The subregional lead or coordinating agency is responsible for working with local governments, landowners, and other interested parties in establishing the NCCP planning process. The subregional lead or coordinating agency is also responsible for coordinating with local jurisdictions and/or subarea authorities to accomplish the tasks listed below:

Focus areas have been designated by the SRP. Local jurisdictions are to draw the actual boundaries between focus areas to designate subregions for NCCP planning. Ideally, there should be one subregion for each focus area. However, subregional boundaries can be drawn for planning purposes according to convenient jurisdictional boundaries. Divisions along county boundaries are appropriate, and there is value to coordinating planning on a large scale. Additionally some subregions may need to subdivide into subareas for NCCP planning purposes. However, the 5% interim area loss cap will apply to each biologically defined subregion. Recognizing that large subregions must meet the objective of limiting short-term CSS losses on a biologically valid scale, some further subdivision of a large planning subregion into appropriately sized biological subareas for the purpose of accounting for interim habitat loss may be necessary.

As of winter 1993, basic inventory work on vegetation mapping has been completed. Species surveys, however, are largely incomplete, but comprehensive species surveys are not critical to interim effort. The Planning Agreement establishing a subregion will specify what other species, if any, in addition to the target species will be explicitly addressed in planning for that subregion. Individual parcels that are considered for development will need to be surveyed for those species.

See evaluation process and evaluation methodology, below. All CSS habitat in the subregion is to be evaluated and mapped.

All CSS habitat in the subregion is to be counted to compute the basis for the 5% interim loss, including all publicly and privately owned land. The most inclusive definition of CSS should be used. There is no minimum parcel size threshold for consideration, Where a planning subregion has been drawn on a scale larger than the focus areas identified by the SRP, the subregion may need to be divided into smaller subareas that are adequate to account for interim CSS losses. The baseline should reflect the extent of CSS as of March 25, 1993, the time the SRP conservation strategy recommendation was made and the USFWS listing of the California gnatcatcher was published. Only those projects approved by CDFG and USFWS prior to March 25, 1993, and explicitly meeting the requirements of the Endangered Species Act should be excluded from the baseline. The baseline calculation and designation of subareas for accounting must be verified by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game.

That entity will advise local land use jurisdictions to insure that the 5% interim loss guideline is not exceeded. The entity could be the lead or coordinating agency, a council of governments, or a wildlife agency. Some provision will need to be made to coordinate and to account for state projects, or for utility or transportation projects that cross subregional boundaries.

Mitigation guidelines for interim habitat loss must be developed for the subregion and must be established in a subregional planning agreement or another written document requiring concurrence of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game. The provisions for interim mitigation measures will need to be applied by local jurisdictions and may include a requirement that the landowner receiving approval for interim CSS habitat loss will make an appropriate commitment to continue to participate in the overall subregional NCCP program. It is recognized that full mitigation may not be practical during the interim period because reserve acquisition programs and enhancement techniques have not been established. However, an approved subregional NCCP will eventually mitigate interim losses. In the interim phase, adequate mitigation for losses of lower value habitat may range from payment of a fee to purchase or to set aside higher value habitat. Management and restoration efforts undertaken as mitigation during the interim program will add to the overall ability of these conservation tools to be employed more successfully in the future.

Appropriate scientific research tasks will vary from subregion to subregion depending on the amount of information available, the amount of habitat conversion proposed, and the conservation strategies being considered. Scientific research must be coordinated with region-wide efforts. The timing and funding for subregional research may need to be phased with staged implementation of a plan.