If you need an ecosystem mitigation assessment to determine mitigation credit(s), then use the Habitat Institute’s Combined Habitat Assessment Protocols (CHAP). CHAP uses a habitat and biodiversity valuing system to determine baseline conditions, impacts, mitigation and future conditions. In so doing it addresses the recent changes made to the California Fish & Wildlife Code by Assembly Bill 2402 [Sept. 2012] and 2087 [Nov. 2017.]
State of California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is mandated to use an ecosystem based management approach to decision making for all resource management decisions [Assembly Bill 2402, Section 10, 703.3 9/25/2012]. Further, the California Assembly passed Bill 2087 [November 2017] defines mitigation metrics and mitigation credits. This later legislation amends California Fish & Wildlife Code 1854 (e) as follows, “the department [CDFW] shall require the use of consistent metrics that incorporate both area and quality of habitat and other natural resource [values] to measure the net change resulting from the implementation of conservation actions and habitat enhancement actions.” and also amends California Fish & Wildlife Code 1856 (a) by stating under mitigation credit agreements, “conservation action or habitat enhancement actions…may be used to create mitigation credits that can be used to compensate for impacts to focal species and other species, habitat and other natural resources.” By so doing, these changes link the mitigation metric to the mitigation credit to an ecosystem management approach.
We recently became aware that on September 6TH, 2017, a mentor, beloved colleague and our dear friend, Paul Ashley passed away after a quarter century battle with heart disease. Paul worked tirelessly for wildlife and their habitats for over 40 years. He was employed with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for 30 years, and the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority for 10 years. The majority of his career was focused on habitat evaluations, as Paul was well versed in the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s Habitat Evaluations Procedures (HEP), and for a number of years he was an instructor of their courses. Paul was an exceptional field biologist and later in his career became a mentor of The Habitat Institute’s development of Combined Habitat Assessment Protocols (CHAP), and implementation for its use at the State and Federal regulatory level as an ecological health indicator metrics for natural resource conservation, restoration and mitigation. Additionally, Paul took part in a number of field assessments with the Institute’s Habitat Team(s). His desire for the details and the importance of science led him to play an inspiring leadership role at The Habitat Institute. Paul Ashley’s knowledge of resources in wildlife science and his passion for nature has undoubtedly influenced many conservation scientists, and his efforts and friendship will be sorely missed, and not be forgotten by his successors.