PR 51 05 BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MONDAY, May 23, 2005 Contact: Mike Hansen | , BPA (503)-230-5131     Agreement provides millions of dollars to protect resident fish in Montana PORTLAND, Ore. - The Bonneville Power Administration has agreed to provide $3.49 million to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes for resident fish protection. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer joined officials from the tribes and BPA on Monday, May 23, for a signing ceremony at the tribal headquarters in Pablo, Mont., to celebrate the memorandum of agreement between BPA and the tribes. The money will be used by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to fund tribal land purchases. The tribes agreed to protect the land in perpetuity and manage it to maintain habitat conditions for resident fish. BPA will receive a conservation easement for each parcel of riparian land purchased by the tribes, and each parcel will be credited against BPA's obligation to mitigate for the effects on resident fish from the construction of Hungry Horse Dam and inundation of land behind it. "A great agreement is one that has a lot of benefits for everyone involved, and that is what we have with this memorandum of agreement," said Steve Wright, BPA administrator. "The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes will have the means to further help mitigate for impacts of Hungry Horse Dam on resident fish, while we at BPA are fulfilling one of our important public responsibilities, and the people of Montana will see a great natural resource protected in perpetuity." The easements that are attached to each parcel of land acquired by this agreement will retain the conservation values of the property's natural resources in perpetuity. These values include, but are not limited to, fish and wildlife and their natural habitats. "I look forward to this being a foundation of a continuing good relationship among BPA, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the state of Montana as we all work together toward our mutual goal — appropriate and cost-effective environmental mitigation for the existence of Hungry Horse Dam," said Wright. The funding for these purchases will come from BPA's fish and wildlife capital budget for fiscal year 2005. Funding is possible because BPA has a defined obligation for Hungry Horse Dam through a loss assessment that was adopted into the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's program in 1993. Under the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's fish and wildlife program, BPA has purchased more than 250,000 acres, or 390 square miles of land, for the protection of fish and wildlife in the Columbia River Basin since 1980. Submitted for distribution on 05-23-2005 at 2:38 PM

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