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Threatened and Endangered (T and E) Species

More than one factor is responsible for threatening the survival of of these animals the evolutionary development of which began millions of years ago. U.S. News and World Report (October, 2000) reports that wildlife in many of the world's tropical forests are being hunted to extinction to feed a growing global population. Natural causes include evolution, which, through the process of natural selection, causes changes in species composition. A familiar example of this is found in the extinction of the dinosaurs and the subsequent rise of birds. The end result of natural extinction is that new species evolve to replace the old ones and consequently maintain the diversity necessary for ecosystem survival. Natural extinction may also be caused by predation, disease, and competition of two species for the same critical resources.

Contemporary extinction, by comparison, can be termed "unnatural" and results primarily from human direct effects on natural processes, specifically by environmental alterations. People's strongest adverse environmental impact has been through habitat destruction which has accelerated by his change from a hunting-gathering to an agricultural society. Today the demand for development space are rapidly reducing the habitat critically needed by endangered and threatened species. Further compounding the threat to animals are polluting (various forms), using chemical pesticides, using poisons that are not species-specific, commercial and trophy hunting, egg collecting, and introducing exotic species.

Efforts to reverse the perilous position of threatened fauna have increased. Enacted legislation of importance can be accessed by the Web (see below). Private activities in Virginia are not covered by Environmental Impact Statement laws unless federal funds are involved. If any listed species is found in the area, draft and final impact statements must show evidence of having consulted with the Regional Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The kinds of information relevant to endangered species and that which is needed for the EIS includes: a list of the species probably on the site, patterns of behavior of those fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals; breeding, nesting, and feeding requirements of birds. Also needed are estimates of the likely consequences proposed changes will have on the species. Scientists and citizens' groups are engaged in various efforts to learn more about these threatened animals in order to fill the gaps in information about them and to ensure their survival.

What is the justification for preserving faunal species? An important consideration for many people is the esthetic value inherent in all wildlife forms. Of ecological significance, however, is that each species is essential for maintaining genetic variability and hence ecosystem diversity. This diversity allows perpetuation of a stable system which is buffered against external disruptions. Perhaps the principal justification for faunal preservation stems from knowing that all species are interactive components of the total biosphere and their existence may well have synergistic importance indeed critical to the survival of the whole system. Since people do not know the precise role played by all species, they cannot foresee the possible costs incurred by species extinction. It is likely that over the long-run, those costs would exceed the costs of efforts to preserve the animals during this generation. Preserving species preserves options for the future.

Rare species must be surveyed and amnaged on public forest lands. Doing so, species by species, may be impossible. Efforts are underway to conceieve of why certain species groups are, or become, rare, and then to manage habitats to reduce these probabilities. It can be summarized that species that are rare

• have very specific needs
• there are few places where these needs exist or can be met
• such places, few, are often changed by fire, storm, floods, earth slides, etc.
• change in such places back to suitable conditions occurs slowly (or never)

It is natural that some species are rare and not always a condition caused by people. Species that are rare have certain characteristics to achieve the "laws of Nature" - get energy, conserve anergy, reproduce. The evident means or characteristics of survival or persistence of typically-rare species are

• great-distance dispersal techniques (e.g., plant spores)
• abundant dispersals (e.g., cottonwood seeds)
• multiple dispersal strategies (wind-borne spores and mammal-borne spores)
• long and/or varied flowering and germination (dodging the irregular catastrophes) (e.g., Isotria)

Animals or plants that have a broad life-space or ecological niche are rarely rare or endangered.

The more alpha units that meet the needs of a species in each season of each year, (a cumulative count of alpha units) the more likely that species will not be threatened within an ownership. This is an area count and likely to be achieved by some form of area-regulation of timber harvest.

Species become rare when their prize sites are reduced, when their prize sites achieve an unsuitable age, when dispersal is thwarted, when dispersal sites are reduced, when sites are destroyed (natural or purposeful), and when disturbance is too frequent (beyond natural disturbance intervals) ... any or all, thus a high probability.

A list of endangered species in the locale will be provided from the data bases of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. One unit on an endangered plant, Isotria, is available

These lists and information can become valuable decision aids and can facilitate planning on a sound, ecological basis. The following questions about endangered and threatened vertebrate species should be asked:

1. What endangered and threatened species probably exist in the area?
2. What is their endangered status?
3. Which site probably contains the fewest number of endangered and threatened fauna?
4. How can such sites be avoided by decisions to be made?
5. What are the alternatives that are available that least threaten such wildlife?

Recent findings from a study conducted by The Nature Conservancy and the Association of Biodiversity Information show that Southwest Virginia and Northeastern Tennessee are home to the largest number of imperiled species on the U.S. mainland. In the study, "Precious Heritage: The Status of Biodiversity in the United States," only Hawaii's Island of Kauai ranks higher. In Southwest Virginia and Northeastern Tennessee, 27 species are endangered or imperiled, eight of these are associated with caves and 19 with rivers and streams. A link for endangered species is available.

Freshwater mussels are at the most risk; 18 types of mussels are presumed to be already extinct. While many mussel populations are declining, some are doing quite well. On the Clinch River, where mussel diversity has declined from 60 to 40 species, populations upstream of the Virginia state line are in decline while those in the lower portion of the river are healthy. Scientists are uncertain what is causing the decline. Virginia Tech is working with the Nature Conservancy to create a mussel propagation center, which will propagate mussels to augment natural populations.

Populations of many animal and plant species are declining at alarming rates. Many of the species that were once abundant and symbolized this region are now at the brink of extinction. But how near to extinction are they? What is causing their decline? Where are they located? What are their habitat needs? How much habitat have they left?

Pacific Biodiversity Institute (PBI) has developed an Internet resource called the Endangered Species Information Network to help you answer some of these questions. We've still got a lot of information to put together and the web site is still in development, but I think you will find it interesting. We greatly appreciate any information or pertinent research that you are aware that can be incorporated into this information base. We are particularly having a difficult time finding>good population and habitat trend information.

You can find it listed near the center of our homepage: www.pacificbio.org or go directly to it at: http://www.pacificbio.org/ESIN/Infopages/intropage.html

The intention of this project is to provide the most up to date and complete information on federally and state listed endangered, threatened and sensitive species as well as other species of conservation concern in the Pacific Northwest. We hope that this information can be useful in stimulating efforts to maintain viable populations of all species in this region.

This web site provides up-to-date information on endangered, threatened, and other species of conservation concern within the Pacific Northwest. The site is a work in progress and is not completed. Species found within Washington State are covered more completely than other areas. Limited information is available for species found in Idaho and Oregon. Information on population and habitat trends is still missing for many species. We hope to incorporate new research findings as they become available.

Our goal that this Information Network will grow in the future to provide comprehensive information on Pacific Northwest species of conservation concern.

What You Can Expect on the Endangered Species Information Network:

• A listing of all federally listed threatened and endangered species for each state within the Pacific Northwest.
• A detailed description of each species with a map of their current population distributions.
• Hyper links to other web sites with additional information.

Our long-term goals are to:

• Provide every person, organization, and institution that is interested in endangered species one source of scientifically credible information on all species of conservation concern within the Pacific Northwest.
• Raise awareness of species and habitat trends within the Pacific Northwest.
• Provide an arena where all people can add sightings data, ideas for solutions, reasons for concern, and news flashes, so that the information of this page can grow into a network of information.

Check out the Endangered Species Information Network now and watch it for frequent updates. If you've got any questions about this, please contact me.

Peter Morrison
Pacific Biodiversity Institute
PO Box 298
314 Castle Avenue
Winthrop, WA 98862
phone: 509-996-2490
fax: 509-996-3778
email: peter@pacificbio.org
web site: http://www.pacificbio.org

Relevant site: http://www.amnh.org/science/biodiversity/extinction/index.html

Extinct animals: The Museum of Paleontology (University of California at Berkeley) http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/, Has compiled one of the most extensive sites of images on paleobiology and is arranged phylogentically

Yahooligans Extinct Animals, http://www.yahooligans.com/Science_and_Nature/Living_Things/Animals/

http://www.photovault.com/Link/CategoryListings.html is a TREASURE TROVE of biological imagery scrole down to the appropriate Paleontology sites. This site takes some time to download images.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service placed a moratorium on endangered species listings until September 2001 due to budget constraints. (email note from SAF, December, 2000)

Additional notes on the moratorium, January 1, 2001
Species Strategy Has Backfired Lawsuits Over Critical
Areas Divert Money From Protection
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Publication date: 2000-12-29

When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last month that it would not consider listing any new species as threatened or endangered in 2001, it highlighted the weakness of litigation as a means of protecting endangered species. In fact, the announcement suggests that by prevailing in court, one of the nation's most successful environmental litigants actually has reduced protection for imperiled creatures.

The agency imposed the listing moratorium, which it announced Nov. 22, because it had already spent the $6.35 million available for that process in 2001. Money that could have been used to evaluate the status of 245 candidate species during the remaining 10 months of the fiscal year instead will be consumed by a flood of critical-habitat designations forced on the agency by litigation.

To understand how the agency reached this point - and to appreciate the magnitude of the environmental groups' paradoxical blunder - it is first necessary to understand the three mechanisms by which the Endangered Species Act protects plants and animals: listing, creation of a recovery plan and designation of critical habitat.

The listing process is by far the most important. Once a species has been listed by the federal government as endangered (facing imminent extinction in some or all of its range) or threatened (likely to become endangered in the near future), it receives immediate protection under Section 7 of the ESA.

In general terms, this requires the federal government to ensure that no harm comes to that species or to its habitat, an admonition typically carried out through a process known as "consultation." Any federal agency that issues a permit required for any public or private activity - filling a wetland, for example, or altering a streambed - is required to consult with USFWS or the National Marine Fisheries Service beforehand to make sure that permit will not authorize an activity that jeopardizes a listed species.

In addition, species listed as endangered immediately come under the protection of Section 9 of the act, which prohibits any "take" of that species - a term defined to include killing, harassing or harming individual animals or plants. (The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the "take" prohibition can apply also to activities that destroy a listed species' habitat.)

Once a species has been listed, the ESA requires the federal government to develop a recovery plan describing actions that will allow it to be removed from the list. The law also requires the designation of critical habitat - specific areas that contain physical or biological features essential to the species' survival.

While highly symbolic, designation of critical habitat means little from a conservation standpoint. Even in its absence, private landowners are prohibited by law from killing or harming endangered species or destroying their habitat, unless they obtain a special permit. And the ESA's consultation requirements apply to all federal permitting activities on private and public land regardless of whether that land contains critical habitat.

Federal agencies have been somewhat slow to complete the listing process - a backlog of 245 candidate species, partly the result of an 18-month congressional moratorium imposed in 1995, continues to await evaluation - but it has been even slower to adopt recovery plans (only about half of all listed species have such plans) and to designate critical habitat. In general, USFWS and NMFS are required to undertake these steps at the time a species is listed; as a practical matter, the agencies lack the resources to carry out all the ESA's mandates and have concentrated on that mechanism they regard as most effective - listing.

That decision has left them open to legal challenge. This year, the federal government must issue 57 critical habitat proposals or final designations affecting about 300 species, nearly all the result of litigation. Most involve the Center for Biological Diversity, based in Tucson, Ariz., which has compiled an enviable winning record in the courtroom.

In the world outside, however, the strategy has backfired. Forced to devote its inadequate resources to designating critical habitat - a laborious but relatively meaningless regulatory step - USFWS can no longer extend the ESA's full protection to additional imperiled species by listing them as threatened or endangered. That failure will, of course, bring more lawsuits. And while the litigation game plays out, rare creatures will continue sliding toward the brink.

Contact John Krist in California at www.staronline.com.
Distributed by Scripps-McClatchy Western Service

Endangered Species Program, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service [pdf] http://www.fws.gov/endangered/

See the the new publications in the conservation journal Endangered Species Research (ESR) a new sister journal to Marine Ecology Progress Series (MEPS) :

Eguchi T, Seminoff JA, Garner SA, Alexander-Garner J, Dutton PH (2006) Endangered Species Research Number 2: Flipper tagging with archival data recorders for short-term assessment of diving in nesting female turtles

McGowan A, Broderick AC, Gore S, Hilton G, Woodfield NK, Godley BJ (2006) Endangered Species Research Number 3: Breeding seabirds in the British Virgin Islands.

These articles and all other ESR material can be downloaded free of charge at the journal website http://www.int-res.com/journals/esr/contents/

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This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision January 2, 2001.