Montana AFS Species of Special Concern Status Review

• In order to ensure objective, scientifically based rankings for species of special concern, the SSCC chairs shall oversee scientific expert peer review necessary to make a status determination to the SSCC. 
• The framework for the status expert and peer review follows:
  • The SSCC co-chairs will form a voting subcommittee to consider each species
  • The voting subcommittee will consist of 5 members
    • The two SSCC co-chairs
    • Two volunteer peer-reviewers with a good general knowledge of Montana fishes.  Peer-reviewers may change from species to species and according to the volunteer's willingness to participate. 
    • An expert on the species under consideration
  • This 5-person subcommittee shall review all available data, the status paper (if available), and the NatureServe model.  When a species review is initiated, a call for comments will be posted on the MCAFS web page. 
  • Based on the comments and all available sources of information, the 5-person subcommittee will make a status recommendation in the form of a written brief summary of information or status review paper to the full membership of the SSC Committee for a vote of approval.
  • The approved status recommendation will then be forwarded to the EXCOM, who may either vote to adopt or require a vote of all Chapter members to decide the issue.
  • The recommendations of the subcommittee and the SSCC will be posted on the Chapter website.