Comment Letter: Input for RFI on ESA Section 10 Conservation Benefit Agreements, Habitat Conservation Plans

Decades ago, Congress added fewer than 500 words to section 10 of the ESA. The broad wording of that text has facilitated some of the most important conservation and permitting actions for listed species and private landowners in the history of the law. Yet the overly cautious and fearful way section 10 has been implemented and the low priority given to staffing section 10 programs have meant that the language of section 10 has achieved far less for species than its potential. While there may have been an argument that caution was warranted in the 1990s, those policies should have dramatically changed to make section 10 agreements and plans easier and faster to review, approve and implement.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) opportunity to lean into the authorities of section 10 and make it far more useful to the country. In our comment letter, we review seven ideas - among many that we have and that others have offered – that we hope FWS will pursue.