Piping Plover Charadrius melodus John James Audubon

The Endangered Species Act

Part 1: Listing species and designating critical habitat

An endangered species is any species of fish, animal, or plant that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Subspecies and distinct population segments of vertebrate species may also be listed. As of February 2000, there were 1,473 species classified as endangered, 955 of which occur in the United States.

A threatened species is any species of fish, animal, or plant that is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future. As of February 2000, there were 307 threatened species, 267 of which occur in the United States.

A candidate species is one whose status warrants listing but whose listing is precluded by lack of administrative resources and/or funding. The Secretary of the Interior is required to publish "notices of review" that list the status of candidate species. A proposed species is one that is undergoing the listing process. As of October 1999, 258 species were considered candidates for listing under the ESA and 56 were considered proposed species.

Species are considered for listing when the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) or the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) receives notification of a species' status from one of the following sources: federal agency surveys; state agency studies; private company research; conservation organization data; academic research; private individual study; or a listing petition.

Species can be added to the list for any one of five reasons: current or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of habitat or range; overuse for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes; disease or predation; ineffective regulatory mechanisms; and other natural or man-made factors affecting survival.

Any "interested person" may file a petition to list a species as threatened or endangered. Upon receipt of a listing petition, the FWS or NMFS must take the following actions.

• Within 90 days of receiving a petition, the FWS or NMFS must make a finding on whether or not a listing "may be warranted."
• Within 12 months of receiving a petition that may be warranted, the FWS or NMFS must make a finding on whether the listing is "warranted," "not warranted," or "warranted but precluded" and publish a notice in the Federal Register.
• If listing is warranted, the FWS or NMFS publishes a "proposed rule" and must list the species within 12 months of the proposed rule.
• If listing is warranted but precluded because the agency lacks the necessary funding and personnel, the species is listed in the "notice of review" as a candidate for listing.

Critical habitat is defined as the geographic area containing physical or biological features essential to the conservation of a listed species or as an area that may require special management considerations or protection.

Unless the FWS or NMFS finds that it is not "prudent" or "determinable," critical habitat must be designated concurrently with a species' listing. If "not determinable," the Secretary has an additional year to determine critical habitat. Despite this requirement, the vast majority of species does not have critical habit designation. As of January 2000, critical habitat had been designated for 116 endangered or threatened species--less than 10 percent of all listed species.

Federal agencies may not carry out, fund, or authorize activities that would destroy or adversely modify critical habitat of any listed species. However, the designation of an area as critical habitat does not, by itself, restrict the rights of a private property owner or prevent any particular type of use or development.

The FWS and NMFS are required to "take into consideration the economic impact, and any other relevant impact of specifying any area as critical habitat." The agencies may exclude any area from critical habitat designation if "the benefits of such exclusion outweigh the benefits of specifying such areas as part of the critical habitat, unless the failure to designate such areas as critical habitat will result in the extinction of the species concerned."

Part 2: Recovery plans