Final Habitat Conservation Plan Review

1.1 PROJECT BACKGROUND
The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is in the initial stages of developing two Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) for federally listed and other sensitive species. One HCP would cover activities conducted under the Hydraulic Project Approval (HPA) program for aquatic species protection, and the other would cover the 840,000 acres of wildlife areas WDFW owns and/or manages. Activities covered by these HCPs would range from in-stream structures and construction to weed management and recreational activities (e.g., hiking, biking, equestrian).

To help in establishing the foundation for this effort, Parametrix has been contracted by WDFW to research and review HCPs nationwide that have been completed and/or are near completion that address both terrestrial and aquatic species and may be similar in scope to one or both of the potential WDFW HCPs.

1.2 PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this report is to provide WDFW with information on large-scale, recently completed multi-species HCPs, so that WDFW will have further knowledge of the effort needed and potential approaches for their HPA and Wildlife Areas HCP projects. Report objectives include providing basic information on the reviewed HCPs, such as geographic size of the coverage area and number of species covered, as well as more detailed information on approaches to �"take” assessment, implementation, adaptive management, and other HCP components.