What is the NRC (National Research Council)?
 

The following explanation of the NRC was taken from the UC Davis report:

The NRC is a 12-person committee of science, law and economic experts.

"The 12-person committee of science, law and economics experts. The research council's Committee on Threatened and Endangered Fishes of the Klamath Basin devoted 18 months of volunteer time to extensive review and re-analysis of decades worth of data about the ecosystems of this 12,000-square-mile watershed. The diverse ecosystems include high elevation desert lakes like Upper Klamath Lake in Southern Oregon, and rugged snowmelt-fed tributary streams like the Shasta and Trinity rivers, in California.

The committee considered studies and reports from biologists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, which are the two federal agencies charged with preserving the fish listed under the Endangered Species Act; from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which is the federal agency managing the Klamath Project; and from other federal, Oregon and California agencies, consulting biologists and academic scientists. They considered the fishes' life-cycle needs and populations; basin water quality; and the basin's many concurrent uses, which include
farming, grazing, timber harvest, hydroelectric production and recreation."