Blip

About this episode

Bill Standley presenting. Permits authorizing the incidental take of threatened and endangered species on state or private lands can be issued by State and Federal regulatory agencies under two types of agreements, Safe Harbor Agreements (SHA) and Habitat Conservation Plans (HCP). In order to issue such permits, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must first determine whether the actions will appreciably reduce the likelihood of survival of the species covered under the agreement. Similarly, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources can only issue a state take license when the permitted actions, along with the mitigation proposed, are expected to provide a "net conservation benefit." Verifying that the assumptions made to make such determinations are correct requires monitoring of both the scope and intensity of the impacts that actually occur and of the effectiveness of the mitigation implemented. The accuracy of such monitoring is particularly critical for HCPs where the mitigation implemented is based on the take observed each year. The ability to detect the take that occurs depends on both the efficiency of the searchers and the persistence of the carcasses over time. Quantifying the benefits of the mitigation actions requires an estimate of the number of individuals of each covered species that will benefit from the mitigation, as well as the effectiveness of those actions. The methodology to monitor such impacts and the mitigation to offset them are not well developed, and the following presentations will discuss some approaches currently being applied in Hawaii, along with specific research needs.

• Release Date

  Aug 7, 2009

• Runtime

  14:21