Service Seeks Latest Scientific Information on
Species Health, Population Trends
To accomplish this, the Service is requesting submission of any new information produced since the original listing of each of these 56 species. The new comment period closes May 22, 2006. The notice of the public comment period was published today in the Federal Register. The notice can be found at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/E6-4120.htm.
Last year, the Service initiated status reviews of 31 listed species in the two states. So far, none of those reviews have been completed. Ten reviews are scheduled for completion by the end of September, 2006.
Under the Endangered Species Act, the Service maintains a list of endangered and threatened wildlife and plants. The Act requires that the Service conduct a review of listed species at least once every five years and determine whether or not any species should be removed from the list (delisted), or reclassified from endangered to threatened or from threatened to endangered. Delisting a species must be supported by the best scientific and commercial data available and only considered if such data substantiates that the species is neither endangered nor threatened for one or more of the following reasons:
- The species is considered extinct.
- The species is considered to be recovered.
- The original data available when the species was listed, or the interpretation of such data, were in error.
Any change in Federal classification requires a separate rule-making process distinct from the status review.
To ensure that the review is as thorough as possible, the Service is soliciting new information about these species from the public, concerned governmental agencies, Tribes, the scientific community, industry, environmental entities, and any other interested parties. The Federal Register notice indicates where comments should be sent for each species. It also lists the appropriate contact person for information on each species.Categories of requested information include:
- Species biology, including population trends, distribution, abundance, demographics, and genetics.
- Habitat conditions, including amount, distribution, and suitability.
- Conservation measures that have been implemented that benefit the species.
- Threat status and trends.
Other new information, data, or corrections, including taxonomic or nomenclatural changes, identification of erroneous information, and improved analytical methods.
Threatened or endangered animal species included in this review will be the Ash Meadows Amargosa pupfish, Behren's silverspot butterfly, blunt-nosed leopard lizard, California freshwater shrimp, Conservancy fairy shrimp, delta green ground beetle, desert dace, Fresno kangaroo rat, giant kangaroo rat, Inyo California towhee, Kern primrose sphinx moth, Laguna Mountains skipper, longhorn fairy shrimp, Modoc sucker, Pahrump poolfish, Paiute cutthroat trout, Riverside fairy shrimp, San Diego fairy shrimp, San Joaquin kit fox, tidewater goby, vernal pool fairy shrimp, vernal pool tadpole shrimp, and White River spinedace.Listed plants included in this review will be the Bakersfield cactus, Ben Lomond spineflower, Butte County meadowfoam, California jewelflower, Catalina mountain-mahogany, Chorro Creek bog thistle, Coachella Valley milk-vetch, Colusa grass, hairy Orcutt grass, Hoffmann's rock-cress, Howell's spineflower, Indian Knob mountain balm, Kern mallow, Lane Mountain milk-vetch, Menzies? wallflower, Monterey gilia, Morro manzanita, Munz's onion, Otay tarplant, Orcutt's spineflower, Pismo clarkia, Sacramento Orcutt grass, San Jacinto Valley crownscale, Santa Cruz bush-mallow, Santa Rosa manzanita, showy Indian clover, slender-horned spineflower, slender Orcutt grass, soft-leaved paintbrush, spreading navarretia, steamboat buckwheat, thread-leaved brodiaea, and willowy monardella.
