Endangered Species Law & Policy

Tomorrow, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) will publish its final rule updating regulations implementing section 10 of the Endangered Species Act (Section 10), which addresses the agency’s issuance of incidental take permits and enhancement of survival permits under Section 10. The final rule will take effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. In the preamble to the final rule, the Service indicates that applications for permits under Section 10 that have been processed and published in the Federal Register for publication prior to the effective date of the final rule will not be required to meet the new regulatory requirements. Applications for permits under Section 10 that are under development and, thus, have not been processed by the Service and published in the Federal Register will be required to abide by the standards set forth in the final rule.