Recovery Plans

        After a species is officially categorized under the ESA as threatened or endangered, a committee maybe created to create a recovery program for the species. A recovery plan is meant to stop the decrease in the species' population, eliminate threats inhibiting the population's future growth, and then help the species reach a level in which it can self sustain a healthy population. Recovery plans can be different from specie to specie or it can encompass several species at once. In either case, plans usually follow the same formatting.

        First, the species' situation is studied and analyzed through research and scientific data. Based on this data a target population number is put in place. This target population is how many healthy animals/plants FWS wants to account for before a species can be delisted. Along with the target population the committee must also come up with criteria for the target population to meet to make sure that it can self-sustain itself, such as how many years the population needs to be at target level. These criteria are called the delisting or downlisting goals. When these goals are met the species and be considered for delisting or downlisting from endangered to threatened. The committee must then come up with a detailed schedule in which specific tasks to eliminate threats to the species' survival must be completed. Finally, along with the schedule a cost analysis is done so a budget for the conservation efforts can be made.

        There are many paths recovery paths can take to establish healthy populations. Sometimes animals/plants from a healthy population in a different habitat area can be moved into an area the specie used to occupy but currently doesn't, the species historical range. This can be done as a wild reintroduction in which wild species are relocated or by captive reintroduction in which rehabilitated and/or captive species are reintroduced into the wild via the historical range. If the habitat is currently unsuitable for the reintroduction then the recovery plan may call for the purchase of the land, if not already federally owned, and then the restoration and protection of the habitat area. Most of the time, however, there is already a significant population based in the habitat area. In this case the recovery plan may call for simpler actions. For game species, such as fish, the FWS usually puts together management programs that allow for successful population growth without harming the hunting and fishing industries. This only applies to threatened species since the ESA makes it illegal to hunt for, trap or kill and endangered specie without authorization by the FWS. But in the case of some threatened species, for example fish, a catch-and-release law can be put into place to ensure specie and human satisfaction.

        Cooperation with federal, state and local governments, tribal communities, as well as conservation groups and private landowners is essential for a recovery plan to be successful. So the FWS has come up with several ways to make sure they all are appeased. In some cases recovery plans require the recovering species to occupy critical habitats that are on privately owned land. If so the FWS usually strikes up a Safe Harbor agreement with the landowners. These agreements provide the landowners with the opportunity to help conserve the listed species by keeping the habitat in suitable condition and/or by refraining from inflicting harm to the population. In return the landowner is reassured that no land use restrictions will be imposed upon their property. If the species is not welcome by the landowner and they refuse to sign a Safe Harbor agreement then the FWS may offer a grant to the landowner for their cooperation. On very rare occasions will the landowner refuse the grant. If so the FWS can either take the case to court to impose a land use restriction or find another habitat area for the species to populate. Grants are mostly given to volunteer conservation groups and cooperative land owners as well as states, territories and tribal people for their assistance in conservation projects in the habitat area. In the case of tribal peoples occupying land within the U.S. the ESA does not apply to them because of previously forged treaties and the agreements over tribal rights. Because of this the Secretarial Order #3206, issued by the Secretary of the Interior, was put in place to provide an outlet for representatives of the FWS and individual tribes to meet and come to regular agreements about species conservation. These agreements usually allow for tribal rights not to be infringed upon while ensuring each tribe's cooperation in the conservation efforts.

        As of yet recovery plans are not mandatory under the ESA and in some cases there is no way to ensure a plan's restrictions and laws are being followed. The money used for grants could be and should be raised in order for more rapid delisting to occur.