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The Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires that applicants for a
Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) permit take no action that might
adversely affect certain species. In addition, species that are
under stress may become listed species if adverse impacts continue
to their population or habitat. To help insure that permitted projects
do not contribute to further endangerment of a species, it may be
required to modify or condition a permit where a species of concern
is present.
If you have a project that is located in an area that may include
one or more species that warrant protection, you may need to contract
with a consultant to look for the species. Any survey for endangered
or threatened species must comply with the Endangered Species Act.
Failure to comply with the Endangered Species Act can lead to civil
and criminal penalties. If you are required to survey for a species
for a Corps permit, you should have the survey protocol approved
in writing from both the Corps and USFWS.
Time-of-year restrictions are a common way to protect nesting,
feeding, and other activities that happen in specific location during
specific times of the years. A condition of an Army Corps permit
will include a time of year (TOY) restriction as needed to protect
the species from the applicant's authorized activity.
Certain species also have a recovery plan. Where a recovery plan
has been developed, the actions identified that will promote the
recovery of the species will usually become conditions of any Corps
permit issued to an applicant. The applicant need to agree to comply
with those conditions in order to proceed with the activity authorized
by the Corps permit.
Note: All of the following link is an external link outside of the
official DoD domain. The inclusion of this link does not constitute
an endorsement of any organization's policies or activities. You may
find information on species listed in the state of Virginia, species
of concern, consultants that are qualified to perform surveys, time
of year restrictions, and more at
http://virginiafieldoffice.fws.gov.
Web
Review 2010
- September 2, 2010: The USFWS has established this new policy:
Due
to increases in workload and refinement of our priorities in Virginia,
this office (USFWS) will no longer provide individual responses
to requests for environmental reviews. However, we want to ensure
that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) trust resources continue
to be conserved. When that is not possible, we want to ensure that
impacts to these important natural resources are minimized and appropriate
permits are applied for and received. We have developed a website,
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/virginiafield/endspecies/Project_Reviews.html,
that provides the steps and information necessary to allow landowners,
applicants, consultants, agency personnel, and any other individual
or entity requiring Service review / approval of their project to
complete a review and come to the appropriate conclusion.
The USFWS website will be frequently updated to provide new species
/ trust resource information and methods to review projects, so
refer to the website for each project review to ensure that current
information is utilized.
If you have any questions about project reviews or need assistance,
please contact Tylan Dean of this office (USFWS) at (804) 693-6694,
extension 166, or tylan_dean@fws.gov
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