[APWG] Proposal to speed listing of injurious species

[John]

 Herp digest sent this along.  If you are interested or concerned with stopping non-native invasives BEFORE they reach the shores, then this should interest you.
john in austin

Proposal Seeks to Improve the Listing Process for Injurious Species, Says U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service


Press Release 7/1/13--A quick response to preventing harmful species from entering the United States and crossing state lines is the intent behind today’s proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) to refine the environmental review process when listing species as injurious wildlife.

The Service is proposing an exemption known as a “categorical exclusion” that would generally preclude the need for preparing an environmental
assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for the action of listing species as “injurious.”   Injurious species can spread
quickly across the U.S. landscape, potentially harming native wildlife and their habitats as well as human activities. For example, the injurious
zebra mussel, a tiny but prolific invertebrate from Eurasia, can clog water intake cooling pipes, shutting down some electric power plants in the
United States.

Under federal law (the Lacey Act), the Service can “prescribe by regulation those wild mammals, wild birds, fish, mollusks, crustaceans, amphibians and
reptiles, and the offspring or eggs of any of the aforementioned, that are injurious to human beings, or to the interests of agriculture,
horticulture, or forestry, or to the wildlife or wildlife resources of the United States.” A species designated as injurious would then be prohibited
from being imported into the United States or transported across state lines.  Currently, the listing process can take several years because it
includes many steps, in particular a review under NEPA that includes a rather lengthy environmental assessment. During this time, a species that
could have been stopped entering the United States or a crossing a state line could become irreversibly invasive.

All the environmental assessments the Service has prepared to date have concluded that the action of listing the species as injurious would have no
significant effect on the human and natural environment. This is because the listing action helps keep species out of the United States that are not
naturally found here or helps prevent the spread of injurious wildlife into new areas within the country where they are not naturally found, thus
having no effect on the environment.

In a notice appearing in today’s *Federal Register*, the Service proposes a process that would generally require an abbreviated review for the
regulatory action that places a species on a federal list of injurious species. This categorical exclusion, if finalized, will help streamline the
process intended to keep out injurious species or to prevent their spread across state lines.

The *Federal Register* notice opens a 30-day public comment period ending on July 31, 2013. The notice can be found at
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-07-01/pdf/2013-15707.pdf . You can find more information on this categorical exclusion at
http://www.fws.gov/injuriouswildlife/catex .


Contact: Susan Jewell-703/358-2416-Susan_jewell at fws.gov

Laury Parramore-703/358-2541-Laury_parramore at fws.gov
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