Contact:  Rob Jones              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
          Mike Fergus            11/24/97
          Brian Gorman

The National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing to designate critical habitat for two distinct groups or Evolutionarily Significant Units (ESUs) of coho salmon along the southern Oregon and north-central California coasts, the agency announced today. Coho salmon in these areas are already protected as threatened species under the Endangered Species Act because their numbers have declined to such low levels.

The fisheries service anticipates that the proposed critical habitat designation will have minimal economic and other impacts. The designation is aimed at complementing federal and state efforts already underway to restore the once abundant coho or silver salmon and is not expected to further restrict human activities or require any specific management or recovery actions.

No new regulations follow critical habitat designation.

Critical habitat for threatened or endangered species includes areas within the species' range that have the physical and biological features essential for the survival of the species and that may require special management.

Such designation complements efforts to conserve a species by identifying critically important areas, and by describing features within those areas essential to the species. A designation thus alerts the public and private entities of the area's importance, and helps focus federal, state and private conservation and management efforts in those areas. Because these same areas are also important to steelhead, chinook salmon, and cutthroat trout, critical habitat designation will benefit these species too.

Proposed critical habitat for the Central California Coast ESU encompasses accessible reaches of all rivers (including estuaries and tributaries) south of Punta Gorda up to and including California's San Lorenzo River. Also included are two rivers entering San Francisco Bay: Mill Valley Creek and Corte Madera Creek.

Proposed critical habitat for the Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast coho salmon ESU includes accessible reaches of all rivers (including estuaries and tributaries) between California's Mattole River and Oregon's Elk River.

The fisheries service has identified twelve dams in the range of these coho ESUs that block access to habitats historically occupied by the salmon. These inaccessible areas have not been proposed as critical habitat because other coho-accessible areas are likely to have sufficient production potential to support coho restoration.

The fisheries service isn't proposing to designate ocean areas as critical habitat.

Interested parties may provide oral and written testimony at three public hearings. All hearings will run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the following locations:

     1 Monday, Dec. 8, 1997 -- Gold Beach City Hall, City Council Chambers,
          29592  Ellensburg Avenue, Gold Beach, OR
     2.   Tuesday, Dec. 9, 1997 -- Eureka Inn, 518 7th Street, Eureka, CA
     Thursday, Dec. 11, 1997 -- Days Inn, 185 Railroad Street, Santa Rosa, CA

Written comments may be sent to NMFS, Protected Resources Division, 525 NE Oregon St., Suite 500, Portland, OR 97232-2737, until Jan. 25, 1998. Access to the Federal Register, where a copy of the proposed critical habitat designation appears, can be found at the Government Printing Office's website at http://www.gpo.gov

Notice to Editors: Maps of the two ESUs are available by e-mail or fax.