Some of the most contentious issues in fish and wildlife management are the regulatory restrictions that come when a species is listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Stakeholders are increasingly recognizing that the biggest win for people and wildlife is keeping species off the endangered species list in the first place. However, avoiding listing can only be counted as a true success if that decision is the result of effective pre-listing management and a transparent, consistent understanding of meaningful conservation outcomes achieved. These ideas, along with other species recovery strategies will be the focus of Special Session 3 at the 80th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. Titled, "Planning for Species Sustainability: Avoiding the Need to List Under the ESA," this session will be one of four concurrent Special Sessions scheduled from 10 a.m. until noon (CST) on Wednesday, March 11.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) reports that there are at least 146 plants and animals considered as 'candidate species' defined as having sufficient biological status and threats to be proposed as endangered or threatened under the ESA. In order to address threats to species before they become threatened or endangered, a variety of stakeholder groups have come together in recent years to implement species recovery work through partnerships rather than waiting for a listing decision. Their goals can be summarized quite simply: restore and maintain the ecosystem. While these goals might sound simple, there are several critical obstacles to address before success can be achieved. First, few of the participants have attempted restoration ecology. Second, there have been very few well-documented successes at restoring ecosystems, particularly over large landscapes (hundreds-of-thousands or even millions of hectares). Third, it is often difficult to estimate or calculate the total cost of restoring landscapes at these scales. Finally, and most importantly, trust levels among stakeholders often are extremely low at the onset of a collaborative partnership. Without trust, success at achieving ecosystem goals can be very difficult.

This session will include examples of stakeholder efforts at restoring the ecological health of four large landscapes and precluding the need for the FWS to list various wildlife species under ESA. The authors of these presentations will demonstrate how diverse groups have come together to lend their collective intellects at solving serious disruptions in ecological processes. They will provide insights and lessons learned from restoration work on landscapes in the prairies of the Southern Great Plains, the sagebrush shrub-steppe of the Intermountain West, and the tangles, saplings, weeds, vines, and shrubs of early-succession forests of New England.

Planning for Species Sustainability: Avoiding the Need to List Under the ESA  is co-chaired by Michael Bean, Counselor to the Assistant Secretary of Fish, Wildlife and Parks at the U.S. Department of the Interior, and by Terry Riley, Director of Conservation Policy with the North American Grouse Partnership.

Learn more about the 80th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference.