Federal Register / Vol. 46. No. 15 / Friday. January 23. 1981 / Notices 



7657 



appropriate mitigation planning goal 

 should be considered as enhancement 

 measures. The Service strongly supports 

 enhancement offish and wildlife 

 resouroes. The Service will recommend 

 that all opportunities for fish and 

 wildlife resource enhancement be 

 thoroughly considered and included in 

 project plans, to the extent practicable. 



IV. DEFINITION OF MITIGATION 



The President's Council on 

 Environmental Quality defined the term 

 "mitigation" in ie National 

 Environmental Policy Act regulations to 

 include: "(a] avoiding the impact 

 altogether by not taldng a certain action 

 or parts of an action; (b)*minimizing 

 impacts by limiting the degree or 

 magnitude of the action and its 

 implementation; (c) rectifying the impact 

 by repairing, rehabilitating, or restoring 

 the affected environment: (d] reducing 

 or eliminating the impact over time by 

 preservation and maintenance 

 operations during the life of the action: 

 and (e) compensating for the impact by 

 replacing or providing substitute 

 resources or environments." (40 CFR 

 Part 1508.20(a-e)). 



The Service supports and adopts this 

 definition of mitigation and considers 

 the specific elements to represent the 

 desirable sequence of steps in the 

 mitigation planning process. (See 

 Appendix B for definitions of other 

 important terms necessary to 

 understand this policy.) 



V. MITIGATION POUCY OF THE U.S. 

 FISH AND WILOUFE SERVICE 



The overall goals and objectives of 

 the Service are outlined in the Service 

 Management Plan and an accompanying 

 Important Resource Problems document 

 which describes specific fish and 

 wildlife problems of importance for 

 plaiming purposes. Goals and objectives 

 for Service activities related to land and 

 water development are contained in the 

 Habitat Preservation Program 

 Management Document The mitigation 

 policy was designed to stand on its own: 

 however, these documents will be 

 considted by Service personnel to 

 provide the proper perspective for the 

 Service mitigation policy. They are 

 available upon request from the 

 Director. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

 Washington, D.C 20240. 



A. General Policy 



The mission of the U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service is to: 



PROVIDE THE FEDERAL LEADERSHIP TO 

 CONSERVE. PROTECT AND ENHANCE 

 FISH AND WILDLIFE AND THEIR 

 HA BITAT S FOR THE CONTINUING 

 BENEFIT OF THE PEOPLE. 



The goal of Service activities oriented 

 toward land and water development 

 responds to Congressional direction that 

 fish and wildlife resource conservation 

 receive equal consideration and be 

 coordinated with other features of 

 Federal resource development and 

 regulatory programs through effective 

 and harmonious planning, development, 

 maintenance and coordination offish 

 and wildlife resource conservation and 

 rehabilitation in the United States, its 

 territories and possessions. The goal is 

 to: 



CONSERVE. PROTECT AND ENHANCE 

 FISH AND WILDLIFE AND THEIR 

 HABITATS AND FAOLITATE BALANCED 

 DEVELOPMENT OF THIS NATIONS 

 NATU RAL RESOURCES BY TIMELY AND 

 EFFECTIVE PROVISION OF HSH AND 

 WILDLIFE INFORMATION AND 

 RECOMMENDATIONS. 



Fish and wildlife and their habitats 

 are public resources with clear 

 commercial, recreational, social, and 

 ecological value to the Nation. They are 

 conserved and managed for the people 

 by State. Federal and Indian tribal 

 Governments. U land or water 

 developments are proposed which may 

 reduce or eliminate the public benefits 

 that are provided by such natural 

 resources, then State and Federal 

 resource agencies and Indian tribal 

 agencies have a responsibility to 

 recommend means and measures to 

 mitigate such losses. Accordingly: 



IN THE INTEREST OF SERVING THE 

 PUBLIC. IT IS THE POUCY OF THE UA 

 FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE TO SEEK 

 TO MITIGATE LOSSES OF FISH. 

 WILDLIFE. THEIR HABITATS. AND USES 

 THEREOF FROM LAND AND WATER 

 DEVELOPMENTS. 



In administering this policy, the 

 Service will strive to provide 

 information and recommendations that 

 fully support the Nation's need for fish 

 and wildlife resource conservation as 

 well as sound economic and social 

 development through balanced multiple 

 use of the Nation's natural resouroes. 

 The Service will actively seek to 

 facilitate needed development and 

 avoid confiicts and delays through early 

 involvement in land and water 

 development planning activities in 

 advance of proposals for specific 

 projects or during the early planning and 

 design stage of specific projects. 



This should include early 

 identification of resource areas 

 containing high and low habitat values 

 for important species and the 



development of ecological design 

 information that outlines specific 

 practicable means and measures for 

 avoiding or minimizing impacts. The 

 former can be used by developers to site 

 projects in the least valuable areas. This 

 could possibly lower total project costs 

 to development interests, "niese actions 

 are part of good planning and are in the 

 best public interest 



The early provision of information to 

 private and public agencies in a form 

 which enables them to avoid or 

 minimize fish and wildlife losses as a 

 part of initial project design is the 

 preferred. form offish and wildlife 

 conservation. 



B. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

 Mitigation Planning Goals by Resource 

 Category 



The planning goals and guidelines 

 that follow will be used to guide Service 

 recommendations on mitigation of 

 project impacts. Four Resource 

 Categories are used to indicate that the 

 level of mitigation recommended will be 

 consistent with the fish and. wildlife 

 resource values involved. 



The policy.covers impacts to fish and 

 wildlife populations, their habitat and 

 the human uses thereof However, the 

 primary focus in terms of specific 

 guidance is on recommendations related 

 to habitat value losses. In many cases, 

 compensation of habitat value losses 

 should result in replacement of fish and 

 wildlife populations and human uses. 

 But where it does not the Service will 

 recommend appropriate additional 

 means and measures. 



RESOURCE CATEGORY 1 



a. Designation Cdteiia 



Habitat to be impacted is of high 

 value for evaluation spedes and is 

 unique and irreplaceable on a national 

 basiiB or in the ecoregion section. 



b. Mlligadon Goal 



No Loss of Existing Habitat Value. 

 cGuideliiM 



The Service will recommend that all 

 losses of existing habitat be prevented 

 as these one-of-a-kind areas cannot be 

 replaced. Insignificant changes that do 

 not result in adverse impacts on habitat 

 value may be acceptable provided they 

 vnU have no significant omiulative 

 impact 



RESOURCE CATEGORY 2 

 a. Designation Critena 



Habitat to be impacted is of high 

 value for evaluation species and is 

 relatively scarce or becoming scarce on ( 

 a national basis or in the ecoregion 

 section. 



