INTRODUCTION
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) created the"Administrative Record" filing system as a means to organize and archive important documents used in listing determinations and recovery planning under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). The original documents are stored at NMFS regional offices in Portland, Oregon, and Long Beach, California. To facilitate public access to these documents, NMFS has also established numerous repositories with university, county, and Federal agency libraries throughout the Pacific Northwest and California. The Administrative Records are updated periodically (usually 1-2 times per year), depending on the procedural stage under the ESA. For example, Administrative Records for species undergoing active status review or recovery planning will be updated more frequently as public comments and agency decision documents (e.g., Federal Register notices, agency memoranda) are generated in response to statutory timeframes mandated in the ESA.
The origin of the NMFS Administrative Record is tied to the numerous petitions for ESA listing received by the agency from 1990-1994. In response to the earliest petitions, NMFS established specific records (e.g., Snake River sockeye salmon) to serve as archives for documents generated in the ESA process. As more and more petitions were received, NMFS announced that comprehensive status reviews would be undertaken for all salmonids under the agency's jurisdiction - pink, chum, sockeye, coho, chinook, and sockeye salmon, steelhead and sea-run cutthroat trout - in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California. The list of Administrative Records (see table below) reflects this transition from single-petition records to single-species records. Note that several records are still in the process of being established at public libraries. For further information regarding the NMFS Administrative Records, contact NMFS at: NMFS Protected Resources Division, 525 NE Oregon Street, Suite 500, Portland, Oregon 97232-2737.
HOW TO OBTAIN MATERIALS
Copies of the materials within the records can be obtained by contacting......
NMFS Administrative Record Libraries
ADMINISTRATIVE RECORD INDEXES
RELATED LINKS
Contact fishlib@u.washington.edu