Status Review Update for the Steelhead Northern California Evolutionarily Significant Unit

In December 1997, the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) Steelhead Biological Review Team (BRT) concluded that steelhead (anadromous Oncorhynchus mykiss) in the North California Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU) were "likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future" (Schiewe 1997). This listing action was a response to petitions seeking protection for steelhead under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The listing action initiated status reviews of multiple steelhead ESUs including Northern California (Busby et al. 1994, 1996, Schiewe 1997). NMFS subsequently made a decision to allow steelhead in the Northern California ESU to remain as a candidate species due to an evaluation of State and Federal conservation measures. Conservation measures which reduced threats to steelhead in the Northern California ESU were primarily the implementation of a North Coast Steelhead Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the State of California. This MOA provided a number of protections, including a package of proposed forest practice rule revisions to strengthen non Federal forest protections, a change in harvest regulations, a review of California hatchery practices, implementation of habitat restoration activities, and implementation of a monitoring program. On October 6, 1999, the California Board of Forestry failed to take action on the package of forest practice rules. The NMFS Southwest Region (SWR) regarded this failure as a breach of the MOA. Subsequent to the breach of the MOA, NMFS announced its intention to reconsider the March 19, 1998 decision not to list steelhead in the Northern California ESU. This Status Review update examines new or updated information on Northern California Steelhead ESU available since the previous Status Review. 2000 NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) SWFSC (Southwest Fisheries Science Center) Library Public Domain 1862