Section 7 Section 7
Section 7 Consultation The Endangered Species Act (ESA) directs all Federal agencies to work to conserve endangered and threatened species and to use their authorities to further the purposes of the Act. Section 7 of the Act, called "Interagency Cooperation," is the mechanism by which Federal agencies ensure the actions they take, including those they fund or authorize, do not jeopardize the existence of any listed species.

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Consultation with the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Office

If your project is permitted, funded, or carried out by a federal agency, that agency is ultimately responsible for complying with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service). If your project does not involve a federal agency, then it is your responsibility under the ESA to determine if your project would result in take of federally listed species. Our project review process will allow you to determine whether or not federally listed species may be present near your project. The process, however, is not designed to assist you in determining whether your project will result in take of any listed species. If you are concerned that your project might take listed species, please contact the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Office (IFWO). For more information see the Service's national consultation web page and Consultation Handbook (PDF)

In order to improve efficiency in project reviews, the IFWO now uses IPaC IPaC
Information for Planning and Consultation (IPaC) is a project planning tool that streamlines the USFWS environmental review process

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to provide species lists, provide determination keys for some commonly consulted on actions and recommends using IPaC to develop a consultation package for other actions that may affect listed species or their critical habitats. If you are uncertain of what level of consultation you need to complete, please contact the IFWO before starting a consultation package in IPaC at: Fw1Idahoconsultationrequests@fws.gov.  Instruction for completing a Section 7 consultation or obtaining a species list using IPaC are available at this link.

Building a Consultation Package

The below documents are guides that walk users through the steps used in Consultation Package Builder (CPB). CPB is a new tool in our IPaC IPaC
Information for Planning and Consultation (IPaC) is a project planning tool that streamlines the USFWS environmental review process

Learn more about IPaC
system. CPB provides an interactive, step-by-step process to help action agencies prepare a full Biological Assessment (BA) or Biological Evaluation (BE) using information from IPaC. Use of the CPB tool is not required. 

Whether or not the CPB tool is used, we recommend following the steps in these user guides when writing a BA or BE in Idaho. This format ensures consistency across our consultations and enables faster evaluation by the Service consultation biologists. 

Grizzly bear standing on log in a pine forest
The following documents are guides that walk users through the steps used in Consultation Package Builder (CPB). CPB is a new tool in our IPaC system. CPB provides an interactive, step-by-step process to help action agencies prepare a full Biological Assessment (BA) or Biological Evaluation (BE)...

Conservation Measure Documents

The below documents include example conservation measures for some species in Idaho. Conservation measures are optional techniques or activities that can be utilized by action agencies or action proponents when developing their proposed actions to proactively avoid or minimize impacts from action activities. These lists are not exhaustive, and the Service does not require the adoption of these measures. Conservation measures should be selected as appropriate and implementable for each proposed action.

Renewable Energy Projects

Acoustic Effects Calculator 

The purpose of the Acoustic Sound Calculator is to evaluate the effects of underwater sound on bull trout from using an impact pile driver to drive piles into lake and riverine substrates. Although this calculator is most frequently used to evaluate the effects on bull trout from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ dock and pier permitted projects in Lake Pend Oreille, it can be used to evaluate the underwater effects of other projects across Idaho.

Acoustic Effects Calculator