Information on Critical Habitat Listing Affecting California Salmon and Steelhead Recovery
DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS: MARCH 14 2005 Currently, NOAA-Fisheries is soliciting information from the public and agencies on the listing of Critical Habitat in threatened and endangered Evolutionary Significant Units (ESUs) of California salmon and steelhead. NOAA Fisheries’ goal is to limit the costs of applying the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to recovering salmonid populations. Since delisting of a subwatershed as Critical Habitat makes it easier for activities to meet legal obligations for protection under the ESA, delisting a basin saves NOAA and affected parties financial resources. Unfortunately, once a basin is delisted regulations are less stringent, and recovering salmonid populations may be adversely impacted by activities impacting water quality, quantity, or habitat necessary for salmonids. Delisting decisions impact the opportunity for restoration and recovery in specific watersheds in California. The Salmonid Restoration Federation believes that all occupied in-river habitat, essential estuarine and ocean habitat, and upslope habitats that impact salmon population abundance, reproduction, and migration should remain listed as Critical Habitat and be protected. California salmon and steelhead populations in all occupied watersheds require critical habitat protection for recovery of ESUs that allow natural metapopulation dynamics. Multiple subpopulations contribute to salmonid viability and resistance to demographic and stochastic extinction. Some areas currently being evaluated for delisting as critical habitat are in urban areas where community organizations and agencies are dedicating funds and restoration activities to preserving the salmon and steelhead runs found there. In both urban and rural regions of California healthy runs of imperiled salmonids were once widely distributed and are now slowly rebounding from long-term watershed degradation through restoration and sustainable land practices. California’s ESUs contain the most southern distributed populations of these species, and the genetic diversity in these stocks of salmonids will likely be critical to the continued persistence of other more northerly ESUs as ocean and stream warming continues. The list below contains places considered for delisting of critical habitat. Others areas not listed, but documented in the NOAA Fisheries documents described below, will be included as critical habitat. NOAA Fisheries needs to hear about the importance of these places for spawning, rearing and migration of salmonids to support these critical habitat designations. The following CALWATER Hydrologic Subareas (HSAs) are occupied by salmonids, but will not be listed as Critical Habitat under the Endangered Species Act. California Coastal Chinook ESU Eel River Basin Russian River Northern California O. mykiss ESUMad River Basin Eel River Basin California Central Coast O. mykiss ESURussian River Basin Bay Bridges Basin South Bay Basin Santa Clara Basin San Pablo Basin Suisun Basin South-Central California Coast Steelhead ESUNo HSA proposed for delisting at this time. Spring Run Chinook ESUWhitmore Basin Bull Mountain Basin Shasta Bally San Joaquin Delta San Francisco Bay Yuba River Basin Valley-American North Diablo Range Basin Sacramento Delta Southern California O. mykiss ESUSanta Maria Basin Calleguas Basin Central Valley Steelhead ESUMarysville Yuba River Butte Creek North Valley Floor Middle Sierra San Francisco Bay Yuba River Bull Mountain North Valley Floor Sacramento Delta North Diablo Range Basin Sacramento Delta SONC Coho salmon ESUNo HSAs proposed for delisting at this time. How do you find out if your watershed is in a HSA above?All the information for California ESUs (except Northern California-Southern Oregon coho salmon) is on the NOAA Fisheries-Southwest site at: http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/salmon.htm All of the documents are useful for finding different information, although the numbers and HSA names are not used in the same place as references, so the following steps make it simple to connect a map of subwatersheds with an HSA. Use the first 4-digits in the HSA number above to identify the HU with the same 4- digits in the Appendix for the ESU you are interested in checking from the "Preliminary Findings of NMFS' Critical Habitat Development and Review Teams for Seven Salmon and O. mykiss ESUs in California." These appendices will contain a map of the HU to the 6-digit HSA resolution that will let you find your subwatershed. If you are looking for additional specific information for the HU including geography, size, and where to find more information read the actual "Appendix" pdf file. At the end of these documents, of which each ESU has its own, there are tables containing total occupied miles of habitat and a list of management activities impacting spawning, rearing, migration, or a combination of these Primary Constituent Elements (PCEs, life history stages). How do I submit comments to NOAA?Your comments can be submitted via email, mail, or fax. The information on how to use these methods is listed in the News Release for the extension of the comment period, http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/news/Critical_Habitat_Extension.PDF. |
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