53 



With respect to the habitat sector specifically, we are working 

 closely with the USPS and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) . 

 We are presently working with the USPS on over 70 different 

 actions in nine different national forests. The USPS has 

 indicated that as many as 10,000 actions may affect listed 

 salmon. Por the BLM, actions in four districts within three 

 States could affect salmon. 



Actions from both these agencies include grazing, mining, road 

 construction, recreation, fisheries enhancement, timber sales and 

 salvage sales. Unless proper safeguards are taken as part of 

 planning and implementation, these actions have the potential to 

 severely impact the remaining habitat necessary to maintain 

 viable anadromous fish populations. The USPS has notified us 

 that over 200 grazing allotments require section 7 consultations. 

 The BLM also has several hundred grazing allotments that may 

 require consultations. In addition, numerous consultations on 

 salvage timber sales must be completed. 



NMFS has met with USPS several times to develop a more efficient 

 process to review the thousands of actions requiring 

 consultation. In January 1993, NMPS and USPS adopted a more 

 comprehensive process for completing consultations. Basically, 

 this approach will group actions by geographic area (watershed) 

 and resource (e.g., range, timber, mining), rather than 



