Endangered Species Act Listing Program U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service National Listing Workplan FY17-23

2 Years… New prioritization system for 12-month findings National Listing Workplan Revised Petition Regulations

What is the National Listing Workplan? Establishes FWS’s long-term schedule for undertaking various listing actions including petition findings, listing determinations and critical habitat designations. It is based, in part, on the newly established prioritization methodology for 12-month findings. Delistings and reclassifications are not part of this workplan

Where we are now Pending workload as of October 2016 (after completion of MDL settlement commitments) 30 candidates 555 12-month findings

Listing Workplan Goals Provides predictability to partners on what we are doing and when Is flexible to address new species when needed Reflects our biological priorities and aligns/mobilizes conservation delivery Is balanced between the types of actions (petition findings, proposed rules, final rules) Distributes workload across FWS Field Offices Seeks efficiencies by batching actions when possible and combining warranted findings with proposed listing and CH rules

Prioritization Methodology for 12-month findings: Provides a logical, transparent basis for how FWS will prioritize unresolved 12-month findings Applied to outstanding 12-month findings to inform the National Listing Workplan Finalized July 27, 2016

12-month finding prioritization system Bin 1: Critically Imperiled – Species that appear to be critically imperiled and in need of immediate action. Bin 2: Strong Data Available on Species’ Status – Species for which we have existing strong scientific data supporting a clear decision on status. Bin 3: New Science Underway to Inform Key Uncertainties Bin 4: Conservation Efforts in Development or Underway Bin 5: Limited Data Currently Available – Species for which there is little information on status and threats available to inform a petition finding.

State Involvement States hold much of the information needed to inform FWS proper placement into bins Via coordination to inform “binning ,” workplan should reflect State priorities as well as our own Flexibility to incorporate new information relevant to prioritization when it becomes available

Binning Outcomes for 12-month findings 1 – Critically imperiled 9 2 – Strong science 69 3 – New science underway 151 4 – Existing conservation efforts 59 5 – Little known 237 TOTAL* 525 * Does not total 555; already agreed upon dates or settlements pending were not binned.

National Listing Workplan Details Includes all 30 remaining candidates, most within the first 3 years Includes 320 of the 555 outstanding 12-month findings. Of those not included in workplan: Most of these are Bin 5 – little known Some bin 3s and 4s where FO capacity is limiting in R4 11 FWS discretionary status reviews

Actions by Type and Year Action Type FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 Total 12M finding 41 36 44 75 46 37 320 Discretionary Status Review 1 4 3 11 PLPCH (candidates) 12 2 30 Court remedy 49 59 78 47 38 45 362

New Actions by Region by Year Fiscal Year R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 Total FY17 2 3 1 14 5 18 46 FY18 11 20 6 4 49 FY19 21 7 59 FY20 19 22 15 78 FY21 10 12 47 FY22 9 13 38 FY23 45 66 111 55 30 60 362

National Listing Workplan Where warranted, propose listing simultaneous with making a 12-month finding to streamline process Propose critical habitat simultaneous with proposed listings, if prudent and determinable Final rulemakings planned to adhere to statutory time frames

Updating the Workplan Balance the opposing objectives of predictability and flexibility. Adjustments may be made to incorporate new work and information. We aim to always provide the public with a projection of our workload for a minimum of five years into the future..

Updating the Workplan, cont. Species with new “substantial” 90-day findings will be assigned a bin number (in coordination with States and others with relevant information). Critically imperiled species (bin 1) will be incorporated into the workplan as soon as possible. Remaining species will be incorporated into the workplan according to their prioritization number if feasible, or added to the back end if not.

Within-Year Timing “FY17” does not mean Sept 2017 – need to avoid the end of year crunch FWS plans to divide workload into quarters to spread throughout year Not warranted findings take less time (no rulemaking, no CH)

Where to find the workplan: https://www.fws.gov/endangered/improving_esa/ listing_workplan_actions.html The Good News…

Revised Petition Regulations Proposed in May 2015 Substantial comments received Re-proposed in April 2016 Finalized September 27, 2016; effective October 27, 2016. 81 Federal Register 66462

Objectives: Improve the quality of petitions we receive; Create a role for State involvement; Provide greater clarity to the public about the petition process; Maximize our efficiency in reviewing and processing petitions.

State Involvement Petitioners required to provided advance notice to States (≥ 30 days before submitting to FWS/NMFS) States can inform our 90-day finding by submitting information Removed requirement to use information in our files on the date petition received Allows us to use “readily available information” in making our finding, including State databases.