Recovery Units under the Endangered Species Act could be used more widely

AbstractRecovering species is one of the main goals of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In the face of limited budgets, diverse tools are needed to find efficient solutions. Recovery units may be one such tool - designated portions of a species’ range that must be recovered individually before an entire species can be considered recovered. Recovery units allow for spatial flexibility in recovery goals and may be used in regulatory decisions such as section 7 consultation. Despite their availability, there is very little information on how recovery units have been developed and used. We mined available public data to determine the number and types of species for which recovery units have been designated; evaluated species and geographic characteristics associated with recovery unit designation; and examined how recovery units have been used in the implementation of the ESA, such as during consultation. We found 49 listed species have designated recovery units through 2017, and that these species had similar characteristics. Namely, they had relatively large ranges and were well-studied. We found taxonomic biases in recovery unit designation as well, with fish species being disproportionately likely to have recovery units and plants disproportionately less. Improvements in recovery priority numbers among species with recovery units indicate that the theoretical benefits of this tool may have translated to improved status. These data indicate that recovery units could be applied to more wide-ranging species to improve recovery under the ESA.

Download Full-text

Florida’s Endearing Manatees

Wild Capital ◽

10.5744/florida/9781683401049.003.0006 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 121-139

Author(s):

Barbara K. Jones

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Land Use ◽

Endangered Species ◽

Public Goods ◽

Economic Value ◽

Endangered Species Act ◽

Assigned Value ◽

Land Use Decisions ◽

The Face ◽

The Commons

By assigning economic value to the manatee, the costs and benefits associated with conserving and protecting them and their habitat can more effectively compete in the marketplace. Just as the Endangered Species Act assigned value to social benefits or Eleanor Ostrom demonstrated how governing the commons could turn public goods into private ones, assessing the measurable benefits of a resource makes both environmental and economic sense. The manatee’s charisma, combined with a recognized economic value, has helped us maintain a better relationship with the species and moved the manatee and its habitat to the frontlines of Florida’s conservation agenda. Their increased numbers and expanding human fan base have made them the face for improving ecosystem biodiversity and water quality, as well as encouraging better land use decisions along Florida’s rapidly developing coastline. Effective branding by well-respected institutions like Save the Manatee Club and The Ocean Conservancy has made saving the manatee a cause that transcends the local and hopefully has made co-existing with the gentle giants in their habitat something each one of us will readily choose to do.

Download Full-text

Cusk (Brosme brosme) and climate change: assessing the threat to a candidate marine fish species under the US Endangered Species Act

ICES Journal of Marine Science ◽

10.1093/icesjms/fss160 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 69 (10) ◽

pp. 1753-1768 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Jonathan A. Hare ◽

John P. Manderson ◽

Janet A. Nye ◽

Michael A. Alexander ◽

Peter J. Auster ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Habitat Fragmentation ◽

Endangered Species ◽

Marine Fish ◽

Fish Species ◽

Endangered Species Act ◽

Marine Fish Species ◽

Northwest Atlantic ◽

The Us ◽

Us Endangered Species Act

AbstractHare, J.A., Manderson, J.P., Nye, J.A., Alexander, M.A., Auster, P.J., Borggaard, D.L., Capotondi, A.M., Damon-Randall, K.B., Heupel, E., Mateo, I., O'Brien, L., Richardson, D.E., Stock, C.A., and Biege, S.T. 2012. Cusk (Brosme brosme) and climate change: assessing the threat to a candidate marine fish species under the US Endangered Species Act. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 69: 1753–1768. In the Northwest Atlantic Ocean cusk (Brosme brosme) has declined dramatically, primarily as a result of fishing activities. These declines have led to concern about its status, which has prompted reviews under the US Endangered Species Act and the Canadian Species at Risk Act. Changes in distribution and abundance of a number of marine fish in the Northwest Atlantic have been linked to climate variability and change, suggesting that both fishing and climate may affect the status of cusk. Our goal was to evaluate potential effects of climate change on Northwest Atlantic cusk distribution. Coupling a species niche model with the output from an ensemble of climate models, we projected cusk distribution in the future. Our results indicate cusk habitat in the region will shrink and fragment, which is a result of a spatial mismatch between high complexity seafloor habitat and suitable temperature. The importance of habitat patch connectivity for cusk is poorly understood, so the population-level consequences of climate-related habitat fragmentation are uncertain. More broadly, climate change may reduce appropriate thermal habitat and increase habitat fragmentation for other cold-water species in the region; thereby, increasing the potential for regional overexploitation and extirpation.

Download Full-text

Wolf Delisting Challenges Demonstrate Need for an Improved Framework for Conserving Intraspecific Variation under the Endangered Species Act.

BioScience ◽

10.1093/biosci/biaa125 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Carlos Carroll ◽

Daniel J Rohlf ◽

Bridgett M vonHoldt ◽

Adrian Treves ◽

Sarah A Hendricks

Keyword(s):

Endangered Species ◽

Intraspecific Variation ◽

Endangered Species Act ◽

Gray Wolf ◽

Geographic Patterns ◽

Distinct Population Segment ◽

The Us ◽

Us Government ◽

The Face ◽

Definition Of

Abstract Recent advances in genomics have increased our understanding of geographic patterns of intraspecific variation and the importance of this variation in enhancing species’ potential to adapt to novel threats. However, as part of an effort to limit the scope of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the US government has proposed the removal of the gray wolf from the list of protected species on the basis of a claim that the statute permits a species to be declared recovered given the existence of a single presently secure population. We rebut this interpretation and propose a framework for the conservation of adaptive potential that builds on current agency practice in delineating subspecific recovery units and reconciles the definition of significance in the statute's “distinct population segment” and “significant portion of range” clauses. Such a coordinated policy would enhance the ESA's effectiveness in stemming loss of biodiversity in the face of climate change and other factors altering Earth's ecosystems.

Download Full-text

All Hands on Deck: Local Ecological Knowledge and Expert Volunteers Contribute to the First Delisting of a Marine Fish Species Under the Endangered Species Act

Citizen Science Theory and Practice ◽

10.5334/cstp.221 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Kelly Andrews ◽

Krista Nichols ◽

Chris Harvey ◽

Nick Tolimieri ◽

Adam Obaza ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Endangered Species ◽

Marine Fish ◽

Fish Species ◽

Local Ecological Knowledge ◽

Endangered Species Act ◽

Ecological Knowledge ◽

Marine Fish Species ◽

Hands On

Download Full-text

The State Wildlife Grant Program: Measuring the Public Value of a Proactive Conservation Program

Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management ◽

10.3996/112017-jfwm-092 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 353-368

Author(s):

Betsy Riley ◽

Paul Van Ryzin ◽

Matthew Fuller ◽

Ronesha Strozier

Keyword(s):

Endangered Species ◽

Species Conservation ◽

Endangered Species Act ◽

Well Being ◽

Short Term ◽

Public Value ◽

Conservation Program ◽

Species Being ◽

The U.S

Abstract The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's State Wildlife Grant (SWG) Program was designed as a proactive species conservation program to aid state fish and wildlife agencies in preventing nonplant species from becoming listed as threatened or endangered (T&E) under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. In this paper, we use four criteria to evaluate whether the SWG Program can be considered successful: 1) value is created (increased) in the short term; 2) value is created (increased) in the long term; 3) the value created is public; and 4) the value created is the value that was intended per the original goals of the program. Our analysis indicates the SWG Program has added US $3 billion in short-term value to local economies and supported the creation of about 18,000 jobs between 2001 until 2015. We use the example of the whooping crane Grus americana to calculate the long-term value of this single T&E species as US $103.5 million annually and argue that the SWG Program helps to maintain this value through supported species-conservation activities. Next, we look at two instances of species receiving proactive SWG Program conservation dollars: the oblong rock snail Leptoxis compacta and several North American bat species (Chiroptera spp.). These species and the conservation actions that benefit them demonstrate how public value is created or maintained through services these species naturally provide that benefit human health and economic well-being. Finally, we evaluate whether the SWG Program is creating the value it was designed to create by showing that T&E spending (expenditure) growth rates decreased after the SWG Program began. We find that the decrease in spending does not correlate with fewer species being removed from consideration as a T&E candidate for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, nor does spending correlate with fewer species being delisted (taken off the list) after being listed as T&E species. Allowing for a 5-y time lag, we are also able to show that the SWG Program has been used in 55% of T&E-listed species that were later delisted under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and 24% of candidate species later removed from consideration for T&E listing as a result of recovery or better information. We argue that these results demonstrate that the SWG Program meets or is potentially meeting all four criteria for an effective public program.

Download Full-text