Threatened and Endangered Species Team Workshop on ESA
Section 7(a)(1) Conservation Planning in the South Pacific Division
Dates: 6-7 December 2016
Location: Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, CA
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Threatened and
Endangered Species Team (TEST) initiative recently began to accelerate the
development of solutions to priority threatened, endangered, and at-risk
species currently, or having high likelihood in the future to, affect mission
sustainability (see below for more details on the TEST).
The USACE Engineer Research and Development Center
(ERDC), Environmental Laboratory will host a workshop in southern California
6-7 December to seek opportunities for implementing Endangered Species Act
(ESA) Section 7(a)(1) conservation planning for federally listed species. This
is an opportunity for USACE, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Military
Services, and other federal agencies to come together to explore partnerships
that could lead to win-win scenarios for agency missions, streamlining ESA
Section 7(a)(2) consultation processes, and improving outcomes for listed
species. The workshop format will include focused presentations by
national and regional experts on ESA and listed species conservation, followed
by facilitated discussions that focus on opportunities. American Bird
Conservancy has been working closely with ERDC for the past decade on listed
species recovery and will assist with logistics, presentations, and facilitated
discussions.
We are looking for your input on specific opportunities
to use ESA Section 7(a)(1) planning as a means to reduce costs, improve mission
flexibility, improve ESA Section 7(a)(2) outcomes, and of course, work toward
species recovery. If you would like to attend this workshop, or have
any ideas that fall within the scope of this effort, please contact Rich
Fischer by 15 November 2016 at Richard.A.Fischer@usace.army.mil.
There is NO COST to attend.
Other Information: A detailed agenda will be
forthcoming soon. Closest accommodations to meeting location are in
Carlsbad and Oceanside, CA.
More Detail: The TEST uses strategic collaborations
internally (Headquarters, Division, District, and ERDC programs and field staff
and scientists), and externally (other agencies and stakeholders) to identify
issues and develop and implement cost-effective and efficient approaches and
solutions for federally listed species. The TEST team currently is
developing strategies to assess threatened, endangered, and at-risk species on
a national scale, determine how to prioritize focus on these species, and then
develop solutions that will improve operational flexibility, reduce future
costs, reduce adverse impacts on missions, and improve species conservation
(including in some cases, recovery). The TEST is the platform for
initiating and coordinating ESA Section 7(a)(1) efforts, particularly the
development of Conservation Plans, which was recently elevated as a USACE and
USFWS priority by Major General Peabody and the USFWS Deputy Director,
respectively. We are looking to apply ESA Section 7(a)(1) more broadly and
within agency missions and authorities, since it allows for the agencies to
have greater control over species/management interactions (and possibly lower
costs) than outcomes that typically result solely from ESA Section 7(a)(2)
consultations.