EPA's Vessel General Permit and Small Vessel General

hydrological units: Tehama, Whitmore, Redding, Eastern Tehama, Sacramento Delta, Valley-
Putach-Cache, American River, Marysville, Yuba, Valley American, Colusa Basin, Butte Creek,
Ball Mountain, Shata Bally, North Valley Floor, Upper Calaveras, Stanislaus River, San Joaquin
Valley, Delta-Mendota Canal, North Diablo Range and the San Joaquin Delta. These areas are
important for the species’ overall conservation by protecting quality growth, reproduction, and
feeding. The critical habitat designation for this ESU identifies primary constituent elements that
include sites necessary to support one or more steelhead life stages. Specific sites include
freshwater spawning sites, freshwater rearing sites, freshwater migration corridors, nearshore
marine habitat and estuarine areas. The physical or biological features that characterize these
sites include water quality and quantity, natural cover, forage, adequate passage conditions, and
floodplain connectivity. The critical habitat designation (70 FR 52488) contains additional
details on the sub-areas that are included as part of this designation, and the areas that were
excluded from designation.
In total, California Central Valley steelhead occupy 67 watersheds (freshwater and estuarine).
The total area of habitat designated as critical includes about 2,300 miles of stream habitat and
about 250 square miles of estuarine habitat in the San Francisco-San Pablo-Suisan Bay estuarine
complex. This designation includes the stream channels within the designated stream reaches,
and includes a lateral extent as defined by the ordinary high water line. In areas where the
ordinary high-water line is not defined the lateral extent is defined as the bankfull elevation. In
estuarine areas the lateral extent is defined by the extreme high water because extreme high tide
areas encompass those areas typically inundated by water and regularly occupied by juvenile
salmon during the spring and summer, when they are migrating in the nearshore zone and relying
on cover and refuge qualities provided by these habitats, and while they are foraging. Of the 67
watersheds reviewed in NMFS' assessment of critical habitat for California Central Valley
steelhead, seven watersheds received a low rating of conservation value, three received a
medium rating, and 27 received a high rating of conservation value for the species.
Final Protective Regulations
On June 28, 2005, as part of the final listing determinations for 16 ESUs of West Coast salmon,
NMFS amended and streamlined the 4(d) protective regulations for threatened salmon and
steelhead (70 FR 37160) as described in the Protective Regulations for Threatened Salmonid
Species section of this document. Under this change, the section 4(d) protections apply to
natural and hatchery fish with an intact adipose fin, but not to listed hatchery fish that have had
their adipose fin removed prior to release into the wild. The amended June 2005 4(d) rule
applies to the California Central Valley steelhead DPS.
Lower Columbia River Steelhead
Distribution and Description of the Listed Species
Lower Columbia River steelhead include naturally produced steelhead returning to Columbia
River tributaries on the Washington side between the Cowlitz and Wind rivers in Washington
and on the Oregon side between the Willamette and Hood rivers, inclusive. In the Willamette
River, the upstream boundary of this species is at Willamette Falls. This species includes both
winter and summer steelhead. Two hatchery populations are included in this species, the
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