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Lower Columbia River Salmon Recovery Region

Species Listed

Area: The Lower Columbia River Salmon Recovery Region encompasses five counties in Southwest Washington. This Region includes:

• Human Population: 544,000
• Counties: Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis, Skamania, and Wahkiakum, and portions of Pacific and Klickitat
• Water Resources Inventory Area WRIAs: Willapa (24 - Chinook and Wallacut Rivers), Grays-Elochoman (25), Cowlitz (26), Lewis (27), Salmon-Washougal (28), and Wind/White Salmon (29)
• Federally Recognized Tribes: Cowlitz Tribe

Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board

Origins and organization: The Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board (LCFRB) originated through the request of local governments, primarily five counties (Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis, Skamania, Wahkiakum), that resulted in1998 legislation authorizing the Board. The LCFRB charter is contained in RCW 77.85 which officially recognizes the LCFRB as a regional organization, and authorizes it to prepare recovery plans and to implement the habitat portion of such plans for steelhead and other ESA listed species at an ESU scale.  Board membership is also spelled out in statute and consists of five county commissioners, five citizens appointed by the commissioners (one from each county), one city representative, one state legislator, and one representative each from the Cowlitz tribe, hydropower utilities, and the environmental community. A Recovery Planning Steering Committee under the auspices of the Board consists of six representatives from the LCFRB, including two county commissioners, the Cowlitz tribal chairman, a mayor, and two citizen reps; staff representing the Cowlitz Tribe and Yakama Nation; representatives from hydropower and forestry; and representatives from the Governor's Salmon Recovery Office (GSRO), the Lower Columbia River Estuary Program, NOAA-F, NW Power and Conservation Council (NPCC), Corps of Engineers, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and WDFW.

Relationship to other efforts: The LCFRB serves as the NPCC sub-basin planning organization, Lead Entity for the state habitat protection and restoration program (2496), and lead agency for state watershed planning (2514) in two planning units WRIAs 25-26 and WRIA 27-28. The LCFRB has particular responsibility for habitat portions of a recovery plan related to local government responsibilities, but its recovery plan addresses all four H's (habitat, hatcheries, harvest, and hydropower). In February 2006, NMFS adopted the LCFRB’s recovery plan as the Washington portion of the full ESU plan.  The LCFRB is now coordinating with Oregon and NMFS in development of a full ESU-scale recovery plan (i.e. both WA and OR portions).

Lower Columbia River Recovery Plan
As of 1/07