ILF - Arizona Game and Fish Department
ILF - Arizona Game and Fish Department
ILF - Arizona Game and Fish Department
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c) Provide a professionally-managed alternative to permittee-responsible compensatory<br />
mitigation.<br />
d) Minimize the temporal loss of functions <strong>and</strong> services by gaining approval of mitigation<br />
sites in advance or concurrently with mitigation needs.<br />
e) Provide projects <strong>and</strong> services to meet current <strong>and</strong> future dem<strong>and</strong> for credits.<br />
f) Achieve verifiable improvements on a watershed basis.<br />
g) Establish a long-term funding mechanism for the protection <strong>and</strong> management of<br />
mitigation projects.<br />
7. Establishment <strong>and</strong> Operation of the State-wide program<br />
a. The Statewide <strong>ILF</strong> Instrument<br />
The structure of the <strong>Department</strong>’s <strong>ILF</strong> Program is outlined in this statewide <strong>ILF</strong> Instrument,<br />
which is intentionally broad <strong>and</strong> will set the framework under which <strong>Department</strong>-sponsored<br />
<strong>ILF</strong> projects will be identified, funded, operated, maintained <strong>and</strong> managed. The <strong>ILF</strong><br />
Instrument will include a compensation planning framework to select, secure, <strong>and</strong><br />
implement aquatic resource restoration, establishment, enhancement, <strong>and</strong> preservation<br />
activities utilizing a watershed approach.<br />
b. Service Areas<br />
Service areas will be sized appropriately to ensure that the aquatic resources provided by an<br />
<strong>ILF</strong> project will effectively compensate for expected adverse impacts. Priority will be given<br />
to compensatory mitigation projects in the same geographic service area where impacts<br />
occur.<br />
AGFD proposes that service areas be the eight watersheds defined by the USGS Hydrologic<br />
Unit Codes (HUC-4) within the State of <strong>Arizona</strong> (Figure 1). These include the Lower<br />
Colorado/Lake Mead (1501), Little Colorado (1502), Lower Colorado (1503), Upper Gila<br />
(1504), Middle Gila (1505), Salt (1506), Lower Gila (1507) <strong>and</strong> Sonora (1508). Proposed<br />
service areas for individual <strong>ILF</strong> projects will be identified in site-specific mitigation plans,<br />
based on an analysis of the extent of ecologically similar areas, the expected amount <strong>and</strong><br />
type of mitigation required in the service area (dem<strong>and</strong>) compared with the aquatic resources<br />
<strong>and</strong> amount of credits that are expected from an <strong>ILF</strong> project, population <strong>and</strong> growth<br />
information, ongoing watershed management programs, <strong>and</strong> the watershed’s compensation<br />
planning framework. Due to the relatively small size of the 1508 HUC, it is proposed that<br />
impacts occurring within that HUC may be mitigated within any of the adjacent HUCs (1504,<br />
1505 or 1507), whichever is most appropriate <strong>and</strong> agreed upon by the Corps. Final service<br />
area determinations will be made by the Corps in consultation with the IRT.<br />
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