23 Marianas plants and animals eyed for listing as threatened, endangered

About 23 species in the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam are being considered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to be listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

About 14 are plants and nine are animals and 15 out of the 23 species being considered are located in the CNMI.

An endangered specie is one that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range while a threatened species is one that is likely to become endangered.

U.S. FWS deputy field supervisor Kristi Young said that the ESA outlines five criteria that they look at: threat to habitat; disease or predation; threatened by or subject to “over collection” such as utilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes; inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; and other natural or man-made factors affecting its survival.

When asked if there are any thresholds where one may consider species to be endangered or threatened, Young said: “There isn’t really a threshold, it comes down to a lot of scientific analysis and professional judgment by the biologist that are looking at this.”

U.S. FWS field supervisor Loyal A. Mehrhoff said the listing process for federally listed endangered and threatened species usually go through a four-way process but here in the CNMI they narrowed it down.

The listing will go through a published proposed rule, then a 60-day comment period, followed by a public meeting if it is requested, and then the final rule or if the rule is withdrawn.

“This rule actually becomes federal after we publish the proposed rule, then we announce to the public about the rule, we then get the feedback through the public or professionals as well,” Mehrhoff said.

According to Young, protections vary between an animal and plant, but for an animal the prohibition is against taking “so it means you can’t kill, collect, hunt and a whole other list of terms” to the animal.

According to Young, the purpose of the ESA is to protect and recover imperiled species and the ecosystems upon which they depend on.

Majority of the plants considered to be listed have no common names and are mostly called by their scientific name or Chamorro name.

Plants within the CNMI considered for listing under ESA are wild onion, fadang, dendrobim guamense, Ufa-Halomtano, Maesa walkeri, nervilia jacksoniae, berenghenas halomtano, tabernaemontana rotensis, and tuberolabium guamense.

Animals in the CNMI being considered for listing under ESA are the Pacific sheath-tailed bat, Slevin’s skink, Mariana eight-spot butterfly, Rota damselfly, humped tree snail, Langford’s tree snail, fragile tree snail, and the Mariana wandering butterfly.

According to Young, about 14 are currently listed under the ESA and are federally protected.