Endangered and Threatened Species: Designation of a Nonessential Experimental Population of Central Valley Spring-Run Chinook Salmon Below Friant Dam in the San Joaquin River, CA

We, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), designate a nonessential experimental population of Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in portions of the San Joaquin River, California, and establish take exceptions for the nonessential experimental population for particular activities inside the experimental population's geographic range and limited take exceptions outside the experimental population geographic range. This document also announces the availability of a final environmental assessment (EA) that analyzed the environmental impacts of promulgating the experimental population rule and associated take exceptions.