Delisting

        When a species is listed as threatened or endangered under the ESA, the FWS will come up with delisting goals for that species. When the FWS finds that a species has met its delisting goals, such as the population reaching a certain number of individuals, they will put the species under consideration for delisting. Five factors must be reviewed during the delisting process. First, is there a threat of destruction or harmful transformation to the species habitat? Next, is the species or habitat in danger of being over-used for any purpose, public or private? Is there a disease or predation factor that may weaken the species population? Are there inadequate regulatory mechanisms outside of the ESA that cannot help conserve the species population? Finally, are there any other man-made or natural factors that may impede the species natural recovery outside of the protection of the ESA? After the FWS has decided that these factors are non-threatening to the future success of the species, a Proposal for Delisting is written up. This and all the scientific data gathered on the species' current status are analyzed by three independent and appropriate species specialists. Their final decision, which can be helped along by scientific data from other respectable scientists and input from the pubic, is then published in the Federal Registrar. After the species is delisted a monitoring plan may be drafted to help keep track and further improve the species' well-being outside of the ESA. Here the FWS seeks input from the public to get ideas and concerns about how the monitoring will be implemented. If a monitoring plan is not put in place the ESA still requires the FWS to monitor species improvement for at least 5 years after delisting. In rare cases a species will be delisted due to extinction. But the FWS takes pride in the fact that less than one percent of all the delisted species since 1973 were delisting because of extinction.

        A species can also be downlisted in terms of status in the ESA from endangered to threatened. This usually happens when the FWS finds the species population has increased sufficiently but factors still threaten the species' well being once outside the protection of the ESA. If the occurs the FWS has the option of listing it as threatened, which would allow less strict conservation laws and thus allow for more energy to be placed on other endangered species but would still allow the species to be protected and monitored under the ESA.