Seattle. Washington; Newport, Oregon; and two in Portland, 

 Oregon. In addition, the Team consulted extensively with 

 resource managers, tribal representatives, environmental 

 groups, and various industries, and invited participation 

 from all interested parties at 27 public meetings convened in 

 Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. 



On October 20. 1993. the Team sent a draft of the recovery 

 recommendations to fellow scientists and managers and 

 asked them for a peer review. The purpose of this review 

 was to ensure that the factual materials were correct, and 

 that the Team's analyses and interpretations were 

 scientifically sound. The requested input was due on 

 December 6. 1993, and approximately 170 comments were 

 received. The Team's present recommendations incorporate 

 revisions based on these comments and updated information 

 and analysis. 



WHAT IS THE GOAL OF 

 THE TEAM'S RECOVERY 

 RECOMMENDATIONS? 



The goal of the Team's recovery recommendations is to 

 restore the Snake River salmon to naturally reproducing 

 self-sustaining populations. Once that is achieved, they will 

 no longer face the serious risk of extinction that caused their 

 listing as threatened or endangered under the Endangered 

 Species Act. However, the Team also recognizes and 

 supports the idea that one day the Snake River salmon 

 should go beyond Endangered Species Act-mandated 

 recovery and once again generate harvestable surplus that 

 will contribute to the social, cultural, and economic benefit 

 of the Pacific Northwest. 



In order to delist the Snake River salmon, survival should be 

 improved in every segment of their life history. Recovery 

 must address the total sequence of habitats and life history 

 stages, not simply concentrate on a single type or aspect of 

 action. Moreover, it is important to remember that actions 

 taken at one stage in the life cycle will a<most certainly have 

 consequences in another life stage. 



Thus, the Team decided that a holistic life-cycle approach 

 must be taken, with the intent being to focus on improving 

 survival at each life stage so that the sum of all 

 improvements will turn the trend toward recovery of self- 

 sustaining productivity. Also, the Team intends that 

 significant improvements in such factors as fish passage and 

 ocean survival will directly benefit any anadromous species 

 sharing those critical environments with the listed salmon. 



10 — 



The Team's recovery efforts are coordinated to address 

 salmon productivity in each phase of the life cycle of the 

 stock and in every part of the habitat: spawning and rearing 

 habitats, tributary and mainstem migration corridors, ocean 

 harvest, and interactions with marine mammals are 

 addressed. Recovery efforts are focused on the life-cycle 

 segments where human influence can be effective, and those 

 points of focus may differ by species and by area. However, 

 the Team notes that it is essential that the protection and 

 restoration process be carried out on the ecosystem as a 

 whole — blending into one effort the various emphases on 

 individual environmental components. 



HOW WILL A RECOVERY 

 PLAN BE FINISHED AND 

 IMPLEMENTED? 



The National Marine Fisheries Service will review the 

 Team's recommendations and develop a Recovery Plan. 

 The Recovery Plan will be made available to the public. 

 The National Marine Fisheries Service will solicit public 

 comments from all interested parties and consider these 

 comments in developing a final Recovery Plan. 



The final Recovery Plan will not be self-implementing 

 under the Endangered Species Act. Instead, it will be used 

 by National Marine Fisheries Service to guide the various 

 agencies in refining their management plans, procedures, 

 and strategies. This is so that individual on-the-ground 

 operations will act in conjunction to help achieve recovery 

 of the listed species. The Team's recommendations include 

 an implementation schedule which, if followed, will 

 expedite progress toward recovery. National Marine 

 Fisheries Service' final Recovery Plan will also contain such 

 a schedule. 



Given that the Team's recotnmendations call for use of 

 adaptive management, and many of the recovery actions will 

 be addressed over jm extended period of time, the Team 

 recommends that a new group (the Salmon Oversight 

 Committee) be established to guide implementation efforts 

 over the long term (See Institutional and Management 

 Changes, next page). 



