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Voluntary Conservation Agreements to Preclude the Need to List Species

Voluntary Conservation Agreements to Preclude the Need to List Species. Gabrielle Horner U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region June 2012. Website www.fws.gov/southeast/candidateconservation. Overview for Gopher Tortoise Team. SERPPAS, SEAFWA Coordination.

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Voluntary Conservation Agreements to Preclude the Need to List Species

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  1. Voluntary Conservation Agreements to Preclude the Need to List Species Gabrielle Horner U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region June 2012

  2. Website www.fws.gov/southeast/candidateconservation

  3. Overview for Gopher Tortoise Team • SERPPAS, SEAFWA Coordination. • USFWS Policy on Evaluating Conservation Efforts when making listing decisions (PECE). • GT Rangewide Conservation Strategy --Oct 2012. • CCA vs CCAA . • Programmatic CCAA - Enrollments Fall 2013? • Conference Opinions = “regulatory certainty” • October 2012 GTT Meeting to Amend CCA.

  4. Candidate Conservation NEW Issue Team • The Southeast Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability (SERPPAS). • 6 state partnership of state and federal agencies. • Collaborate on resource-use decisions to support conservation: -natural resources -working lands -national defense. • 1. ID priority species /focus areas, conservation overlay maps of candidate and imperiled species by land-use, habitat type, etc. • 2. Coordinated outreach . • 3. Identify efficiencies.

  5. Threats to the species (ESA 5 Listing factors) The present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range; (B) Overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes; (C) Disease or predation; (D) The inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; (E) Other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued existence (climate change, relocation effects, herbicides, road mortality, invasive species).

  6. Range-wide Conservation StrategyFor each of the 5 factors, identify and assign the following: Primary threats to the species Actions needed to address specific threatsOther species that could benefitPolicy/regulatory partnersImplementation partnersLeads (FWS & State agency)Due dates

  7. PECE and Section 4 Section 4(b)(1)(A) requires that a listing determination take into account efforts made by any State (or political subdivision of a State), to protect a species. We have extended this consideration to efforts made by other parties.

  8. PECE Analysis :Conservation Efforts Not Yet Implemented/Demonstrated Effectiveness • Can guide development of conservation efforts AND…. • Findings on Petitions to List. • Assign or remove candidate status. • Issue proposed listing rules. • Finalize listing rules. • Withdraw listing rules.

  9. Court Rulings Prior to PECE • Courts upheld consideration of existing conservation efforts where the administrative record shows that the effort reduced or removed a threat to a species. • Courts ruled that we cannot rely upon speculative future measures with uncertain effects as a basis for determining that listing is not necessary. PECE published in Federal Register 2003, has guided many listing decisions – most recently Dunes Sagebrush Lizard decision to not list (2012).

  10. PECE Standard • Formal conservation effort = Documented, no speculative. • Conservation Effort Will Be Implemented. • Certainty Effort will Be Effective. • CCA, CCAAs, INRMPs…state signed voluntary agreements, etc. • Staffed, funded, legal authority, permits, type and level of voluntary participation. • Nature and extent of threats described. • Explicit incremental objectives, dates to achieve. • Monitoring and reporting. • Etc.

  11. Candidate Agreements CCA = MOU • Formal partnerships. • Any agency, ANYONE. • Identify specific conservation measures. • Vary widely. • No permits or assurances. CCAA =“Contract” • Non-Federal landowners receive “Assurances.” • Threats/needs must be “adequately” understood. • Actions should reduce threats to preclude listing. • Enhancement of survival permit (incidental take). Elfin Woods Warbler, Puerto Rico

  12. Linking CCA & CCAAExample: Lesser Prairie Chicken “Since this CCA is designed to address the activities of lessees and permittees on Federal lands, a companion CCAA will be used to address the needs of both species on non-Federal lands within New Mexico.” Documents for CCA partners that CCAA will be developed & links actions among all public and private ownerships.

  13. Robust Redhorse CCAA Signed in 2002 by USFWS, Georgia DNR, and Georgia Power. The species has not required Federal listing.

  14. Regulatory Standard USFWS will enter into CCAA upon determining: “benefits of the conservation measures implemented by a property owner ….when combined with those benefits that would be achieved if it is assumed that conservation measures were also to be implemented on other necessary properties, would preclude or remove any need to list the covered species.” Federal Register/Vol. 64, No. 116/June 17, 1999.

  15. CCAA = “Assurance” no additional measures required if species listed. “By entering into a Candidate Conservation Agreement with assurances, a property owner can obtain certaintythat no additional conservation measures will be required and no additional land, water, and resource use restrictions will be imposed if the species is listed in the future.” Federal Register/Vol. 64, No. 116/June 17, 1999.

  16. 6 Elements of CCAA • Existing Conditions - population levels (if known) of covered species, habitat characteristics. • Conservation Measures. (FWS Technical Assistance) • Expected Benefits . • Assurances. “No additional measures…beyond those described….” • Monitoring. • Notificationto USFWS or State to rescue individuals before authorized (permitted) incidental take. Excerpt from CCAA Policy – 64 FR 32726; June 17, 1999

  17. Safe Harbor Agreement vs CCAA SHA Listed species. “Baseline” Temporary Benefit to Species. CCAA Candidate species or likely to become candidate. “Existing Conditions” Actions to preclude the need to list.

  18. CCAA: Definition of “Existing Conditions”of landowner’s property. • v(f) Description of Existing Conditions • This section of the CCAA should describe the population levels of the covered species that exist at the time the CCAA is being negotiated, if those levels are available or determinable. It should also include a detailed description of the existing habitat characteristics of the lands and/or waters on the enrolled property that sustain any current, permanent, or seasonal use by the covered species. The description might include the vegetation type, the major plant species and their percent cover, the soil type(s) and their moisture regimes, the hydrology of the area, and any other relevant characteristics. These factors should be described quantitatively, when possible, but a thorough qualitative description can be provided where no quantitative data exist. In addition, if existing characteristics of the enrolled property help support populations of the covered species on other lands or waters (i.e., outside of the enrolled property), these characteristics should also be described. For example, riparian conditions on an enrolled property may affect water quality and the individuals or populations of the covered species that live downstream, so the CCAA should describe this type of relationship if it exists. The existing conditions described in this section are not a “baseline” in the same sense as a Safe Harbor Agreement has a baseline. That is, a property owner may or may not be able to return to the existing conditions while meeting the CCAA Standard or maintaining his or her compliance with the CCAA.

  19. “Existing Conditions” Example 1 CCAA = Partial Coverage of Property • 100 Acre Parcel • 80 Acres suitable for covered species, meets CCAA standard. = CCAA covers 80 acres. If species listed, take on 20 acres of the 100 acre property allowed.

  20. “Existing Conditions” Example 2 100% of landowner’s property meets CCAA standard. • CCAA describes the landowners “existing conditions” • Landowner provided assurances that no further conservation measures will be required if species is listed…..etc.

  21. “Existing Conditions” Example 3 Landowner has occupied habitat, suboptimal. Property needs improvement to meet CCAA standard. • 50 acres of occupied habitat. • 30 acres suitable habitat to meet CCAA standard. = • CCAA describes conservation measures needed to enhance and maintain 30 acres. Assurances (no further action needed if species listed) stated in CCAA. • Take allowed on 20 acres of the 50 acre property.

  22. Southeast CCAAs in Development: ALABAMA -Spring Pygmy Sunfish.3,200 acres. Partners: USFWS, private landowner, local land trust. ARKANSAS -Programmatic SHA/CCAA Arkansas Fatmucket, Pink Mucket, Harperella and 22 Other Aquatic Species of Greatest Conservation Need in the upper Saline, Caddo, and Ouachita River Watersheds. 1,087,358 acres. Partners: USFWS, TNC, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, NRCS. Prioritization model for enrolling private lands that has not been used in previous SHAs/CCAAs. ALABAMA, LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPPI - SHA Red Cockaded Woodpecker/Gopher Tortoise & CCAA Black Pine Snake. Non-federal lands. Partners: American Forest Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation, USFWS.

  23. ESA Section 7 Conference Opinion For “Regulatory Certainty” “Federal agencies shall…utilize their authorities (to further ESA) by carrying out programs for conservation of endangered and threatened species listed….” • Sage Grouse Example: NRCS and FWS used the “conferencing” provisions under Section 7 of the ESA to assess NRCS conservation practices to be implemented and maintained by landowners. Report can be used as the basis for preparing a Biological Opinion under Section 7 of the E SA that would include “incidental take.” • INRMPs ?

  24. Expanding Voluntary Incentives Under ESA Advance Notice of Proposed Rule Comments due July 13, 2012 • How to improve SHA, HCP, CCAA? • New: “Pre-listing mitigation.” How can the Service allow conservation credits for voluntary actions taken in advance of listing? Federal Register/Vol. 77, No. 51, March 15, 2012.

  25. Thank You! For more information: Gabrielle (Gabe) Horner Coordinator Regional Candidate and Ecosystem Conservation USFWS Southeast Region gabrielle_horner@fws.gov 404-679-7066 www.fws.gov/southeast/candidateconservation

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