Portland, Ore. (March 9, 2006) – The Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) reached an agreement this week with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe to support a comprehensive, 10-year Model Watershed restoration and monitoring program in northern Idaho’s Benewah Creek watershed. BEF has committed to provide funding, program oversight, and the services of an independent scientific review team over the full duration of the project.
BEF’s Model Watershed program reflects a distinctive approach to watershed restoration, rejecting the convention of one or two-year funding, in favor of 10-year commitments that allow for better long-term monitoring and evaluation of restoration measures. The Benewah Creek project joins BEF’s current Model Watershed projects on the lower Kootenai River in Idaho and the Chinook River in Washington. BEF expects to announce support for two additional 10-year Model Watershed projects during 2006.
“BEF’s support for the Benewah Creek Model Watershed demonstrates our steadfast commitment to avoid piecemeal implementation strategies and to establish a new, more comprehensive and effective approach to watershed restoration,” said BEF’s Director of Watershed Programs, Todd Reeve. “BEF and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe are confident that these restoration efforts will produce substantial, measurable improvements in watershed conditions.”
Both tribal and non-tribal communities in the Coeur d’Alene basin will benefit from Benewah Creek’s restoration. Improved habitat and water quality is expected to reestablish Benewah Creek as a prime spawning and rearing stream for the native Westslope cutthroat trout that inhabit Lake Coeur d’Alene. In time, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe expects to see a return of the healthy cutthroat populations that historically were abundant and remain culturally significant.
“The Coeur d’Alene Tribe has long worked to develop a Fisheries Program with the expertise and foresight to adequately address the comprehensive and critical habitat restoration needs of native fish. BEF’s vision for funding and supporting long-term monitoring and evaluation fulfills a critical component of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s restoration strategy for Benewah Creek,” said Angelo Vitale, Coeur d’Alene Tribe Fisheries Scientist.
For more detailed information about BEF’s watershed restoration history and ongoing programs, please go to http://www.b-e-f.org/watersheds.
About the Coeur d’Alene Tribe
The Coeur d’Alene Tribe reservation covers 345,000 acres of mountains, lakes, timber and farmland that span the western edge of the northern Rocky Mountains and the Palouse country in northern Idaho. The Coeur d’Alene Fisheries Program mission is to restore, protect, expand and reestablish fish populations to sustainable levels to provide harvest opportunities within the historical and cultural territories of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe. The Program's goals and objectives are accomplished through the implementation of fisheries management plans, and by working in a variety of cooperative, governmental and non-governmental arenas to address aquatic resource issues and needs. For more information about the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, visit www.cdatribe-nsn.gov.
About BEF
The Bonneville Environmental Foundation, a non-profit organization, was established in 1998 to restore watershed ecosystems and further the development and use of new renewable energy resources. Through revenues generated from the sales of green power products, BEF funds projects that restore damaged watersheds and support new renewable energy projects from solar, wind and biomass. BEF pioneered the sale of Green Tags in 2000 and has helped establish national standards for certification and trading. Created by regional environmental groups and the Bonneville Power Administration, the Foundation operates collaboratively with but independent of both. More information is available on the web at www.b-e-f.org.
