Tag: Endangered Species Act
The content below has been tagged with the term “Endangered Species Act.”
August 16, 2019 | 5 minute read
Droopy and slender pink petals give it a daisy-like appearance. Delicate, yet fierce, with a tall and spiked-domed center, it thrives in places that aren’t exactly dainty. Along power line rights-of-way, roadsides, dry slopes, and other disturbed places, the smooth coneflower fights to defend its turf. Left unchecked, trees and shrubs can opportunistically overpower the open prairie-like spaces that wildflowers call home. The smooth coneflower is an endangered wild plant in the aster family. Learn more...
August 14, 2019 | 3 minute read
Like many other islands in the Caribbean, the history of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands is inextricably bound up with the planting and harvesting of sugarcane. Decades of land clearing for sugar, as well as cotton and livestock, denuded the U.S. Virgin Islands of more than 90 percent of their native vegetation. Tropical lily-thorn. Photo by James Yrigoyen, USFWS. St. Croix agave (also called Egger’s century plant) and tropical lily-thorn are but two of the many plants that once flourished in the subtropical dry forests of St. Learn more...
August 7, 2019 | 5 minute read
Asheville, North Carolina — As Bryan Tompkins approaches a solar power farm in Rowan County, North Carolina, his eyes are not on the solar panels – an increasingly common sight in North Carolina. His attention rests on the plants growing around the solar panel array. Tompkins is a biologist in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Asheville Field Office, where he reviews federally-funded or authorized projects for wildlife impacts under a variety of federal laws, including the Endangered Species Act – the goal being to at least minimize negative wildlife impacts, and hopefully provide some benefits. Learn more...
July 25, 2019 | 8 minute read
Paint Rock, Alabama — Nothing really distinguishes Nat Mountain from its hilly neighbors amid the southern foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. It’s not particularly tall at 1,600 feet. It offers no sweeping summertime views, except snatches of distant mountains and the curvaceous Paint Rock River. It’s home to the Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge, but, on the surface, there’s really nothing to do here. It’s what’s below ground that tantalizes. Learn more...
June 17, 2019 | 4 minute read
Long ago, before Florida’s Panhandle was ditched, drained, paved and primed for development, there existed a rich tapestry of bogs, dunes, lakes and forests alongside the Gulf of Mexico. Bulldozers all but wiped out the rare coastal habitat. Pockets, though, remain. Pockets of pitcher plants and pine lilies; of seepage slopes and wet prairies; of wiregrass and sedges; and of butterflies and bees. Pine lily. Photo © Atlanta Botanical Garden, used with permission. Learn more...
June 14, 2019 | 3 minute read
It may not be widely known that Louisiana, the Pelican State, had lost for almost a decade all of its namesake brown pelicans. In the early 1900’s Louisiana’s brown pelican population was estimated at 50,000 to 80,000. The widespread use of the insecticide DDT, however, took a huge toll on many bird species, including the brown pelican. By 1963, the bird was no longer found anywhere in the state. Today, the birds are back and their numbers around the state are staying steady. Learn more...
The Species Status Assessment framework is an analytical approach developed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to deliver foundational science for informing all Endangered Species Act (ESA) decisions. An SSA is a focused, repeatable, and rigorous scientific assessment. The result will be better assessments, improved and more transparent and defensible decision making, and clearer and more concise documents. The Service is already seeing benefits from this approach. Ideally, the SSA is conducted at or prior to the candidate assessment or 12-month finding stage, but can be initiated at any time. Learn more...
August 12, 2019 | 2 minute read
“Kee, kee,” a male coquí llanero softly sings from dusk to dawn in a Puerto Rican wetland. Hearing its high-pitched call is rare because the tiny frog is only found in one freshwater wetland in the municipality of Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has prepared a final recovery plan outlining actions to save this dime-sized frog, which has been federally listed as endangered since October 2012. Read the full story...
Good news for America’s longest snake! 15 eastern indigo snakes just released in year three of the North Florida recovery effort
June 11, 2019 | 8 minute read
Tallahassee, Florida — Fifteen eastern indigo snakes, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, have just been released in northern Florida as part of a continuing collaborative plan to return the important, native, non-venomous apex predator to the region. This effort marks the third year in a row that snakes raised specifically for recovery of the species have been released at The Nature Conservancy’s Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve (ABRP) in Bristol. Read the full story...