Missing, delayed, and old: The status of ESA recovery plans
Author and article information
Abstract
Recovery planning is an essential part of implementing the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), but conservationists and government agencies recognize challenges with the current planning process. Using data from all U.S. domestic and transboundary ESA-listed species, we quantify the completeness, timeliness, age, and other variation among ESA recovery plans over the past 40 years. We show that nearly 1/4 of eligible listed taxa (n = 1,548) lack final recovery plans; half of plans have taken >5 years to finalize after listing; half of recovery plans are more than 20 years old; and there is significant variation between agencies and among regions and taxonomic groups in planning. These results are not unexpected given dwindling budgets and an increasing number of species requiring protection, but underscore the need for systematic improvements to recovery planning. We discuss solutions—some already underway—that may address some of the shortcomings and help improve recovery action implementation for threatened and endangered species.
Cite this as
2018. Missing, delayed, and old: The status of ESA recovery plans. PeerJ Preprints 6:e2882v3 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2882v3Author comment
This version of the preprint uses an updated data set (08 Jan 2018) and adds an analysis of taxonomic biases in recovery plan status. The results are basically the same as in previous versions, but we set the problem up slightly differently in the Introduction, followed by slightly different context in the Discussion. Last but not least, we have substantially shortened the manuscript to conform with submission to a journal with a shorter word limit.
Sections
Supplemental Information
Section 7 consultation with recovery units
A section 7 consultation document (biological opinion) that uses recovery units, which are defined in the species' recovery plan.
A PowerPoint presentation of the US Fish and WIldlife Service's Recovery Enhancement Vision
A PowerPoint presentation of the US Fish and WIldlife Service's Recovery Enhancement Vision.
An information sheet on of the US Fish and WIldlife Service's Recovery Planning and Implementation updates (formerly Recovery Enhancement Vision)
An information sheet on of the US Fish and WIldlife Service's Recovery Planning and Implementation updates (formerly Recovery Enhancement Vision).
Additional Information
Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Author Contributions
Jacob Malcom conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.
Ya-Wei Li performed the experiments, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.
Data Deposition
The following information was supplied regarding data availability:
Open Science Framework, osf.io
https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/ZWHV3 (project overall)
https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/V73C8 (code component)
https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/H4TYH (data component)
Funding
The authors received no funding for this work.
