EPA's Vessel General Permit and Small Vessel General

Critical Habitat
NMFS designated critical habitat for Columbia River chum salmon on September 2, 2005 (70
FR 52630). The designated includes defined areas in the following subbasins: Middle
Columbia/Hood, Lower Columbia/Sandy, Lewis, Lower Columbia/Clatskanie, Lower Cowlitz,
Lower Columbia subbasin and river corridor. 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.
The critical habitat designation for this ESU identifies primary constituent elements that include
sites necessary to support one or more chum salmon life stages. These areas are important for
the species’ overall conservation by protecting quality growth, reproduction, and feeding and are
rated as having high conservation value to the species. Columbia River chum salmon have
primary constituent elements of freshwater spawning, freshwater rearing, freshwater migration,
estuarine areas free of obstruction, nearshore marine areas free of obstructions and offshore
marine areas with good water quality. The physical or biological features that characterize these
sites include water quality and quantity, natural cover, forage, adequate passage conditions, and
floodplain connectivity. Of 21 subbasins reviewed in NMFS' assessment of critical habitat for
the Columbia River chum salmon ESU, three subbasins were rated as having a medium
conservation value, no subbasins were rated as low, and the majority of subbasins (18), were
rated as having a high conservation value to Columbia River chum salmon. The major factors
limiting recovery for Columbia River chum salmon are altered channel form and stability in
tributaries, excessive sediment in tributary spawning gravels, altered stream flow in tributaries
and the mainstem Columbia River, loss of some tributary habitat types, and harassment of
spawners in the tributaries and mainstem.
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 Columbia River chum salmon ESU.
Hood Canal Summer-Run Chum Salmon
Distribution and Description of the Listed Species
The Hood Canal summer-run chum salmon ESU includes all naturally spawned populations of
summer-run chum salmon in Hood Canal and its tributaries as well as populations in Olympic
Peninsula rivers between Hood Canal and Dungeness Bay, Washington (64 FR 14508) from
mid-September to mid-October (WDF 1993), but may enter natal rivers in late August. Eight
artificial propagation programs are considered to be part of the ESU.
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