About this Collection
Recovering threatened and endangered species
The goal of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is to conserve plants and animals listed as endangered or threatened, as well as the ecosystems upon which they depend. The Service also works to improve the status of those species to the point that protection under the ESA is no longer necessary. This process is called recovery.
Recovering any species is a challenge that takes time. In some cases, we are attempting to combat population declines more than 200 years in the making. Achieving recovery for threatened and endangered species requires cooperative conservation efforts. The collaborative efforts of the Service and its many partners, including states, tribes, not-for-profit organizations, universities, researchers, private individuals, and other federal agencies, are critical to the recovery of listed species.
This collection includes information on key documents that guide that recovery process, including:
- Recovery planning documents - Recovery plans offer a "roadmap" for how to recovery a species. Additional documents used in recovery planning are the Recovery Outline, Recovery Implementation Strategy, Captive Propagation and Reintroduction Plans, and Species Status Assessments.
- Five-year status reviews -To make sure that all species listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act continue to have the appropriate level of protection, we conduct assessments of their status once every five years.
- Post-delisting monitoring plans - When a is delisted because they have been recovered, the Service develops post delisting monitoring plans with the States and other partners to assess the species status after it no longer has protections under the ESA.