What are the physical or biological features essential to the conservation of Pacific salmon and steelhead?
The biological report, mentioned in Question 1, describes the life history of salmon and steelhead, the physical and biological features essential to their conservation, and our process for determining whether those features are present in areas occupied by the fish. Our biologists developed a list of features (also known as primary constituent elements, or PCEs), which include sites essential to support one or more life stages (sites for spawning, rearing, migration and foraging). These sites in turn contain physical or biological features essential to the conservation of an ESU (for example, spawning gravels, water quality and quantity, side channels, forage species). For a complete description of these features, please refer to the Federal Register Notice or the biological report mentioned in Question 1. 5. How does critical habitat get designated? The ESA requires that we designate critical habitat using the best scientific information available, in an open public process, at the t
