The Horse Heaven site certification agreement (SCA) required the certificate holder to establish a pre-operational technical advisory group (PTAG) to provide advice on adaptive management strategies for wildlife and habitat mitigation measures. The PTAG also advises on development of the final project layout and design as defined by the final mitigation measures in the project's final Environmental Impact Statement.
How does the PTAG function
The PTAG consists of members who represent local, state, and federal agencies, Tribal nations, landowners, ecologists, and wildlife organizations. The certificate holder serves as a member in the group. We serve as an observer and provide administrative support.
The group meets regularly to develop technical advice and recommendations on habitat and wildlife management plans. Some recommendations may be presented to our director for consideration and approval under their Council-designated authority. Council consideration and approval will happen if and when our director requests Council action or the Council determines their direct consideration is warranted.
What does the PTAG do
The PTAG provides recommendations to the Council on three major categories of mitigation measures contained in Appendix 2 of the SCA (link, 555 KB pdf). The three categories include:
- Wildlife mitigation (Wild), 1 subcategory
- Habitat mitigation (Hab), 3 subcategories
- Species mitigation (Spec), 7 subcategories
For more information on the subcategories covered by the PTAG, please visit this page (link, webpage)
Appendix 2 contains the full list of mitigation measures, including additional measures that the PTAG does not need to review, but that the certificate holder must address prior to beginning construction.
What comes next
The PTAG will end its work once the certificate holder has completed all planned construction. In its place, the certificate holder will create a technical advisory committee (TAC) prior to the project's operation, which will exist for the life of the project.
The TAC will:
- Review monitoring reports and advise on effectiveness of mitigation.
- Advise on additional or new mitigation measures necessary to maintain compliance with established mitigation measures.
- Review the results of annual survey data and incidental observations and recommend alternative mitigation, adaptive management strategies, and any aspects of existing mitigation that are no longer needed.
How to stay informed on PTAG developments
We present updates on PTAG meetings at our monthly Council meetings. You can watch previous Council meetings (link, webpage) to familiarize themselves on past updates.
You can also use the document search (link, webpage) with the keyword PTAG to find documents related to the group, including recommendations and meeting minutes.
Because the group is not an agency governing body and simply a technical advisory body to the Council with no decision-making authority, PTAG meetings are not open to the public or recorded.