards scientific collaboration: insights from the Columbia River Basin. Conservation Ecology 5(2): 8.
[HTM - off site]
Peters, C.N. and D.R. Marmorek. 2001. Application of decision analysis to evaluate recovery actions for threatened Snake River spring and summer chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 58(12): 2431-2446.
[PDF- 2.02 mb]
Peters, C.N., D.R. Marmorek, and R.B Deriso. 2001. Application of decision analysis to evaluate recovery actions for threatened Snake River fall chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 58(12): 2447-2458.
[PDF- 1.57 mb]