Good News for Endangered Species on Lower Mississippi River

What do a small fish-eating bird that nests on river sandbars, a four-foot dinosaur-like fish that can swim from Louisiana to Kentucky in a week, and a colorfully named mussel have in common? These three endangered species—the Interior Least Tern, the pallid sturgeon and the fat pocketbook mussel—will all benefit from recent changes in river engineering practices, which have been formalized in a landmark Conservation Management Plan (CMP) for the Lower Mississippi River signed at the end of August by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

This CMP is believed to represent the first large-scale application of a powerful but seldom-used tool for proactive conservation in the Endangered Species Act (ESA): Section 7(a)(1). Under Section 7(a)(1), federal agencies work together and with partners to understand the effects of agency actions on endangered species and to formulate best management practices. This partner-building process is intended as a positive alternative to the often confrontational path of formal ESA consultation under Section 7(a)(2).

Section 7(a)(2) consultations can result in an atmosphere of compliance rather than collaboration. Because much of the breeding range of the Interior Least Tern is within USACE project areas, terms and conditions related to Section 7(a)(2) consultations have resulted in this species being ranked in the top five bird species for federal expenditures under ESA for the past decade. On the Lower Mississippi River, FWS and USACE chose a different path, taking notice of a 1994 MOU that was signed by many federal agencies expressing a desire to work more frequently within the framework of Section 7(a)(1).

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