Biological Opinion: Bureau of Land Management Grazing Activities Affecting MiddleColumbia River Steelhead 2000 and 2001. Lower Deschutes River Basin

摘要

On September 29, 2000, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) received aSeptember 27, 2000, letter from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Prineville District, Deschutes Resource Area (DRA) requesting formal consultation regarding the potential effects of their proposed livestock grazing activities for calendar year 2001 on Middle Columbia River (MCR) steelhead Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU). The accompanying Biological Assessment (BA) described ongoing and proposed livestock grazing actions for calendar years 2000 and 2001 and the environmental baseline, and addressed the effects of those ongoing and proposed livestock grazing actions on MCR steelhead in the Lower Deschutes River basin within the BLM's Deschutes Resource Area. NMFS listed the MCR steelhead (Onchorynchus mykiss) as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) on March 25, 1999 (64 FR 14517). The objective of this biological opinion (Opinion) is to determine whether the subject livestock grazing actions for calendar years 2000 and 2001 are likely to jeopardize the continued existence of MCR steelhead or result in the destruction or adverse modification of designated critical habitat for MCR steelhead.