Recovery Planning Background
The ESA requires that recovery plans contain (1) objective, measurable goals for delisting; (2) a comprehensive list of the actions necessary to achieve the delisting goals; and (3) an estimate of the cost and time required to carry out those actions. In addition, NOAA Recovery Planning Guidelines suggest that recovery plans include an assessment of the factors that led to population declines and/or which are impeding recovery. Finally, it is important that the plans include a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation program for gauging the effectiveness of recovery measures and overall progress toward recovery.
NMFS believes it is critically important to base ESA recovery plans for Pacific salmon on the many state, regional, Tribal, local, and private conservation efforts already underway throughout the region. Local support of recovery plans by those whose activities directly affect the listed species, and whose actions will be most affected by recovery requirements, is essential. NMFS therefore supports and participates in locally led collaborative efforts to develop recovery plans, involving local communities, state, Tribal, and Federal entities, and other stakeholders. NMFS reviews any locally produced recovery plans to determine whether adoption is merited and to identify any needed additions or qualifications.
As part of its recovery planning efforts, the NMFS Northwest Region
designated the following "recovery domains,"
or discrete geographic areas for which comprehensive recovery plans are
being developed: Puget Sound, Willamette/Lower Columbia, Interior
Columbia (including the Mid-Columbia, Upper Columbia, and Snake
River sub-domains), Oregon Coast, and Southern/Oregon Northern California Coast.
Although the Oregon Coast coho ESU is no longer listed, NMFS Northwest
Region has worked with the state to develop a conservation plan for
that area. The NMFS Northwest
Region web site contains additional information on salmon recovery
planning policies.
It is critical that salmon recovery plans be based on sounds
science. For each domain, the NWFSC convened and chaired a
collaborative, mulit-agency Technical Recovery Team (TRT) to
develop recommendations on biological viability
criteria for ESUs and their component populations, to provide
scientific support to local and regional recovery planning efforts, and
to provide scientific evaluations of recovery plans. The intent in
establishing the TRTs was to seek unique geographic and species
expertise and to develop a solid scientific foundation for the recovery
plans. Although NMFS has encouraged the TRTs to develop regionally
specific approaches for evaluating viability and developing other
relevant analyses, each TRT has worked from a common scientific
foundation to ensure that the recovery plans are scientifically sound
and based on consistent biological principles. In particular, at
the start of the recovery planning process, NMFS published a report
describing Viable
Salmon Populations that laid out the basic principles for
developing biological viability criteria.
The TRTs have all completed reports describing viability criteria, which were used by local and regional recovery planning groups to inform the biological goals of the recovery plans. The TRTs have also played an important a role in the recovery planning process by evaluating whether proposed recovery measures will achieve the desired recovery goals, and by reviewing the technical aspects of recovery plans to ensure that they are scientifically credible.
While several of the plans are still in development, the TRTs have largely completed their technical products related to plan development, and NMFS expects that most existing TRTs will be phased out as domain-specific recovery plans are completed.
NMFS is initiating a Recovery Implementation Science Team (RIST) to provide science support for recovery plan implementation, monitoring, and adaptive management across all geographic domains.
The domain-specific recovery plans are now nearing completion, and the TRTs have largely completed the tasks for which they were initially formed. However, there is a continuing need for broad-based scientific support for recovery plan implementation. Examples of ongoing science needs include:
- Analysis of the efficacy of particular recovery actions and the cumulative effects of suites of actions
- Development of monitoring and evaluation programs
- Scientific information and analysis to inform prioritization, sequencing, and development of effective strategies and actions
- Providing scientific review of plans and analyses for policy, funding, and oversight groups
The RIST will be a group with broad expertise that 1) provides scientific information supporting recovery implementation decisions, and ensures that a regional perspective is maintained for that information; 2) is responsible for communicating that information to NMFS offices within the region through the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC), as well as potentially to regional recovery planning groups, and other stakeholders; and 3) can form task teams to complete specific analyses, reviews or evaluations. Information from the RIST will be scientific or technical and is intended to inform policy and management decisions: not to prescribe or make decisions.
More information about the RIST, including a call for nominations for membership
last modified 02/08/2008