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

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

3. 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

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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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..

15. 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.

16. 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)

17. Where to find the workplan:
listing_workplan_actions.html
The Good News…

18. 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

19. 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.

20. 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.