BLM Role
The focus of the BLM’s Threatened and Endangered Species Program is to manage public lands that provide habitat for many threatened and endangered species. The program’s priority is to recover listed animal and plant species to remove them from the List of Threatened and Endangered Species, along with potential candidates for listing.
Collaboration with Partners
The BLM assists in planning, recovery actions, and dedicating funds for the recovery of threatened and endangered species on public lands. While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service takes the lead on developing recovery plans for species, the BLM participates in the planning process for species whose habitat is managed by the agency. In terms of carrying out recovery plans, BLM field biologists and managers may serve on interagency recovery teams to inventory the presence or absence of a species on public land.
Investment in Endangered Species Recovery
The BLM also provides targeted funding to recover species through the Endangered Species Recovery Fund. This fund of approximately $1 million is awarded competitively each year for three years for key recovery tasks that preclude the need to list a candidate species, or culminate in a delisting or downlisting of a federally listed species (downlisting is relisting a species from endangered to threatened). Since the inception of the BLM Recovery Fund in 2010, the agency has shared in the conservation of 20 species.