Coho salmon: habitat.

Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Game to develop and implement a recovery strategy pilot program for the coho salmon and repeals that authority on January 1, 2014, but requires any recovery strategy that has been approved or implemented prior to that date to remain in effect. Existing law also establishes the Salmon, Steelhead Trout, and Anadromous Fisheries Program Act to protect and increase the naturally spawning salmon, steelhead trout, and anadromous, as defined, fishery resources of the state. This bill, until January 1, 2018, would enact the Coho Salmon Habitat Enhancement Leading to Preservation Act (Coho HELP Act) and require the Director of Fish and Game to approve a coho salmon habitat enhancement project, as defined, if specified conditions are met as determined by the director, as prescribed. The act would create the Coho Salmon Recovery Account within the Fish and Game Preservation Fund and authorize the department to enter into an agreement to accept funds to achieve the purposes of the Coho HELP Act and deposit those funds into that account. The act would authorize the department to impose a schedule of fees for projects, based on the cost of a project, sufficient to recover all reasonable administrative and implementation costs of the department relating to the project, but not to exceed fees adopted by the department for standard lake or streambed alteration agreements for projects of comparable cost. The act would require the department to deposit fee revenues in the account. Moneys in the account would be available to the department, upon appropriation, for the purposes of administering and implementing the Coho HELP Act. The act would authorize the department to adopt emergency regulations for the implementation of the Coho HELP Act. The bill would appropriate $37,500 from the Hatchery and Inland Fisheries Fund to the department to fund an engineer position employed on a half-time basis for the remainder of the 2012–13 fiscal year to review projects under the act.