Common use of Purpose and Need Clause in Contracts

Purpose and Need. The purpose of this Agreement is to enhance the reintroduction and long-term recovery of LCT within the NWDPS by encouraging private landowners to voluntarily create, enhance, maintain, or restore LCT habitat. The primary objective of this Programmatic Agreement is to encourage voluntary habitat restoration, maintenance, or enhancement activities to benefit LCT by relieving a landowner, who enters into, and implements, the provisions of a Cooperative Agreement with NDOW, from any additional Section 9 liability under the Act beyond that which exists at the time the Cooperative Agreement is signed (baseline responsibilities). In other words, the objective is to give landowners “safe harbor” from added liability. A SHA encourages landowners and assures them that they will not be subjected to increased threatened species restrictions should their beneficial stewardship efforts result in an increased threatened species population. As long as landowners carry out agreed upon conservation measures on their property and maintain their baselines, they may continue or undertake future management activities. A large percentage of the existing LCT populations and designated recovery streams within the NWDPS occur on private lands somewhere within their perennial reach. As of the writing of this agreement there are 53 streams that have been identified in recovery plans or have active management occurring on them. Of these 53 streams (~470 miles) there are only 6 streams that do not flow through private lands. Efforts to recover this species without involving and incorporating these private lands and landowners may impact our ability to make measurable progress towards LCT recovery. It is with this acknowledgement that NDOW intends to enroll any private landowners who are willing to allow the introduction or expansion of LCT within their private lands and waters into conservation agreements. These Cooperative Agreements will offer protections and assurances to allow for inadvertent takings of LCT for individuals who agree to provide voluntary conservation benefits to the species within their private holdings. Additionally, the enrollee may cancel this agreement at anytime and return to the established baseline conditions, which were present prior to enrollment.