Endangered Species Mitigation Needs Assessment

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

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

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

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

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.

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