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April 8-9, 2003

Silver Spring, Maryland (NOAA Headquarters - Science Center)

USE OF RECOVERY UNITS IN RECOVERY PLANNING

Presented by Sandy MacPherson

Recovery Units are geographic or otherwise identifiable subunits of a listed entity that "individually" are "necessary" to conserve genetic robustness, demographic robustness, important life history stages, or some other feature necessary for long-term sustainability of the entire listed entity. Recovery Units are not required, but they are an option, where needed.

Recovery Units are not necessarily self-sustaining viable units on their own, but instead need to be collectively recovered to ensure recovery of the entire listed entity. Recovery Units should encompass the entire listed entity, and all Recovery Units must be recovered before delisting can occur. Recovery Units cannot be reclassified or delisted independently.

Formal guidance on the designation of Recovery Units first came out in the 1998 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service Section 7 Consultation Handbook. As noted in the Consultation Handbook, Recovery Units are population units that have been "documented as necessary to both the survival and recovery of the species in a final recovery plan…" The Consultation Handbook goes on to indicate that the establishment of Recovery Units in a recovery plan may streamline jeopardy determinations for individual population units of a listed species because when an action appreciably impairs or precludes the capability of a Recovery Unit from providing both the survival and recovery function assigned to it, that action may jeopardize the continued existence of the species. Therefore, avoiding jeopardy for a Recovery Unit will ensure conservation of the value the particular Recovery Unit affords the entire listed entity.

Recovery Units apply to much more than section 7 consultations with Federal agencies. They can also be used to guide recovery actions, habitat conservation plans under section 10 of the Endangered Species Act, and scientific permitting. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service are currently working on providing more guidance on the use of Recovery Units in a new Recovery Planning Guidance document.

There are many reasons for delineating Recovery Units. They can help to: (1) maintain a well-distributed geographical range to buffer a species’ vulnerability to environmental fluctuations and catastrophes; (2) facilitate the interchange of genetic material between subpopulations,; (3) maintain genetic fitness and productivity of populations; (4) enhance long-term sustainability by maintaining adaptive ability; (5) conserve species that exhibit fidelity to their natal region, but have regular, if low, levels of dispersal; (6) ensure protection of a "source" population; and (7) tailor management to specific areas or threats that may vary widely throughout the species distribution.

Recovery Units should be designated on a biological basis, but sometimes the boundaries may be adjusted to reflect different management regimes or for other management purposes. Some things to consider when delineating Recovery Units include the need to: (1) maintain historic or current genetic flow; (2) encompass current and historic population and habitat distributions; (3) make each Recovery Unit large enough to buffer against successional processes; (4) consider different threats or management needs; and (5) consider the need for using geopolitical boundaries, such as State and International borders, to address different management capabilities.

There are several advantages to designating Recovery Units. They can encourage implementation by local interests, be useful as a state management tool (geopolitical boundary), allow for management of different threats in different areas (e.g., fisheries, urban growth), help in the design of management actions, place widely distributed species on smaller spatial scales for easier management and planning, and allow for evaluation of impacts at different scales.

The Atlantic Loggerhead Sea Turtle Recovery Team is proposing to identify five Recovery Units for the loggerhead based on mitochondrial DNA data that have identified different nesting assemblages. The first four Recovery Units coincide with the four genetically different nesting assemblages that have been identified in the southeastern United States. The fifth Recovery Unit is a combination of all other nesting assemblages of turtles that nest outside the U.S. but occur within U.S. waters during some portion of their lives. This will ensure that all turtles occurring in U.S. waters are included within a Recovery Unit, even those that originated on nesting beaches outside the U.S.

The five Recovery Units are: (1) Northern Recovery Unit, which includes Northeast Florida through North Carolina, (2) South Florida Recovery Unit, (3) Dry Tortugas Recovery Unit, (4) Florida Panhandle Recovery Unit, and (5) "Other" (Yucatan, Cuba, Bahamas, Cape Verde, and Mediterranean) Recovery Unit. Each Recovery Unit will have distinct recovery criteria, and each recovery criterion must be met to ensure recovery of the species.