U.S. Fish & Wildlife to review endangered species

WASHINGTON — As part of the process mandated by the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will conduct five-year status reviews of 35 endangered or threatened fish, wildlife, and plants. These species are found in the Southeastern United States and Puerto Rico.

The public is invited to provide information and comments concerning these species on or before July 6, 2018.

These five-year reviews will ensure listing classifications under the ESA are accurate and recommend changes in status where appropriate based on the latest science and analysis. In addition to reviewing the classification of these species, a five-year review presents an opportunity to track the species’ recovery progress. It may benefit species by providing valuable information to guide future conservation efforts.

Information gathered during a review can assist in making funding decisions, consideration related to reclassifying species status, conducting interagency consultations, making permitting decisions, and determining whether to update recovery plans, and other actions under the ESA.

This notice announces our active review of 28 species listed here that are currently federally listed as endangered:

Birds: ivory-billed woodpecker, Bermuda petrel.

Fishes: laurel dace, yellowcheek darter, watercress darter, smoky madtom, Chucky madtom, Alabama sturgeon.

Clams: dromedary pearlymussel, Cumberlandian combshell, cracking pearlymussel, Alabama lampmussel, birdwing pearlymussel, Alabama pearlshell, fat pocketbook, pale lilliput.

Snails: slender campeloma, armored snail.

Plants: Cumberland sandwort, pyne’s groundplum, hairy rattleweed, Brooksville bellflower, elfin tree fern, aboriginal prickly-apple, Cooley’s water-willow, Spring Creek bladderpod, Britton’s beargrass, persistent trillium.

This notice also announces our active review of seven species listed here that are currently federally listed as threatened:

Reptiles: eastern indigo snake, ringed map turtle.

Fishes: slackwater darter, yellowfin madtom, pygmy sculpin.

Plants: white birds in a nest, Florida skullcap.

To help inform the five-year reviews, the service is requesting information on: (1) species biology, including population trends, distribution, abundance, demographics and genetics; (2) habitat conditions, including amount, distribution and suitability; (3) conservation measures that have been implemented; (4) threat status and trends; and, (5) other new information, data or corrections, including taxonomic or nomenclatural changes, identification of erroneous information contained in the ESA list and improved analytical methods. Comments and materials received will be available for public inspection by appointment.

The Federal Register notice announcing the status review of these 35 federally listed fish, wildlife and plants is available online at https://www.fws.gov/policy/frsystem/default.cfm.