Endangered Species Act & Essential Fish Habitat

If your project has a federal nexus (federal funding, federal permit, or occurs on federal land), use this information to determine if your work has the potential to affect protected species and comply with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery & Conservation Act.

Scoping

Preliminary design

Final design

Tools, templates & links

Contacts

Identify listed species & designated critical habitat

Review the information below to determine which listed or proposed threatened and endangered species and designated or proposed critical habitat may be present in your project's vicinity.

Species under USFWS jurisdiction

Species under NMFS jurisdiction

Endangered Species Act liaisons

Use the information on this page to coordinate with liaisons with the US Fish & Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service for consultations under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery and Conservation Act for Essential Fish Habitat.

The content on this page is for Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) staff and consultants only. If you are a private citizen or business, use the US Fish & Wildlife Services or National Marine Fisheries Services websites to contact them or for more information on the Endangered Species Act.

Consultants and contractors: Work with the Washington Department of Transportation biologist assigned to your project or the Project Engineer. Do not contact the liaisons directly.

WSDOT Biologists: Before using the information on this page, review Chapter 2.2: Understanding the Biological Assessment Process of the Biological Assessment (BA) preparation manual. WSDOT staff may, once a liaison is assigned to a project, coordinate with the liaison directly. Find additional contact information in the WSDOT Global Address List in MS Outlook.

If your work requires ESA consultation with the USFWS or NOAA, early coordination with the ESA liaisons is an important process.

Early coordination

You must always do early coordination before you submit consultation documents to the Services

Pre-BA meeting. Projects with adverse effects to listed species or critical habitat, or projects that affect aquatic habitat must present at a Pre-BA meeting. The meetings are held on the third Thursday of each month. Contact the Fish & Wildlife Program Manager to get on the agenda for a Pre-BA Meeting.

If you are not sure if you need to attend a Pre-BA meeting, consult with the Fish & Wildlife Program Manager.

E-mail coordination. If you do not need to attend a Pre-BA meeting, send an early coordination e-mail to the ESA liaisons at WSDOT ESA Liaisons. In the email make sure to include:

If you submit an email, the liaisons may still ask you to attend a Pre-BA meeting depending on the complexity of your project. Projects that do not submit consultation documents within six months of the Pre-BA meeting, must attend a second pre-BA meeting.

Prepare consultation documents

Review the Listed species & designated critical habitat webpage to determine which listed threatened and endangered species and critical habitat may be present in your project’s vicinity.

To author a Biological Assessment (BA) or no effect (NE) determination for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), you must be a qualified BA author as described on the Training for Biological Assessment authors webpage.

No effect to listed species or critical habitats. If your project will not affect any listed or proposed species, or designated or proposed critical habitat, prepare a no effect determination. Consultants should speak with their WSDOT biology contact for assistance in determining which no effect documentation to use. Consultants should provide the NE letter to WSDOT in an electronic form for final formatting and signature. Consultants do not submit no effect projects to the federal action agency or other authorities.

Individual (Informal and Formal) consultations. If your project may affect listed or proposed species, or designated or proposed critical habitat, use the information below to determine how to prepare the ESA documentation.

Emergency notifications. Read BA Manual Chapter 2: Understanding the Biological Assessment Process (PDF 353KB) to understand how to comply with the ESA and EFH during and following WSDOT emergency actions.

Include a description of the emergency and the proposed action including minimization measures, potential presence of listed species, and potential effects. This notification should be made even if it is uncertain whether there will be a federal nexus for the project. Notified individuals may assign the task of responding to staff or respond directly. At this stage, the Services offer recommendations to minimize impacts to species and critical habitat. A record of this initial contact should be kept by the project proponent.

EFH only consultations. Read BA Manual Chapter 16: Essential Fish Habitat (PDF 696KB) to understand how to comply with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery and Conservation Act.

Biological assessment preparation manual & template

Use the BA preparation manual, template and review checklist for individual Endangered Species Act (ESA) consultations. Use the Biological Assessment Reference (BAR) with the guidance provided on this page when preparing biological assessments for ferry terminal projects. Make sure to always use the latest version of these documents.

BA Manual. Refer to the WSDOT BA preparation manual for specific standards and guidance on BA content. Information you need to prepare a BA is listed by chapter below. Also find links to additional information to supplement some manual chapters.

Introduction
Part 1 - General information for BA authors
Part 2 - Guidance on specific BA topics