Prospectus for an analysis of recovery plans and delisting

The Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) are undertaking a national review of recovery plans for species listed under the Endangered Species Act. The purpose of the Act is to protect and restore populations of threatened and endangered plants and animals and ecosystems and habitats on which they depend. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) are responsible for the administration of the Act and for developing and implementing recovery efforts for listed species. Typically a recovery plan is written that outlines a number of actions that, when completed, are expected to enable the species to be delisted. About 500 final recovery plans have been written, of which 420 cover single species. In recent years increasing effort has been directed toward producing multi-species recovery plans. In total, 926 species are covered by existing plans.

The SCB and NCEAS, with the full cooperation of the Fish and Wildlife Service, has undertaken to review and characterize existing recovery plans. The project began in September 1998 with preparation of a draft detailed questionnaire that will be used as the primary tool for characterizing the plans. In mid-December FWS biologists, members of the regulated community, representatives of environmental NGOs, and people who will lead the seminars at which recovery plans will be evaluated, participated in a workshop in Washington, DC. Participants fine-tuned an extremely detailed questionnaire and established the procedures to govern the comprehensive review process that will take place this winter.

The goal of the review, which will be carried out by 19 graduate student seminars at 18 different universities, is: To compile a database and conduct exploratory analysis of the information in recovery plans in a manner that: facilitates communication among students, faculty and the FWS; contributes toward developing training programs and guidance to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of producing recovery plans based on sound science.

Each seminar will review about 10 recovery plans selected in a stratified random manner so that the roles and consequences of the following five factors can be assessed: (1) date the plan was prepared, (2) type of plan (single vs. multiple species), (3) how, when, and why recovery plans are revised, (4) evolutionary lineage; i.e., taxon of the focal species; and (5) life history of the species, in particular, whether it is narrow/endemic versus wide-ranging.

To complete the detailed questionnaire, students will need to answer hundreds of questions about each recovery plan. The sources of information they will use are the listing document, the recovery plan, FWS biannual reports to Congress and the resource person who the FWS will provide for each seminar group to help answer questions about its focal recovery plans. To keep seminars interactive and in touch with one another, a webpage and website is being set up. One person from each seminar will be designated to interact with the webczar, but all participants will be able to read what is happening, and students will be able to communicate easily with one another via an e-mail discussion list.

Each seminar class will start by reviewing one recovery plan previously scored by experts from the FWS. This initial exercise is intended to help standardize procedures and to assess the significance of potential individual and regional differences in ways of answering the questionnaire. When the review team completes its analysis of a recovery plan, the team leader will enter the data onto the website, which translates into 200+ plans nationally used in the analysis. These data will serve as the basis for a broad characterization and analysis of Recovery Plans that will be done at NCEAS in Santa Barbara, April 10-13, 1999. A draft paper based on the results of the analyses will serve as the basis for a workshop, attended by people from the academic community and FWS, to be held at NCEAS on May 13-16. The goal of the workshop is to produce a manuscript for publication in Conservation Biology that will synthesize the suggestions and recommendations for ways to improve recovery planning for species listed under the Endangered Species Act. Both activities at NCEAS will be led by Dee Boersma and Peter Kareiva.

The universities participating in the SCB-FWS recovery plan review are:

• Arizona State University
• Colorado State University
• Cornell University
• Duke University
• Iowa State University
• Notre Dame University
• Texas A & M University
• University of California, Berkeley
• University of California, Davis (2 seminars)
• University of California, Santa Barbara
• University of Idaho
• University of Maine
• University of Minnesota
• University of Montana
• University of Nevada
• University of Washington
• University of Wisconsin
• Utah State University