Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Annual Notice of Findings on Recycled Petitions

In this notice of review, we announce our recycled petition findings, as required in section 4(b)(3)(C)(i) of the Endangered Species Act of 1972, as amended. When, in response to a petition, we complete a 12-month finding that listing a species is warranted but precluded, we must make a new 12-month finding each year until we publish a proposed rule or make a determination that listing is not warranted. These subsequent 12-month findings are referred to as recycled petition findings. Information contained in this notice of review is based on our review of the current status and threats to taxa that were the subjects of 27 outstanding warranted but precluded findings. Based on our review, we find that 26 species continue to warrant listing or changes in classification, but these activities are precluded by listing activities of higher priority as determined by our listing priority guidance. One species no longer warrants listing under the Endangered Species Act and, therefore, has been removed from the candidate list. We announce the availability of listing priority assignment forms for candidate taxa and listing priority determinations for proposed taxa. These documents describe the status and threats that we evaluated in order to assign a listing priority number to each taxon. We request additional status information that may be available for these candidates as well as information on taxa that we should include as candidates in future updates of this list. We will consider this information in preparing listing documents and future recycled petition findings. This information will help us in monitoring changes in the status of candidate taxa and in conserving these taxa.