Implementation of the Endangered Species Act

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State environmental policy
U.S. environmental policy
Endangered species policy
State endangered species
Federal land policy
Environmental terms

Implementation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is meant to prevent the extinction of endangered and threatened species throughout the United States. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) implement the act.^[1]

As of May 2016, there were 2,389 endangered and threatened species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the 50 states and around the world.

Policies

Because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is responsible for most Endangered Species Act (ESA) actions, this page will refer to actions by the FWS. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Service is responsible for ESA actions related to marine species, although the agency may not be mentioned throughout this page.

The Endangered Species Act's is meant to eliminate threats to a species' survival, such as habitat loss, disease and predators, insufficient regulatory activities, and natural or manmade factors. The goal of the law is to reduce or eliminate these threats so that species no longer need the law's protections. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Service oversee the federal list of endangered and threatened species. An endangered species is any species "in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range." A threatened species is any species "likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future." All species of plants and animals, except pest insects, are eligible for endangered or threatened status.^[2][3]

Federal listing of species

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service uses the following five criteria to list a species as endangered or threatened. If one or more of these criteria are met, the government can take action to list the species:^[2]

“	the present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range; overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes; disease or predation; the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; other natural or manmade factors affecting its survival.[4]	”
—U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service[2]

Listed species

The table below summarizes the number of endangered and threatened species. As of May 2016, there were 698 federally listed animal species in the United States—497 endangered species and 201 threatened species. There were 898 federally listed plant species—732 endangered species and 166 threatened species—as of May 2016. Including foreign species, the total number of species on the federal list was 2,269 as of May 2016.^[5]

Listing of endangered or threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (as of May 2016)
Type	United States	Foreign	Total listings (U.S. and foreign)	U.S. listings with active recovery plans
Endangered	Threatened	Total listings	Endangered	Threatened	Total listings
Animal	497	201	698	586	84	670	1,368	482
Plant	732	166	898	1	2	3	901	676
Total	1,229	367	1,596	587	86	673	2,269	1,158
Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Summary of Listed Species, Listed Populations and Recovery Plans," accessed May 11, 2016

Click the [show] button below to see the breakdown of all endangered and threatened animal species in the United States by animal group as of May 2016.^[5]

Endangered and threatened animal species by group (as of May 2016)
Animal/wildlife group	Number of endangered species	Number of threatened species	Total listings (endangered and threatened)
Amphibians	20	15	35
Annelid worms	0	0	0
Arachnids	12	0	12
Birds	78	20	98
Clams	75	13	88
Corals	0	6	6
Crustaceans	23	4	27
Fishes	92	70	162
Flatworms and roundworms	0	0	0
Hydroids	0	0	0
Insects	64	11	75
Mammals	79	23	102
Millipedes	0	0	0
Reptiles	16	27	43
Snails	38	12	50
Sponges	0	0	0
Animal totals	497	201	698
Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Summary of Listed Species, Listed Populations and Recovery Plans," accessed May 11, 2016

Click the [show] button below to see the breakdown of all endangered and threatened plant species by plant group as of May 2016.^[5]

Endangered and threatened plant species by group (as of May 2016)
Plant group	Number of endangered species	Number of threatened species	Total listings (endangered and threatened)
Conifers and cycads	1	3	4
Ferns and allies	29	2	31
Flowering plants	700	161	861
Lichens	2	0	2
Plant totals	732	166	898
Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Summary of Listed Species, Listed Populations and Recovery Plans," accessed May 11, 2016

The table below shows the number of endangered and threatened animals and plants in each state as of May 2016. The data below is based on the Fish and Wildlife Service's estimates of where federally listed species are believed or known to occur based on the best available information.

As of May 2016, there were 2,389 endangered and threatened species listed in the 50 states. This total does not include species in U.S. territories and includes species that are listed in more than one state. The list contained 1,353 animal species and 1,036 plant species as of May 2016.^[6]

Endangered and threatened species under the Endangered Species Act by state (as of May 2016)
State	Number of endangered and threatened species	Animal species	Plant species
Alabama	127	105	22
Alaska	12	11	1
Arizona	65	44	21
Arkansas	34	29	5
California	305	122	183
Colorado	33	17	16
Connecticut	11	9	2
Delaware	10	6	4
Florida	124	64	60
Georgia	69	42	27
Hawaii	434	66	368
Idaho	15	11	4
Illinois	31	22	9
Indiana	25	19	6
Iowa	17	12	5
Kansas	18	16	2
Kentucky	42	32	10
Louisiana	22	19	3
Maine	11	8	3
Maryland	17	11	6
Massachusetts	15	12	3
Michigan	25	17	8
Minnesota	18	14	4
Mississippi	46	43	3
Missouri	39	29	10
Montana	15	12	3
Nebraska	14	10	4
Nevada	39	29	10
New Hampshire	10	7	3
New Jersey	16	10	6
New Mexico	53	40	13
New York	21	13	8
North Carolina	59	32	27
North Dakota	10	9	1
Ohio	25	19	6
Oklahoma	22	21	1
Oregon	56	36	20
Pennsylvania	14	12	2
Rhode Island	9	7	2
South Carolina	37	16	21
South Dakota	15	13	2
Tennessee	93	73	20
Texas	97	67	30
Utah	42	17	25
Vermont	5	3	2
Virginia	69	52	17
Washington	48	37	11
West Virginia	22	16	6
Wisconsin	21	14	7
Wyoming	12	8	4
United States total*	2,389	1,353	1,036
*Note: Excludes U.S. territories Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Species listed in each state based on published historic range and population data"

Candidate species

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) maintain a list of candidate species, which are animal and plant species that are eligible for listing as endangered or threatened but are precluded due to higher priority listing actions. The agencies' also manage a list of candidates for delisting (the process where federal protection is removed from a species).^[2]

Since 1996, a candidate species must have sufficient information on its status and habitat before the FWS can propose the species for candidate status. To keep in compliance with this rule, the FWS requires information on the biological status and threats to individual species from state and federal agencies, and the information must be accurate and thorough enough to justify the species' placement on the list of candidate species.^[2][7]

Taking prohibition

The act makes the taking of an endangered or threatened species illegal. According to the act, to take a species means to "harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect or attempt to engage in any such conduct." The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service further defines harm to mean "an act which actually kills or injures wildlife." Taking a species can also include "breeding, feeding or sheltering" a listed species. State governments may apply further prohibitions against the taking of an endangered or threatened species.^[2][8][9]

State protection

The Endangered Species Act authorizes federal funding to states as an incentive to enter into cooperative agreements with the federal government to conserve and manage endangered and threatened species. States must adopt their own endangered and threatened species management programs and have them approved by the federal government in order to receive funds. The states must also meet the following conditions before they can receive federal funding:^[10]

• States must conserve federally listed species.
• States must create "acceptable conservation programs" for all federally listed species. States must also provide detailed plans for these programs to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
• States must be authorized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct investigations to determine a species' endangered or threatened status.
• States must be authorized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before they operate programs to acquire land or aquatic habitats for conserving federally listed species.

Delisting a species

See also: Delisting a species

Delisting is the process of removing a species' endangered or threatened status. Downlisting is a reclassification of a species' status from endangered to threatened. To delist a species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must determine that the species is no longer threatened. To do this, the service looks at a species' population size and growth, the stability of its habitat and the natural or human-made threats to its continued recovery. Species are also delisted when they become extinct. Once a species is delisted through recovery or extinction, that species is no longer considered a candidate species.^[11][12][13]

As of May 2016, 63 species were delisted. Of those species, 34 were delisted due to recovery, 19 species were listed in error (for scientific reasons or because new information about a species was discovered) and 10 species went extinct.^[11]

Permits

The act allows permits to be granted for some private activities that may affect a listed species or its habitat.^[14]

Below are the following Endangered Species Act permits:^[14]

• Incidental take permit: An incidental take permit is required if an activity may result in the taking of an endangered or threatened species. Those who apply for the permit must submit a plan to the proper federal or state authority ensuring that the effects of taking the species will be minimized and/or mitigated.
• Enhancement of survival permit: An enhancement of survival permit allows private landowners to implement conservation activities for an endangered or threatened species. The permit allows that permitted landowners will not face additional land restrictions for their conservation actions.
• Recovery and interstate commerce permits: Recovery permits allow the taking of an endangered or threatened species in order to foster its recovery. Recovery permits are issued for scientific research on listed species. Interstate commerce permits allow the transportation and sale of listed species across state lines for breeding or scientific research.

Recovery plans

The act requires the development of recovery plans for federally listed species. Recovery plans "describe the steps needed to restore a species to ecological health" and thereby delist the species. The plans are developed and implemented by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in association with other government agencies (federal, state and local) as well as nongovernmental organizations. As of May 2016, there were 1,158 active recovery plans in either draft form or final form for U.S.-listed species.^[15][16][17]

Federal and state coordination

Under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Department of the Interior must cooperate with state governments to conserve listed species:

• States can enter into a cooperative agreement with the federal government to manage endangered and threatened species.
• The federal government must consult with a state before the Department of the Interior can acquire water or land for endangered species conservation within that state.
• States cooperating with the federal government may receive financial assistance for species conservation under the federal Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund. The level of funding to each state is determined by the number of endangered and threatened species within a state, the potential for recovering certain endangered or threatened species within a state, the risks facing these species (in terms of the species' survival), the benefits of monitoring candidate species to keep them off the federal list, and other factors.
• States must match the federal funding they receive with a minimum of 25 percent in state-level funding.^[18]

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Endangered Species Act Implementation. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

See also

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• Endangered Species Act
• Glossary of Endangered Species Act terms
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Endangered species

Footnotes