Results

This paper illustrates the need and importance for this shift in understanding, and suggest corresponding revisions to the ESA. It gives an overview of the recovery plan provisions and delisting process of the ESA. The paper gives an overview of a recently delisted species, the Western Great Lakes Distinct Population Segment (“WGL DPS”) of the gray wolf, which serves to illustrate in detail the more general analysis of ESA implementation. The paper also provides a framework for the importance behind identifying policy decisions and having greater accountability and consistency in decision-making.

The People's Republic of China harbors a vast number of plant and animal species, but those species have long been threatened by a thriving illegal trade. China became a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in 1981 and has since passed a number of wildlife protection laws and regulations in an effort to curb the illegal trade and begin revitalizing some of its nearly-extinct animal populations. This article critically examines China's legislation and judicial decisions, concluding that much work remains to be done to protect endangered species in China.

This Article investigates how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the courts are implementing the Endangered Species Act's prohibition on “adverse modification” of “critical habitat.” That prohibition appears to be one of environmental law's most ambitious mandates, but its actual meaning and effect are contested. Using a database of over 4,000 “biological opinions,” interviews with agency staff, and a review of judicial decisions considering the adverse modification prohibition, this Article assesses the extent to which the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the courts are relying on the adverse modification prohibition to provide habitat protection.

This final rule is a collaborative effort between the FWS and the states of Tennessee and Alabama and Conservation Fisheries, Inc. to reintroduce the boulder darter (Etheostoma wapiti), an endangered fish, and the spotfin chub (Cyprinella (=Hybopsis) monacha), a threatened fish to its historical habitat in Lauderdale County Alabama and Lawrence County, Tennessee. This rule provides for Non-essential Experimental Populations (NEP) within the designated area and it establishes limited allowable legal takings in that area. Additionally, this rule also changes the scientific name of the spotfin chub from Cyprinella (=Hybopsis) monacha to Erimonax monachus, to reflect a recent change in the scientific literature.

Final rule by the FWS designating a critical habitat for the Buena Vista Lake Shrew, consisting of 84 acres, in accordance with the 1973 Endangered Species Act. The shrew was listed as endangered through a final rule that was published in the Federal Register on March 6, 2002 (67 FR 10101). The designation of the critical habitat for the shrew was made pursuant to a judicial order from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. The order arose from Kern County Farm Bureau v. Badgley, U.S. Dist, LEXIS 24125, 2002.

The FWS has designated designate 13 river and stream segments in the Tennessee Cumberland River Basins, for a total of approximately 885 river as critical habitat for five endangered mussels: Cumberland elktoe (Alasmidonta atropurpurea), oyster mussel (Epioblasma capsaeformis), Cumberlandian combshell (Epioblasma brevidens), purple bean (Villosa perpurpurea), and rough rabbitsfoot (Quadrula cylindrica strigillata). All five mussels belong to the Unionidae family.

This final rule downgrades the Mariana fruit bat from endangered to threatened throughout its range in the Mariana archipelago, which is subject to US jurisdiction. The reason for the down grade is the FWS initially made a mistake in the taxonomy of the Mariana fruit bat. When the FWS listed the bat as endangered on Guam in 1984, it believed that the bat was a species only endemic to Guam. Since that time, the FWS has discovered that the bat is endemic to the entire Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and the Territory of Guam.

FWS has designated critical habitat pursuant to section 3 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for the federally endangered riverside fairy shrimp that encompasses 306 miles within Ventura, Orange, and San Diego Counties in California. The riverside fairy shrimp is a freshwater crustacean that is found in vernal pools (a shallow depression that fills with rainwater and does not drain into the lower drainage section) in the coastal California area. The shrimp is the second most primitive living crustacean and is the most recently discovered crustacean in California.

Under this final rule, the FWS has designated critical habitat for the Santa Ana Sucker, in 3 noncontiguous populations in The lower and middle Santa Ana River in San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties; the East, West, and North Forks of the San Gabriel River in Los Angeles County; and lower Big Tujunga Creek, a tributary of the Los Angeles River in Los Angeles County. We have identified 23,719 acres (ac) (9,599 hectares (ha)) of aquatic and riparian habitats essential to the conservation of the Santa Ana sucker.

This final rule is written to designate a critical habitat for the Klamath River and Columbia River populations of Bull Trout. The critical habitat designation includes approximately 1,748 miles of streams and 61,235 acres of lakes and marshes. The reason for this designation is that at the time of listing, there are only seven remaining non-migratory populations of bull trout, and the designation is mandatory pursuant to a court order.