As you noted, on September 13th, you heard the testimony of Colonel Eric Morgren on behalf of the Corps. Today I'm going to very briefly summarize that testimony, plus I'll add several topical points. Currently, 12 populations of Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead, white sturgeon, and bull trout are listed under the Endangered Species Act. That means that we must broaden our consideration of recovery solutions from the lower Snake River to the entire life cycle of the salmon throughout the basins if we are to be successful.
On the flip side, this year we saw strong returns of adult salmon to the Columbia. We believe these results are at least partially due to the investment that the nation has made in the hydropower system.
Consultations on the 2000 biological opinions are ongoing. While we anticipate -- we do anticipate receiving a final BiOp or BiOps on or about the 15th of December. While there are still some measures that need further work, we are optimistic at this point that we would reach agreement on the major issues and on the overall directions. We are satisfied that the draft biological opinion is reflecting an increasing intent to pursue aggressive actions across all the Hs with specified performance standards and periodic check-ins.
Earlier in your opening statement you emphasized the need for good science. We are also pleased at the current regional effort to base recovery actions on the best available science. The course part in this effort is to fund some 50 to 70 field research studies under our anadromous fish evaluation program. That, by the way, is a collaborative process involving the state, federal, and tribal entities. We see this investment of some 10 to $20 million in field research in seeking out better scientific knowledge as being vitally necessary for making the reasoned management decisions that you alluded to.
On the issue of funding, full implementation of the measures called for in the biological opinions will be ambitious. It will require substantial increases in our appropriations. For example, the President's fiscal year 2001 budget submitted to Congress this year called for $91 million in the fish -- the Corps' fish mitigation project. Our fiscal year appropriation, as passed by Congress, was $81 million. We estimate that some additional $5 million to $10 million may be needed to fully implement the measures in the biological opinions. Further, we anticipate the cost will increase in the out years. This is an important issue as our biological opinion report card will heavily depend on our ability to implement, read that as fund, recovering measures.
One of the areas of the biological opinion is to call upon the Corps of Engineers to carry out actions in the off site or habitat measures for fish restoration as a means of supplementing hydro actions. For example, we are being asked to step up our efforts in the restoration in the Columbia River estuary. We believe this is important and should be a part of our approach to the fish recovery.
We look to the Congress for continued support of these efforts. We will continue to work with you and to keep the lines of communication open.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my summary, and I will be happy to answer any of your questions.