The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has extended the comment period on proposed regulations pertaining to take of threatened West Coast steelhead. This rule would apply to threatened steelhead runs in the Central Valley and along the Central California Coast from Sonoma County to San luis Obispo County. The deadline for submitting comments on this rule has been extended from February 22 to March 6, 2000.

Under Section 4(d) of the federal Endangered Species Act NMFS is required to propose regulations it believes necessary and advisable to conserve listed threatened steelhead runs. This proposal would generally extend the Endangered Species Act Section 9 take prohibitions to threatened runs unless an activity is considered an “exception” that is within a limit on take provisions provided in the rule. Unscreened water diversions that affect threatened juvenile salmonids are an example of management activities that will be considered “take” once the proposed rule is made final.

ACWA Work Group
The ACWA Anadromous Species Task Force has formed an ad hoc work group to review the proposed rule and develop ACWA comments. For information on the activities of the ACWA 4(d) rule work group, please call ACWA Regulatory Affairs Specialist David Bolland at 916.441.4545.

Questions on Proposed Rule?
For more information on the proposed 4(d) rule contact Garth Griffin of NMFS at 503.231.2005 or Craig Wingert of NMFS at 562.980.4021.