Salmon Recovery: Diversity in Approaches within the Range of Pacific Salmon

The approaches to salmon recovery in the Western U.S. are as diverse as the populations themselves.  While population assignments to Evolutionarily Significant Units and Distinct Population Segments, "species" under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), may result in appearance of conformity, the challenges and decisions vary greatly across planning domains.  An increasing diversity of approaches occurs at finer spatial scales when data and/or judgments are applied in the development of recovery "criteria", metrics that when attained may reasonably be expected to provide certainty of survival.  In this paper I attempt to provide a view and classification across recovery efforts  based on planning organization, assessment methods, data constraints, and other elements.  The intent is to provide a perspective and context for the sample of subjects and species/populations considered in this symposium (Pacific Salmon Recovery).