E-mail to Stakeholders (after Initial Contact)

Dear _____:

This is a follow up to the e-mail you received on ____ describing NOAA’s Habitat Blueprint strategy and the pilot effort in California to test the process for selecting one or more NOAA-wide Habitat Focus Areas in the state. As explained in the earlier e-mail, a Habitat Focus Area

is an area identified by regional NOAA experts as a place to concentrate resources and work collaboratively to achieve NOAA’s habitat-related goals. NOAA will work with a range of partners in these areas over the next three to five years to produce measureable results supporting key NOAA habitat conservation objectives.

Your input will be an important consideration in the selection process and we encourage you to provide your feedback on the xx candidate focus areas in one of two ways. You can review the attached .pdf, which contains maps of the candidate areas and a documentation sheet for each area describing why it was selected as a candidate area and send us an e-mail with your comments. Alternatively you can click on this link to review the candidate focus areas on the project web site. The map on the web site allows you to view the candidate areas, and also includes a number of supporting map layers such as the location of critical fish habitat information, existing marine protected areas, watershed boundaries, and population density, among others, that can be toggled on and off to provide useful context-setting information to help in your review. There is also a link on the map to a digital form that you can use to comment on any of the candidate areas for which you would like to provide input.

We are asking you to respond to three questions, along with any other comments you may have:

• In which candidate habitat focus areas do you think NOAA's proposed habitat conservation activities can make the most significant difference and have the greatest positive impact in achieving NOAA's proposed habitat objective(s)?

• Are there candidate habitat focus areas where there are issues or concerns that could negatively affect the likelihood of successfully achieving the proposed habitat conservation objective(s)?

• Are there any candidate focus areas proposed in which you would be particularly interested in partnering with NOAA to achieve the proposed habitat conservation objective(s)?

Your input will be confidential and will only be used internally as supporting information in the decision making process.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Dan Farrow (dan.farrow@noaa.gov) (301-427-8609), or Nina Garfield (nina.garfield@noaa.gov) (301-427-8696). Thanks in advance for providing your input.

Sincerely,

Kevin Chu Dan Howard

Deputy Regional Administrator, Superintendent

Southwest Regional Office Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary

NOAA Fisheries