Coalition Comments on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Draft Endangered Species Act Compensatory Mitigation Policy Jan 5, 2018 Comment Letters Agency: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Subject: NESARC Comments on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Draft Endangered Species Act Compensatory Mitigation Policy Coalition members: Full list on NESARC website In 2016, the Department of Interior developed two mitigation policies that together established a framework for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to recommend or require landscape scale mitigation to achieve a net conservation gain, or no net loss. If these policies are implemented, they would greatly expanded mitigation requirements under the ESA. On Nov. 6, 2017, FWS requested public comment on portions of these Policies and, specifically, on whether it should retain or remove the goal of net conservation gain. ACWA, working with the National Endangered Species Act Coalition, provided comment on Jan. 5, 2018. Letter Excerpt: Given that the adoption of the net conservation gain standard was predicated on a recently revoked Presidential Memorandum, there is no longer an operative executive directive mandating its application. NESARC requests that FWS remove the net conservation gain standard from the Policies to ensure that the imposition of mitigation measures is consistent with the scope of authority provided by the ESA and other applicable statutes. Furthermore, FWS should not limit the scope of its review to the mitigation planning goal. There are other central components of these Policies—such as landscape-scale mitigation, avoidance of all impacts to certain habitats, and advance compensatory mitigation—that lack a statutory basis or are incompatible with an efficient regulatory review process. NESARC requests that FWS also review the inclusion and application of these components of the Policies Download coalition comment letter
