NMFS Grows Demanding

A letter from NMFS to CDF regarding THP review:

Information Needs in a Timber Harvest Plan

The information in THPs and other documents of proposed logging operations needs to be sufficiently clear and detailed to permit timely, adequate and effective review by NMFS field offices to assure that significant adverse impacts, individual or cumulative, are avoided or reduced to insignificance.

The following specific information shall be provided to NMFS field offices when requesting review of THPs or other logging operations:

*Current documentation, and source identification for the presence or absence of salmonids in the Watershed Assessment Area (WAA) and Biological Assessment Area (BAA) encompassing the project area, including unsurveyed streams. The THP will include all pe rtinent information regarding the WAA and BAA from CDF&G, RWQCB and other local, state and federal agencies. Where current information is not available, the RPF may be required to conduct surveys, or contract with a licensed biologist to obtain this information.

*Regional maps depicting project location.

*WAA and BAA maps at a scale of no less than 1' = 2000'; these maps should show past, present and reasonably foreseeable project boundaries.

*Aerial photographs, preferably several sets from different years of the project area; at least one set after a major storm event (e.g., post 1964; 1972; 1975; 1998) and a more current set.

*Discussion of past, present, proposed and reasonably foreseeable future projects (with projected timing); include discussion of significant continuing environmental problems related to these projects, including all active and potential sources of erosio n and sedimentation (landslides/gullies), a description of past riparian buffers and a discussion of the remaining riparian forest; include any cumulative impacts analysis done on projects in the WAA and BAA; not all past FPR violations in the WAA and BAA, along with corrective and mitigation measures, noting whether on-site or off-site; mapping of the above items on a scale of 1'"= 200' or if not available, 1"=500'.

*The RPF shall specifically identify: the proximity of the action to listed salmonids, the geographic distribution of disturbance over which the THP may affect salmonids, the potential effect of the THP on salmonids in the project are, the potential duration of the effect on salmonids, and the number, or frequency of disturbance from a particular THP on salmonids.