SSC Review Guidelines
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, and an expert on the species under consideration. Peer-reviewers may change from species to species and according to the volunteer's willingness to participate
- 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.
UPDATED September 23, 2008 Return to Species of Concern Page
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