The recovery of listed species is the cornerstone and ultimate purpose of the endangered species program and an underlying premise for all of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s actions. It is the process by which listed species and their ecosystems are restored and their future is safeguarded to the point that protections under the Endangered Species Act are no longer needed.

There are multiple steps and aspects to our recovery program that we work with as we conserve and restore listed species:

•We develop recovery outlines and recovery plans for listed species which are important tools toguide the recovery process and measure progress towards recovery.
• We work collaboratively with our partners to implement actions that are considered necessary to recover the species and their habitats.
• We issue recovery permits to allow people to do research that furthers our understanding of listed species for the purposes of assisting in recovery efforts and other conservation related actions with listed species.
• We conduct periodic status assessments, such as 5-year reviews, to monitor the condition of species and their associated threats.
• We reclassify and delist species as their status improves and stabilizes to the point that recovery has been achieved.
• We monitor species for a minimum of 5 years once they have been

delisted due to recovery to ensure the lasting effectiveness of management actions and the continuing stability of the species.

Links to other sites:

Some listed species in the Pacific Region have more detailed information available on dedicated websites; links to those sites are provided here: Pacific Region Species

Use this link to go to our National Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Program

Photos from top: western snowy plover (Dave Pitkin); Oregon silverspot butterfly (R. Bottorff); gray wolf (Gary Kramer)