9649

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9649
• Author: Bean, M. J., S. G. Fitzgerald and M. A. O'Connell.
• Title: Chapter 1 - Habitat Conservation Planning
• USFW Year: 1991.
• USFW - Doc Type: Introduction.
• Copyright Material: YES

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Chapter 1
Habitat Conservation Planning:

Introduction

On September 27, 1990, the Office of the In-
spector General of the Depanment of the Inte-
rior issued a report sharply critical of the
Department's endangered species program. The
failures and inadequacies of the program and
its implementation were so severe that the
report's authors were forced to "question
whether accomplishment of the program as it
is presently structured and funded is feasible."
The u.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the
agency of the department directly responsible
for implementing the Endangered Species Act
(ESA), did not dispute this most basic finding.
Rather, it "acknowledge[d] the overall theme of
the report: a lack of sufficient resources to ef-
fectively accomplish the goals of the En-
dangered Species Act."
These recent conclusions provide an impor-
tant backdrop to the present study, which
focuses on a single new, and increasingly im-
portant, facet of the endangered species pro-
gram. That new facet is a provision of ESA
added by Congress in 1982 that authorizes the
Fish and Wildlife Service to issue permits al-
lowing the "incidental taking" of endangered
species in accordance with an approved "con-
servation plan" for such species.. To date, only
seven such permits have been issued, although
more than 20 other habitat conservation plans
(or HCPs) are under way; together they en-
compass hundreds of thousands of acres and

affect more than 40 protected species. It is the
purpose of the present study to examine how
this new facet of the endangered species pro-
gram has functioned in practice, and to make
recommendations regarding its future im-
plementation.
This study is based on a review of most of
the H cr effortS undertaken to date. Four of
these were examined in great detail and are
presented as case studies appended to the
report. To conduct these case studies, key par-
ticipants in each of the Hcr efforts were inter-
viewed, the official documents generated by
these efforts were examined, and the still rather
limited secondary literature on the subject read.
Other HCP efforts were examined through
similar means, though in less detail. Brief sum-
maries of these other HCP efforts are also
presented in an appendix. Also important in
the preparation of this report was the authors'
review of the HCP provisions of the En-
dangered Species Act. their legislative history,
the implementing regulations of the Fish and

.Responsibility for implementing the Endangered Species
Act is shared by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and
the National Marine Fisheries Service. The latter is
responsible for marine wildlife and the former for all
other species. This report focuses on the Fish and
Wildlife Service. which has thus far been the only
agency for which "habitat conservation plans" have
been developed.