Agricultural News
Approach to Endangered Species List Changing
Tue, 10 May 2011 17:06:26 CDT
The Department of the Interior's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has unveiled a work plan that will allow the agency to focus its resources on the species most in need of protection under the Endangered Species Act. The plan was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as part of a proposed agreement with one of the agency's most frequent plaintiffs. If approved, the work plan will enable the agency to systematically review and address the needs of more than 250 species now on the list of candidates for protection under the ESA to determine if they should be added to the Federal Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants.
Under the proposed work plan, the Service has laid out a schedule for making listing determinations for species that have been identified as candidates for listing, as well as for a number of species that have been petitioned for protection under the ESA. Once approved, the plan will enable the Service to again prioritize its workload based on the needs of candidate species, while also providing state wildlife agencies, stakeholders, and other partner's clarity and certainty about when listing determinations will be made.
Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes says that for the first time in years, this work plan will give the wildlife professionals of the Fish and Wildlife Service the opportunity to put the needs of species first and extend that safety net to those truly in need of protection, rather than having their workload driven by the courts.
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