Concurrent with the approval by the department of a final natural community conservation plan, the department shall do both of the following:

(a) Establish a list of species that are authorized for take pursuant to Section 2835 and the department shall make specific findings to support coverage pursuant to Section 2820. For purposes of determining whether a species should receive coverage under a plan, the department shall use, in addition to the standards required for the adoption of a plan, one or more of the following criteria:

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(1) Coverage is warranted based upon regional or landscape level consideration, such as healthy population levels, widespread distribution throughout the plan area, and life history characteristics that respond to habitat-scale conservation and management actions.

(2) Coverage is warranted based on regional or landscape level considerations with site specific conservation and management requirements that are clearly identified in the plan for species that are generally well-distributed, but that have core habitats that must be conserved.

(3) Coverage is warranted based upon site specific considerations and the identification of specific conservation and management conditions for species within a narrowly defined habitat or limited geographic area within the plan area.

(b) Find that the mitigation measures specified in the plan and imposed by the plan participants are consistent with subdivision (d) of Section 2801.

(Added by Stats. 2002, Ch. 4, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2003.)