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Federal land management agencies, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau 

 of Land Management, have not provided for public participation 

 other than through the NEPA process. 



NMFS has provided several significant opportunities for public 

 involvement in other aspects of the ESA process which are 

 summarized by activity. 



Listing Process 



Following receipt of the petitions for Snake River sockeye and 

 Chinook, NMFS established an external Biological Technical 

 Committee and a Peer Review Group to assist in the listing 

 assessment process. The Biological Technical Committee was 

 composed of 34 qualified biologists representing a broad range of 

 Columbia Basin interests (see Attachment 1) . More than 10 

 meetings, each open to the public, were convened by the committee 

 during its tenure at different locations throughout the 

 Northwest. In addition, information developed by the committee, 

 NMFS, or materials submitted by interested parties, have been 

 maintained in five administrative records for public inspection 

 in Boise, Idaho, Portland, Oregon (2) , Newport, Oregon, and 

 Seattle, Washington. These records are updated on a regular 

 basis and currently number more than one million pages. A 

 mailing list also has been established to inform responsible 

 entities and interested parties of significant issues and to 

 solicit comments. Eleven public hearings were held in Idaho, 

 Oregon, and Washington to provide multiple opportunities for 

 public comment on proposed listings and proposed critical habitat 

 designation. The Peer Review Group was composed of academic 

 scientists from the University of Washington, Oregon State 

 University, University of Idaho, and University of British 

 Columbia who were available to provide expert advise on the 

 scientific issues such as species definition, biodiversity, etc. 

 Subsequent petitions for Illinois River steelhead, Umpqua River 

 searun cutthroat trout, coastal coho, mid-Columbia summer 

 Chinook, and Deer Creek summer steelhead will involve state and 

 tribal biologists to assist in status reviews. NMFS also has 

 made open solicitations in the Federal Register to obtain 

 additional biological information to consider in decisions on 

 whether to propose the petitioned species for listing. 



Critical Habitat 



NMFS initiated a similar approach to that used for listing for 

 the critical habitat process. The Biological Technical Committee 

 was asked to identify biological and physical features they 

 believed were critical to each of the Snake River species. Since 

 economics is considered in the critical habitat designations, 

 NMFS established an Economics Technical Committee made up of 29 

 qualified economists to assist our contract economist in 

 evaluating the costs of designating critical habitat. These 



