Endangered Species Act and Biosolids

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Endangered Species Act and Biosolids

• Mark Sattelberg
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• June 7, 2006

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Objectives

• ESA Basics
• Why Save Endangered Species
• How ESA Works With Landowners -Permits And
  Agreements
• What Does Any Of This Have To Do With Biosolids

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ESA Definitions

• Endangered species is in danger of extinction
  throughout all or a significant portion of its
  range
• Threatened species is likely to become
  endangered within the foreseeable future
  throughout all or a significant portion of its
  range
• As of May 2006, 1868 species are listed
  worldwide, 1300 occur in the U.S.

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Candidate Species

• Species for which there is enough information to
  warrant proposing them for listing but that have
  not yet been proposed because of higher listing
  priorities.

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Critical Habitat

• A specific geographic area(s) that contains
  features essential for the conservation of a
  threatened or endangered species and that may
  require special management and protection. Area
  may not be occupied, but will be needed for its
  recovery.

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ESA Basics

• Listing Species
• Recovery
• Federal Activities
• Working With States
• Working With Landowners
• International Species - CITES

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Listing

• Damage to, or destruction of, a species habitat
• Overuse of the species for commercial,
  recreational, scientific, or educational purposes
• Disease or predation
• Inadequacy of existing protection
• Other natural or human-related threats to the
  species survival

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Protection

• ESA protects listed species and their habitats by
  prohibiting the take of listed animals and the
  interstate or international trade in listed
  plants and animals.
• Take - to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot,
  wound, kill trap, capture, or collect or attempt
  to engage in any such conduct. (Listed plants are
  not protected against take, unless they are on
  federal lands.)
• Harm an act which actually kills or injures
  wildlife, Such an act may include significant
  habitat modification or degradation where it
  actually kills or injures wildlife by
  significantly impairing essential behavioral
  patterns, including breeding, feeding, or
  sheltering.

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Recovery

• ESAs ultimate goal is to recover species so
  they no longer need protection.
• Recovery Plans describe steps needed to restore a
  species to ecological health.

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Federal Activities

• ESA requires federal agencies to use their
  authorities to promote the conservation purposes
  of the law.
• Requires federal agencies to consult, to ensure
  that actions they authorize, fund, or carry out
  will not jeopardize listed species.

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Working With States

• ESA encourages each state to develop and maintain
  conservation programs for resident
  federally-listed threatened and endangered
  species.
• States may have their own state-listed species as
  well.

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Working With Landowners

• 2/3 of all federally listed species have at least
  some habitat on privately owned land
• Array of tools and incentives to protect private
  landowners interests while encouraging them to
  manage their lands to benefit listed and at-risk
  species

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International Species

• Implements U.S. participation in the Convention
  on International Trade in Endangered Species of
  Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
• Agreement of 169 nations to prevent species from
  becoming endangered or extinct due to
  international trade.

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Why Save Endangered Species

• Congress, in the preamble of the law, recognized
  TE species are of esthetic, ecological,
  educational, historical, recreational, and
  scientific value to the Nation and its people.
• Although extinctions occur naturally, scientific
  evidence strongly indicates that the current rate
  of extinction is much higher than that of natural
  or background rate of the past. This is driven
  mostly by loss of habitat, but also includes
  over-exploitation, introduction of exotic
  species, pollution, and diseases.

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Why Save Endangered Species

• ESA, in the U.S., has been successful in
  preventing extinction for 99 percent of the
  listed species.
• However, species loss on a global scale continues
  to increase due to environmental effects of human
  activities.
• Since 1620, more than 500 species, subspecies,
  and varieties of plants and animals have become
  extinct in the U.S.

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Why Save Endangered Species

• Benefits of Natural Diversity
• Contributions to Medicine
• Biodiversity and Agriculture
• Environmental Monitors
• Ecosystem Services
• Other Economic Values
• Intangible Values

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Why Save Endangered Species

• Benefits of Natural Diversity -
• Over 1.7 million organisms have been classified,
  however estimates show that there may be 10 to 50
  million species on the planet.
• All of these species have connections to other
  species. No one knows how the extinction of
  organisms will affect other members of an
  ecosystem, but the removal of a single species
  can set off a chain reaction affecting many
  others.

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Why Save Endangered Species

• Contributions to Medicine
• Each living thing contains a unique reservoir of
  genetic material. This material cannot be
  retrieved or duplicated if lost.
• No matter how small or obscure a species, it
  could be of direct importance to us all.
• A fungus gave us penicillin
• Plants have yielded substances used in drugs for
  heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses
• Over a quarter of prescriptions written annually
  contain chemicals discovered in plants and animals

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Why Save Endangered Species

• Biodiversity and Agriculture
• Seemingly insignificant forms of life are
  beginning to show important benefits for
  agriculture Biological controls.
• New useful plants for food sources fewer than
  20 plants produce 90 percent of the worlds food,
  even though almost 80,000 species of edible
  plants.

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Why Save Endangered Species

• Environmental Monitors
• Indicators of environmental quality
• Bald eagles and DDT
• Lichens and air pollutants
• Mussels and water quality

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Why Save Endangered Species

• Ecosystem Services
• Fundamental life-support services provided by our
  environment
• Air and water purification, detoxification and
  decomposition of wastes, climate regulation,
  regeneration of soil fertility, and the
  production and maintenance of biological
  diversity
• These are key ingredients of our agricultural,
  pharmaceutical, and industrial enterprises
  estimated to be worth trillions of dollars
  annually
• Because they are not traded in economic markets,
  they are only noticed when they decline or fail

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Why Save Endangered Species

• Other Economic Values
• Some benefits of animals and plants can be
  quantified
• Birding is one of the fastest growing outdoor
  recreational activities birders pump 400
  million per year into the Texas economy
  Arkansas is reaping the benefits of the
  Ivory-billed woodpecker sighting.
• Wildlife watching generated 85 billion in
  economic benefits to the nation in 2001

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Why Save Endangered Species

• Intangible Values
• If species are a benefit to mankind, should we
  care if they disappear?
• Do we have the right to cause a species
  extinction?
• Would our descendants forgive us for
  exterminating a unique form of life?
• Some believe that living thing has an intrinsic
  value and the loss of a species is not only
  shortsighted but wrong, especially since extinct
  species can never be replaced.

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Tools for Working with Landowners

• Safe Harbor Policy
• Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances
  Policy
• Habitat Conservation Planning with No Surprises
  Policy
• Private Stewardship Program (Grants)
• Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund
  (State Funding)

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Safe Harbor Policy

• Encourages voluntary management for listed
  species to promote recovery on non-federal lands
  by giving assurances to the landowners that no
  additional future regulatory restrictions will be
  imposed
• FWS will issue an enhancement of survival
  permit to authorize any necessary future
  incidental take to provide landowner with
  assurance that no additional restrictions will be
  imposed as a result of the conservation actions.

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Safe Harbor Policy

• FWS must make a written finding that the species
  will receive a net conservation benefit from
  the action
• May take 3 to 7 months to complete agreement
• Agreements can be renewed if the landowner wishes
  or transferred if the property is sold or given
  away

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Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances
Policy

• Provides incentives for non-federal property
  owners to conserve candidate species, thus
  potentially making listing unnecessary
• Landowner works on plans to conserve candidate
  species, in return, landowner gets assurance that
  if the species is listed, they will not be
  required to do anything beyond what is in the CCA
  and they will receive an incidental take permit
  if needed.

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Habitat Conservation Planningwith No Surprises
Policy

• Allows private landowners to develop land
  supporting listed species provided they undertake
  conservation measures
• No Surprises Policy assures participating
  landowners that they will incur no additional
  mitigation requirements beyond those they agreed
  to in their HCP, even if circumstances change.

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Habitat Conservation Planningwith No Surprises
Policy

• A habitat conservation plan (HCP) must accompany
  an application for an incidental take permit
• HCP is to ensure there is adequate minimizing and
  mitigating of the effects of the authorized
  incidental take
• Permit is to authorize the incidental take, not
  the activities that result in take

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Habitat Conservation Planningwith No Surprises
Policy

• The FWS can help determine if project is likely
  to result in take, if an HCP is an option, and if
  there are other ways to avoid take.
• Permit allows landowner to legally proceed with
  an activity that would otherwise result in take.
• May take 3 to 12 months to get permit

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Habitat Conservation Planningwith No Surprises
Policy

• No Surprises Assurance landowners are assured
  that if unforeseen circumstances arise, the FWS
  will not require the commitment of additional
  land, water, or financial compensation or
  additional restriction on the use of land, water
  or other natural resources beyond what was agreed
  to in the HCP, without the consent of the
  permittee.

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Private Stewardship Program

• Provides grants and other assistance on a
  competitive basis to individuals an groups
  engaged in local, private, and voluntary
  conservation efforts that benefit federally
  listed, proposed, or candidate species, or other
  at-risk species (10 M/yr)

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Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund

• Funding to States to participate in a wide range
  of conservation projects on non-federal lands for
  candidate, proposed and listed species. (80
  M/yr)
• State must contribute 25 of the estimated cost
  of the project

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What does this have to do with Biosolids?

• When applying biosolids, you may be in critical
  habitat, in an area that may harbor TE species,
  or upgradient of TE habitat.
• However, at the same time, you may be enhancing
  the native habitat, therefore there is a net
  benefit for the TE species.

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What does this have to do with Biosolids?

• mountain-prairie.fws.gov/endspp/
• name_county_search.htm
• ESA is not the only wildlife law to know
• Migratory Bird Treaty Act
• Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act
• Also be aware that there may be questions of
  contaminants (metals, pharmaceuticals, endocrine
  disruptors)

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Overall Conclusion

• Work with the FWS office in your state to make
  sure that you are compliant with ESA and other
  wildlife laws
• Push the net benefits of application of biosolids