NOAA Fisheries Recovery Planning

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 requires NOAA Fisheries to develop recovery plans for marine species listed under the Act.  NOAA Fisheries has delineated recovery domains, or geographic recovery planning areas, for ESA-listed salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin.  These domains are the Willamette/Lower Columbia domain and the Interior Columbia domain, which has three sub-domains: the Middle Columbia, the Upper Columbia and the Snake.

This map shows the NOAA recovery domains and the species of listed fish that each addresses.

Stakeholder involvement

Recovery planning is a collaborative effort that draws on the collective knowledge, expertise, and actions to date of communities and partnerships. NOAA Fisheries has taken a decentralized, multi-jurisdictional approach to salmon recovery planning in the Pacific Northwest. Each domain, for instance, may be subdivided into several management units, based on jurisdictional boundaries as well as areas where local planning efforts were underway.

State, tribal and federal entities developed planning forums building on ongoing, locally led recovery efforts. In Washington State, for instance, NOAA Fisheries is working with state-established recovery boards. In Oregon, stakeholder and watershed groups are actively participating. In Idaho, NOAA Fisheries is working hand in hand with the State to facilitate local involvement.

Modules

In addition to the geographically-based recovery plans, NOAA Fisheries has also developed several "modules". These modules address activities or regional policy issues that occur outside of a sub-basin or domain that will have an affect on the fish that originate there. Each local plan then would incorporate by reference the applicable set of modules. In this way, policies are clarified across all the domains and the recovery plans are consistent in their treatment of the effects of actions that happen outside the domain.

For more information on NOAA Fisheries' recovery planning, see their web page.