• Develop and implement a coordinated and balanced statewide strategy that moves aggressively toward the goal while maintaining a healthy economy.
• Use sound scientific concepts, principles, and design approaches to guide development, implementation, monitoring, and revision of statewide and regional conservation frameworks and plans.
• Collaborate with Tribes, local governments, and the private sector to integrate local knowledge with flexibility and control at the local level into quantifiable state and regional salmon recovery plans. Regional plans should detail the desired future condition of the salmon resource and the future habitat conditions needed to support it. Incentives will be provided to assist and encourage development and implementation of regional structures.
• Provide guidelines and standards for use by local governments, which, if implemented, will extend any ESA protections granted the state.
• Monitor progress of state agencies and regional bodies in developing and implementing salmon recovery plans. In doing so, the state will provide technical, enforcement, and financial support in the highest priority areas.
• Compile relevant components of state and regional salmon recovery and species management plans into responses to the National Marine Fisheries Service for specific ESU listings.

The goals and objectives are translated into short and long-term conservation and recovery strategies. These will require all levels of government, business, the environmental community, and the public working together for us to be successful.

The 1999-2001 Action Plan identifies specific additional salmon recovery activities that state agencies are undertaking this biennium. It represents early actions in what will be a long-term implementation plan.

It should be noted that the Action Plan does not intend to include all state agency salmon-related activities. Its focus is new actions or modifications to existing activities that provide additional protection for salmon. For example, it does not include the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s base activities related to fish harvest and hatchery management and administration of the Hydraulics Code. Rather, it includes changes to those activities which will provide additional salmon protection.

The 1999-2001 actions are driven by the goals and objectives of the Strategy. These actions begin to implement:

• Major statewide policies and initiatives related to the "Four Hs" – habitat, harvest, hatcheries, and hyrdopower.
• Joint objectives for state agencies’ activities, such as cooperation to fully integrate enforcement, monitoring and data collection activities.
• Specific strategies and programmatic approaches that could lead to conservation of salmon and protection of state, local, and/or private actions from legal exposure under ESA.
• Monitoring of state and local progress in developing and implementing salmon recovery plans.
• Early and immediate actions to address key factors for decline where resource risks are severe.
• State participation in regional and local responses, including collaborative, incentive-based approaches to salmon recovery.

Implementation of the Strategy is a long-term task. It cannot be implemented to the same extent in all places at the same time. The Joint Natural Resources Cabinet, with legislative guidance expressed in recently enacted policy and funding legislation, has focused available resources (staffing and funding) in the 1999-01 Biennium on specific activities intended to build local and state capacity, as well as on-the-ground initiatives. Specifically the state agencies’ actions for this biennium are collectively targeted to:

• Strengthen state guidance and regulatory tools (e.g. Forest practices rules, Shoreline Guidelines, Hydraulic Project Approval) to increase protection of salmon, while meeting ESA requirements as defined by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Take action in established high priority geographic areas for habitat protection and restoration (e.g. setting instream flows in high priority basins, enforcing against illegal activities).
• Develop and provide regulatory and incentive-based guidance, technical information and technical and financial support to build capacity in local and regional groups to undertake salmon recovery and to ensure that local decisions are scientifically sound.
• Implement an adaptive management program including coordinated monitoring, information and data systems, and empirical research.
• Develop and implement education/outreach and volunteers programs to engage citizens in protection and restoration of salmon and its habitat.

Many of the actions will directly benefit regional and local recovery efforts. They also will provide the foundation for strategies to achieve ESA compliance and certainty by state agencies, local governments, and private property owners. The state approach to achieving ESA compliance is to minimize liability by establishing a framework of conditions under which economic activities may continue without being considered unlawful "taking", while at the same time providing a sound base for recovery. The state will pursue programmatic (instead of project-by-project or single entity) ESA approaches, grouping activities, projects, programs, and/or entities whenever possible, and pursue the following ESA compliance strategies concurrently:

• Section 7 consultation. Under Section 7 of the ESA, federal agencies undertaking activities affecting listed species must consult with the appropriate resource agency – either the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). While this Section 7 applies to federal agencies, several state programs and activities may be subject to or may be affected by the consultation requirements. Programmatic consultation is being pursued by federal and state agencies. Examples of section 7 ESA compliance strategies underway include state and local transportation projects receiving federal funds, adoption of water quality standards and revision of the Field Office Technical Guides used by NRCS and the Conservation Districts.
• Section 10. Under Section 10 of the ESA, state and local governmental entities as well as private parties may develop a habitat conservation plan (HCP) and apply for an incidental take permit (ITP) which would authorize the conduct of specific activities. Programmatic HCP is being proposed for the Forests and Fish agreement and for the Hydraulic Project Approval (HPA) program at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
• Section 4(d) rules for threatened species. Under Section 4(d) of the ESA, NMFS or the USFWS may adopt a federal rule that may provide exemptions or limits on take of threatened species for otherwise lawful activities undertaken or permitted by government entities meeting specific conditions. These activities would be exempt from the Section 9 take prohibition. Examples of proposed 4(d) exemptions being considered by NMFS include the Forests and Fish agreement and harvest and hatchery management practices.

The 1999-2001 Action Plan identifies, where appropriate, the ESA compliance strategy that is either underway or being considered for the action(s).

A major goal of the Strategy and the initial Action Plan is to achieve measurable improvements and progress toward recovery. In May 2000, the Joint Natural Resources Cabinet produced the Salmon Recovery Scorecard, a product that translates the salmon recovery goals and objectives into high level outcomes, and establishes performance measures to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the Action Plan and gauge progress on salmon recovery (see Background Information 1.). The Action Plan (see Background Information 2.) identifies key strategies and actions contributing to the Salmon Recovery Scorecard’s high level outcomes.

The link between the Strategy, the Action Plan, and the Salmon Recovery Scorecard is illustrated below:

How the pieces fit together: The Salmon Recovery Strategy was designed as a long-term guide of what we must achieve to recover salmon. The Action Plan outlines the state’s priority actions for short-term implementation of the Strategy. The Scorecard is our performance management system for tracking data, measuring progress, and changing course where needed.

Included with each action are the current dollars and FTEs allocated by each state agency for this activity in the 1999-2001 Biennium. In total, $247.1 million from state, federal, and local sources has been provided to implement state agency salmon recovery activities included in the Action Plan. State funds represent 74 percent ($183 million) of the total funds, with federal funds amounting to almost 25 percent ($60.8 million). The total amounts to two-tenths of one percent of the whole state general fund budget, and six-tenths of one percent of all expenditures for the entire state budget.

Almost half of the total funding, $120.5 million, supports the core elements of local and regional salmon recovery responses. Twenty-seven percent, or $67.4 million, is provided to implement programs to improve fish habitat such as the state’s Agriculture Strategy, the Forest and Fish Agreement, and fish passage. Of the remaining amounts, 7.5 percent ($18.7 million) is for adaptive management, 6 percent ($14.8 million) is for additional salmon recovery tools, 5.7 percent ($14.1 million) is for harvest management, 3.7 percent ($9.3 million) is for hatchery management, and less than one percent ($2,058,000) is for hydropower improvements.

In terms of total dollars contained in the Action Plan, almost 53.3 percent ($131 million) is provided as pass-through grants to local and regional efforts and 8.3 percent ($20.5 million) is allocated to provide technical assistance to local and regional salmon recovery entities. The remaining 38.4 percent ($94.9 million) is provided for state agency responsibilities. Details on all expenditures related to the Action Plan can be found in Background Information 3, in PDF format.

It should be noted that the Action Plan does not intend to include all state agency salmon related activities. Its focus is new actions or modifications to existing activities that provide additional protection for salmon. For example, it does not include the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s base activities related to fish harvest and hatchery management and its administration of the Hydraulics Code. Nor does it include the Department of Ecology’s base water resources and water quality program. Rather it includes changes to those activities, which will provide additional salmon protection. Other programs that may have some impact on salmon recovery but which are not covered in the Action Plan include grants through the Public Works Trust Fund, and the Department of Ecology’s water quality grant programs.

There are no expected changes in state funding levels for salmon recovery activities for the remainder of this biennium because the 2000 Legislature has adjourned. However, additional federal funding may become available later this biennium. President Clinton’s budget proposal for Federal FY 2001 includes an additional $25 million for salmon recovery grants, and another $20 million for the buyback of commercial fishing licenses. We will not know the financial outcome until Congress completes action on the Federal FY 2001 budget in the fall of 2000.

1.  The activities in the Action Plan are carried out in a collaborative, cooperative or coordinated way, defined as follows:

2.  Abbreviations used to code the actions:

3.  Acronym Agency