Ross & Associates Environmental Consulting, Ltd.

Ross & Associates is providing facilitation and process support to the US Bureau of Reclamation to help the Bureau understand the interests of the conservation community in Washington state regarding the viability of the Integrated Water Resource Management Plan (IWRMP) being developed to support water supply, water rehydration, fish recovery and habitat restoration in the Yakima River Basin. In this work, Ross & Associates is leading a dialogue between interested environmental organizations and relevant federal, tribal and state agencies regarding the appropriateness of including lands in the Teanaway Basin as a means to enhance the ability of the IWRMP to meet its stated objectives and implement its guiding principles. The group will meet four times to discuss the role of a ‘lands component’ to the IWRMP, the values and impacts of the current IWRMP, identification of potential lands that might fulfill that role, enhance those values, and/or address those impacts, and how the Teanaway and/or other lands or land management opportunities might fit with the IWRMP. The process will culminate in a report accurately characterizing the range of responses developed individually and collectively by the group.