NOAA
ISSUES CRITICAL HABITAT AREAS FOR PACIFIC
SALMON IN CALIFORNIA, NORTHWEST
Provides incentives for regional Habitat
Conservation Plans,
More focus for recovery efforts
Reaffirming its commitment to salmon recovery,
the NOAA
Fisheries Service today released its final
critical habitat designation for 19
evolutionarily significant units of salmon and
steelhead in California and the Northwest
protected under the Endangered Species Act.
“These designations support our extensive
salmon recovery efforts and promote important
voluntary and collaborative efforts important
to protecting salmon,” said
Bill Hogarth, NOAA Fisheries Service
administrator.
In making the designation, NOAA Fisheries used
the latest scientific understanding of salmon
habitat and identified more than 31,000 miles
of stream and shoreline inhabited by salmon.
Of the habitat identified, NOAA designated 89
percent as critical. Designation obligates
other federal agencies to give special
consideration to their activities when they
take place in the designated areas.
The final policy contains exclusions for
private landowners in the Northwest who have
agreed to voluntary conservation efforts on
their land. NOAA hopes to encourage other
landowners in the northwest and California to
seek voluntary agreements that include
protections that outweigh those that are
likely through critical habitat designation.
“This Administration believes strongly in
providing incentives for private landowners
who are already protecting species
voluntarily, and these designations recognize
their hard work,” said Bob Lohn, head of the
NOAA Fisheries Service northwest region. He
added that the agency would carefully review
and consider for exclusion other voluntary
habitat conservation plans submitted in the
future, which would conserve salmon species.
“Today’s designations will help the agency
refine its recovery efforts for listed fish
and will be part of the locally created
recovery plans we are completing,” added Lohn.
“We have focused very specifically on those
areas that are most important to recovery of
salmon and steelhead, allowing us to most
efficiently use our resources to protect
fish.”
Rod McInnis, Southwest regional administrator,
echoed Lohn's remarks. "Today's designation of
critical habitat really helps to protect those
areas most important for salmon and steelhead
restoration in California,” he said.
In April, the NOAA Fisheries Service, with
local, tribal, and state support, released a
draft recovery plan for three ESA-listed
Columbia/Snake River species in the Lower
Columbia River in Washington. Similar recovery
plans for all other regions of the Columbia
and Snake River basins are expected to be
delivered to the NOAA Fisheries Service by the
end of 2005, and incorporated into final
recovery plans by the end of 2006. These areas
would include plans for recovering the other
nine Columbia/Snake River stocks in the Snake
River Basin and the upper- and mid-Columbia
River, as well as several other salmon species
in the Pacific Northwest.
More information including a variety of
related maps, documents, and data supporting
the proposal can be found at
http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/1salmon/salmesa/crithab/CHsite.htm
for the Northwest and
http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov for California.
The NOAA Fisheries Service is dedicated to
protecting and preserving our nation’s living
marine resources and their habitat through
scientific research, management and
enforcement. The NOAA Fisheries Service
provides effective stewardship of these
resources for the benefit of the nation,
supporting coastal communities that depend
upon them, and helping to provide safe and
healthy seafood to consumers and recreational
opportunities for the American public.
The National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an
agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is
dedicated to enhancing economic security and
national safety through the prediction and
research of weather and climate-related events
and providing environmental stewardship of our
nation’s coastal and marine resources. Through
the emerging
Global
Earth Observation System of Systems, NOAA
is working with its federal partners and
nearly 60 countries to develop a global
monitoring network that is as integrated as
the planet it observes.
