ODFW Plan Implementation - Coastal 2022

The purpose of this project was to implement the Oregon Coast Coho Conservation Plan by providing an Implementation Coordinator. The IC continued to participate as a member of the Coast Coho Partnership to develop population specific Oregon Coast (OC) Coho Business Plan strategic action plans (SAPs). This included regular participation in coordination, planning, and development meetings for the completion of the Nehalem, Coos, and Siletz SAPs, and development of the Tillamook and Coquille SAPs. The IC started the South Umpqua Coho Collaborative effort with basin partners to identify priority areas, strategies, and actions that address the factors limiting recovery of the South Umpqua OC Coho population to include in a restoration plan until an SAP is funded. The IC wrote a grant application for the NOAA’s FY2022 Coastal Habitat Restoration and Resilience Grant for Underserved Communities for a project manager to support implementation of the Nehalem SAP. The IC also provided grant writing support to the North Coast Watershed District Mid-Coast WOSRP biologist. The IC participated in meetings with the Beaver Coalition to discuss actions under the OWEB engagement grant for beaver and salmon on the Oregon Coast. The IC was the lead for the ODFW IIJA OC Coho Recovery focal theme and coordinated with district staff, basin land managers and restoration partners to identify and develop priority strategies and actions to support increasing the pace and scale of recovery actions for priority Coho populations, which were identified based on viability and/or sustainability indicators and ESA delisting criteria. The IC completed final review of the Oregon Coast Coho Conservation Plan (OCCCP) 2019 12-Year Assessment (finalized in 2021), completed the OCCCP 2020 and 2021 Annual Reports, and began drafting the 2022 Annual Report. In coordination with ODFW colleagues, the IC completed the 2021 Coastal Multi-Species Conservation and Management Plan (CMP) Annual Report and started the 2022 Annual Report.



As an additional part of plan implementation, ODFW funded four Western Oregon Stream Restoration Program (WOSRP) biologists who worked in the Oregon Coast ESU. The WOSRP biologists provided local watershed councils and landowners with initial assessments of limiting factors for potential project sites, information about how potential projects fit within basin priorities for restoration, and designs for habitat restoration projects.

The goal of this project is to successfully implement the Coastal coho conservation plan. In order to do this, a coordinator with sole responsibility for plan implementation is required, given the scope of the plan and the likelihood that the level of attention needed for successful implementation of it would not be able to be provided by adding responsibilities to existing staff with full workloads. The goal of the plan is to provide a roadmap of actions for delisting the species addressed from the federal ESA list, and improve and maintain healthy populations of these native fish for the social, economic, and natural benefit of current and future Oregonians.