The Scope and Treatment of Threats 
in Endangered Species Recovery Plans

(Ecological Applications, 12(3), 2002, pp. 663-667 © 2002 by the Ecological Society of America)

 Joshua J. Lawler,^1,2,5      Steven P. Campbell,²      Anne D. Guerry,²      
Mary Beth Kolozsvary,³      Raymond J. O'Connor,² and      Lindsay C. N. Seward⁴ 

Abstract: The recovery of threatened and endangered species is complicated by the number, severity, and tractability of the threats facing each species. We investigated the nature and the treatment of threats in recovery plans for 181 threatened and endangered species. We examined the types of threats facing species, as well as the degree to which threats were understood and addressed. We found that >85% of all species faced at least four out of nine distinct types of threats. The most common threats were those related to resource use, exotic species, construction, and the alteration of habitat dynamics. Recovery plans lacked basic information about the magnitude, timing, frequency, or severity of 39% of all threats facing the 181 species. Likewise, 37% of all threats were not directly addressed with recovery tasks. Threats from pollution were more poorly understood than other threats, and threats from exotics were better addressed than other types of threats. Finally, we found that threats that were better understood were assigned recovery tasks more often than threats that were more poorly understood. Thus our results suggest that a lack of basic understanding of the nature of the threats facing threatened and endangered species may, in part, be undermining our recovery efforts. 

Joshua Lawler worked at the Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy from November 1999 to November of 2000 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate.

1. Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy, 15 Coburn Hall, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469 USA 
2. Department of Wildlife Ecology, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469 USA 
3. Department of Plant, Soil, and Environmental Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469 USA 
4. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469 USA 
5. Present Address: U.S. Environemtal Protection Agency, 200 SW 35th., Corvallis, Oregon 97333 USA.  
   E-mail: lawler.joshua@epa.gov

For a copy of this article, please visit the Ecological Applications Website at:
          http://www.esapubs.org/esapubs/journals/applications_main.htm

Go back to the Environmental & Natural Resources Policy Research page.