University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Endangered Species Mitigation Needs Assessment

Schelsky, Wendy; Burkwald, Kimberly; Swedberg, Dusty; Dillard, Mason

Content Files
FHWA-ICT-24-004.pdf

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121791

Description

Title
Endangered Species Mitigation Needs Assessment
Author(s)
  • Schelsky, Wendy
  • Burkwald, Kimberly
  • Swedberg, Dusty
  • Dillard, Mason
Issue Date
2024-02
Keyword(s)
  • Endangered Species Act
  • Compensatory Mitigation
  • Incidental Take
  • Conservation Banking
  • In-lieu Fees
  • Programmatic Agreements
Date of Ingest
2024-02-01T16:24:00-06:00
Abstract
The Illinois Department of Transportation, like most other state transportation agencies, must undergo an environmental review for each transportation project. IDOT identified several challenges that involve regulatory and implementation of federal and state laws protecting threatened and endangered species. We evaluated each state’s environmental review process as it pertained to statutes governing state imperiled species (i.e., threatened, and endangered, rare, or otherwise imperiled). Our recommendations from this review of what other state transportation and natural resource agencies have done to improve environmental review processes at the state level include establishing liaison agents with outside regulatory agencies. We also suggest that IDOT, after establishing a liaison, work with each agency to evaluate species or habitats that repeatedly cause issues to project timelines and budgets. Conservation banking and advanced mitigation frameworks are often built upon state legislation that would require conservation banks to be established or a series of programmatic agreements and other instruments into a comprehensive plan, respectively. Lastly, research funding, often a favorite of state agencies because it is easy to implement, often does not prevent species loss from occurring. Our research has identified successful examples from other state transportation agencies that have improved upon the efficiency and predictability of compensatory mitigation for the incidental take of threatened and endangered species.
Publisher
Illinois Center for Transportation/Illinois Department of Transportation
Has Part
  • https://doi.org/10.36501/0197-9191/24-004
  • ISSN: 0197-9191
Series/Report Name or Number
FHWA-ICT-24-004
Type of Resource
text
Genre of Resource
technical report
Language
eng
Sponsor(s)/Grant Number(s)
IDOT-R27-SP64
Copyright and License Information
No restrictions. This document is available through the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22161.

Owning Collections

Research and Publications - Illinois Center for Transportation PRIMARY