Biological Opinions - Bureau of Reclamation

12.6 Integration and Synthesis
The integration and synthesis is the final step of the NMFS’ assessment of the risk posed to
species as a result of implementing the proposed action. In this section, NMFS adds the effects
of the action to the environmental baseline and the cumulative effects to formulate NMFS’
biological opinion on whether the proposed action is likely to result in appreciable reductions in
the likelihood of both survival and recovery of the species in the wild by reducing its numbers,
reproduction, or distribution. This assessment is made in full consideration of the status of the
species.
In the Status of the Species section, NMFS summarized the currently high extinction risk of the
SONCC coho salmon ESU. The factors that led to the listing of SONCC coho salmon ESU as a
threatened species and the currently high extinction risk include past and ongoing human
activities, climatological trends and ocean conditions. Beyond the continuation of the human
activities affecting the species, NMFS also expects that ocean conditions and climatic shifts will
continue to have both positive and negative effects on the species’ ability to survive and recover.
The extinction risk criteria established for the SONCC coho salmon ESU are intended to
represent a species, including its constituent populations, that is able to respond to environmental
changes and withstand adverse environmental conditions. Thus, when NMFS determines that a
species or population has a high or moderate risk of extinction, NMFS also understands that
future environmental changes could have significant consequences on the species’ ability to
become conserved. Also, concluding that a species has a moderate or high risk of extinction
does not mean that the species has little or no potential to become viable, but that the species
faces moderate to high risks from internal and external processes that can drive a species to
extinction. With this understanding of the current risk of extinction of the SONCC coho salmon
ESU, NMFS will analyze whether the added effects of the proposed action are likely to increase
the species’ extinction risk, while integrating the effects of the environmental baseline, other
activities that are interdependent or interrelated with the proposed action, and cumulative effects.
All four VSP parameters for the SONCC coho salmon ESU are indicative of a species facing
moderate to high risks of extinction from myriad threats. As noted previously, in order for the
SONCC coho salmon ESU to be viable, all seven diversity strata that comprise the species must
be viable and meet certain criteria for population representation, abundance, and diversity.
Current information indicates that the species is presently vulnerable to further impacts to its
abundance and productivity (Good et al. 2005, Ly and Ruddy 2011).
Known or estimated abundance of the SONCC coho salmon populations indicates most
populations have relatively low abundance and are at high risk of extinction. Species diversity
has declined and is influenced, in part, by the large proportion of hatchery fish that comprise the
ESU. Population growth rates appear to be declining in many areas and distribution of the
species has declined. Population growth rates, abundance, diversity, and distribution have been
affected by both anthropogenic activities and environmental variation in the climate and ocean
conditions. The species’ reliance on productive ocean environments, wetter climatological
conditions and a diversity of riverine habitats to bolster or buffer populations against adverse
367