10 ILLINOIS AUDUBON BULLETIN 
Endangeret 
LISTING AND DELISTING 
The listing, delisting, and reclas- 
sifying of endangered or threatened 
species is a lengthly process that 
may start with a petition or a re- 
quest to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service for action. Or the process 
may be begun by internal initiative 
of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser- 
vice (hereafter, referred to only as 
““Service’’). 
All petitions or requests from in- 
dividuals or organizations must be 
accompanied by adequate sup- 
porting evidence or data. Once re- 
ceived by the Service, the evidence 
is reviewed by an ad hoc panel of 
professional biologists to deter- 
mine a course of action. The panel 
may decide 1) further review of the 
Species’ status is warranted; 2) a 
Proposed Rulemaking should be 
published immediately in the Fed- 
eral Register; 3) the evidence does 
not support the petition. 
The Service may publish a ‘“No- 
tice of Intent to Review the Status 
of a Species’’” when circumstances 
indicate, although this step is not 
required by law. In the case of 
resident species the state governor 
must be given a 90-day comment 
period. 
Following the receipt of com- 
ments, the Service makes a deci- 
sion either to drop the species from 
further consideration or to develop 
a Proposed Rulemaking. This takes 
from 30 to 90 days and involves 
the acquisition of the Service’s own 
evidence that a species is endan- 
gered, threatened, or neither. In 
some cases the notice of review is 
omitted and the process begins 
with a Proposed Rulemaking. 
Upon publication of the Pro- 
posed Rulemaking, the public is 
given 60 days to respond (gover- 
nors get 90 days). When all com- 
ments are in, the Service must take 
the following actions: 
@ Review and summarize all 
comments. 
@ Make a decision on what the 
final action should be. 
@ Finalize a biological status re- 
port supporting that action. 
@ Finalize a document satisfying 
the requirements of the Na- 
tional Environmental Policy 
Act. 
@ Prepare a Final Rulemaking, if 
this is the decision. 
@ Publish a negative decision in 
the Federal Register, if this is the 
final action. 
During this 60-90 day period, 
anyone may request a public hear- 
ing on the Proposed Rulemaking. 
The Secretary of the Interior may 
