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"Conservation of fish and wildlife and their habitats on private lands is critical to maintaining our ecological biodiversity."
Through section 10 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service works with non-Federal entities including private landowners, local and state governments, business, and others to conserve and protect listed and unlisted species and their habitats on non-Federal lands. You may need a permit if you are planning activities that may take protected wildlife or fish species. Our office offers a variety of permits under section 10 that can meet your specific project needs. The Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office promotes habitat conservation planning tools and implements a number of permitting programs that promote habitat conservation and enhancing the survival of listed species, including :
Conservation banks are permanently protected privately or publicly owned lands that are managed for endangered, threatened, and other at-risk species. A conservation bank is like a biological bank account. Instead of money, the bank owner has habitat or species credits to sell to other landowners or entities in need of a mitigation tool. For more information, view our fact sheet. For information on developing a Conservation Bank, view our Guidance for the Establishment, Use, and Operation of Conservation Banks and Federal Register Notice: 68 FR 24753, May 8 2003.
Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act offers grant opportunities for incidental take permit applicants to plan and develop their habitat conservation plan. You can pursue this grant opportunity with our office and your State resource agency contact.
Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act provides grant opportunities to incidental take permit holders to expand their conservation efforts by adding more area to their conserved lands. You can pursue this grant opportunity with our office and your State resource agency contact.
Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act provides a grant opportunity to purchase lands or conservation easements that promote the recovery of federally listed species.
Section 10 permits provide exceptions to prohibited actions described in Section 9 of the Endangered Species Act. Section 9(a)(1) of the Act and Federal regulation pursuant to section 4(d) of the Act prohibit the take of endangered and threatened fish and wildlife species. Section 9(a)(2)(B) makes it unlawful to remove and reduce to possession plants on lands under Federal jurisdiction; or remove, cut, dig up, damage, or destroy federally listed plants in any area in knowing violation of any law or regulation of any State. Although Section 9 specifically prohibits certain activities that directly damage or destroy plants, the definition of take does not apply to plants. Therefore, incidental take permits do not authorize the “take” of plants. However, Habitat Conservation Plans offer conservation benefits to plants and regulatory assurances to incidental take permit holders that include plants in their HCPs. In addition, the Service is required to evaluate whether their issuance of a permit pursuant to section 10(a)(1)(B) would jeopardize the continued existence of any listed plant species during their internal consultation process; therefore, the Service actively seeks to have conservation measures for plants included in HCPs.
Incidental take permits help landowners legally proceed with activities that might otherwise result in the illegal impacts to a listed species. A habitat conservation plan (HCP) is a document that supports an incidental take permit application pursuant to section 10(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Endangered Species Act. An HCP describes a proposed project that may incidentally take a federally listed species; it includes measures that would be implemented to minimize and mitigate impacts to the species to the maximum extent possible, and the means by which these minimization and mitigation measures will be funded. For more information on HCPs, view our fact sheet.
Safe Harbor Agreements are voluntary agreements between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and cooperating non-Federal landowners. In exchange for landowner activities that result in a net conservation benefit to listed species, such as habitat restoration activities, special management practices, or reintroductions, Safe Harbor Agreements provide landowners with an enhancement of survival permit or 10 (a)(1)(A) permit and assurances that their covered activities will not be constrained by or result in additional Endangered Species Act restrictions. The enhancement of survival permit we issue authorizes the landowner, if while conducting covered activities , to incidentally take listed species included in the agreement which may be encouraged to the property by the landowner's conservation activities. The permit also authorizes the landowner to return to established baseline conditions at the end of the agreement period. Covered activities in Safe Harbor Agreements vary and some examples include on-going ranching operations, routine installation of equipment, maintenance of created or existing ponds, and on-going land uses such as farming. For more information, view our fact sheet and Q & A sheet.
Candidate Conservation Agreements are voluntary agreements between the Service and one or more parties to address the conservation needs of proposed or candidate species, or species likely to become candidates, before they become listed as endangered or threatened. The participants voluntarily commit to implementing specific actions that will remove or reduce the threats to these species, thereby contributing to stabilizing or restoring the species so that listing is no longer necessary. For more information, view our fact sheet.
Permits issued under Section 10(a)(1)(A) of the Federal Endangered Species Act can also be for scientific research and other activities benefiting the recovery of federally listed species. Examples of activities for which recovery permits would be appropriate include monitoring of a threatened species, annual censusing, life history studies, and species demographic monitoring. For a permit application, click this link. For more information on recovery and delisting, click this link.
For more information about endangered species permits, view our fact sheet.
The Service is provided with the basic authority for evaluating impacts to fish and wildlife from proposed water resource development projects through the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act.
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