Under a section of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, businesses and individuals must request what’s called an “incidental take permit” if they believe their developments could interfere with the habitats of endangered species. Staff members should not use “mandatory language (e.g., a permit is ‘required’),” the memo warns. Under the Endangered Species Act, once a species is listed as threatened, a series of protections automatically go into effect. An endangered species is at risk of extinction, while a threatened species is likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. Threatened species include such animals as manatees, sea otters, the Guadalupe fur seal, wood bison, the gray wolf, the grizzly, the polar bear and the northern spotted owl.

Source: Huffington Post May 05, 2018 03:00 UTC