The North America Policy Program of the Society for Conservation Biology (“SCB”) has recently submitted comments regarding the newly proposed rule from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service (“Services”) that changes the procedures that scientists must comply with when submitting a petition to the Services to protect a species under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”).  Recently, the Services proposed several new requirements that all petitions must contain, including a requirement that a petitioner submit the petition in advance to every State where the species is located prior to filing the petition and incorporate all information received from every state to the petition.  The proposal also requires a petitioner to gather and append “all relevant information” that is “reasonably available” to the petitioner. These requirements will be difficult for individual scientists to comply with and make it less likely that they will attempt to engage in the listing process.

Source: Society for Conservation Biology | SCB comments on proposed Endangered Species Act listing rules