bet365����ios

Guidance for Completing Endangered Species Act Project Reviews

This guidance is intended to help Federal action agencies or their designated representatives, project proponents, and consultants determine whether their proposed projects may affect threatened and endangered species or designated critical habitat. These step-by-step instructions outline the process of determining a project’s effects to federally listed species; and when necessary, how to initiate Endangered Species Act (ESA) project review or Section 7 Section 7
Section 7 Consultation The Endangered Species Act (ESA) directs all Federal agencies to work to conserve endangered and threatened species and to use their authorities to further the purposes of the Act. Section 7 of the Act, called "Interagency Cooperation," is the mechanism by which Federal agencies ensure the actions they take, including those they fund or authorize, do not jeopardize the existence of any listed species.

Learn more about Section 7  consultation with the Florida Ecological Services Field Office (FLESFO). This guidance was developed for projects located in the state of Florida and may not be applicable to other states.

Important Notes: 

• An official species list request generated from the Service’s ‘Information for Planning and Consultation system ( IPaC IPaC
  Information for Planning and Consultation (IPaC) is a project planning tool that streamlines the USbet365����ios environmental review process
  
  Learn more about IPaC ) must be included with your consultation request.
• IPaC includes Determination keys (DKeys) that may be applicable to your project. These are meant to help expedite project review. For projects that meet Dkey criteria, IPaC will generate a clearance letter and no further review from the Service is needed.
• To effectively complete a project review under Section 7 of the ESA, it's essential to explain your conclusions and provide a detailed account of the information and reasoning behind them in your biological assessment or evaluation.
• Failure to adhere to these steps will likely result in delays reviewing your project.  If we receive project review requests without an IPaC generated official species list we may be unable to review them in a timely manner.  Beginning June 13, 2025 we will require all project review requests to have been initiated in IPaC and include an Official Species List.

4 Steps To Submit a Project Review Package

1. Obtain an official species list for your project IPac
2. Use IPaC's Determination keys to evaluate the project's effects to listed species
3. Make effect determinations on your own for listed species
4. Additional Consultation with FLESFO (when required)

Step 1. Obtain an official species list for your project from the bet365����ios's (Service) Information for Planning and Consultation System (IPaC)

An official species list request is the first step in the ESA’s Section 7 consultation process and technical assistance requests from the FLESFO.  Official species lists are automatically generated from the Service's Information for Planning and Consultation system using project location information provided by the IPaC user. The official species list also contains site-specific information regarding Coastal Barrier Resource Act areas, migratory birds, and wetlands. To access this feature, users need an IPaC account. Federal employees can use their profile as their IPaC account profile by allowing IPaC to read their credentials. Non-federal IPaC users can also create an IPaC account at the IPaC Create account page (). 

An official species list can be generated from IPaC via the following steps: 

1. Go to the IPaC website () and select GET STARTED.
2. Navigate to the general location of your project on the IPaC map by clicking the Find Location tab and entering an address or latitude and longitude (in decimal degrees). You can also navigate the IPaC map with your mouse or keyboard. Hold down the right mouse button, or use the keyboard arrow keys to pan. Use the mouse finger roller or keyboard “+” and “-“ keys to zoom.
3. Once you’ve navigated to the general location of your project, you can now draw your project on the IPaC map. Click the Define Area box to display your options to draw your project’s area on the IPaC map:
   1. Option 1: Select one of the drawing tools and draw your project on the IPaC map.
   2. Option 2: You may use the Upload Shapefile button if you have a zipped GIS shapefile or Google Earth file of your project area.
   3. Option 3: You may use the Select by State or County button if you are uncertain of your specific project location. Type the name of the state for a statewide list of species, or the name of the county for a county-wide list of species. Please note, choosing Select by State or County may give more general results and may include resources not present in your project area. When considering your Action Area, please note that it may be larger than simply your project footprint.  The Action Area for a proposed project is the spatial extent of its direct and indirect “modifications to the land, water, or air” (a key phrase from the definition of “action” at 50 CFR §402.02).
4. Confirm your project location by selecting Continue. You may also select Start Over if you need to redefine your project location.
   1. Click Define Project on the left-hand side of the page.
5. Log-in to your existing IPaC account or create an account to proceed ().
6. Create a Project Name and provide a Project Description.
7. Click the white Request Species List button on the right-hand side of the page.
8. Click Continue on the page that describes the steps of the ESA Review process.
9. You will be prompted to confirm your request by clicking the blue Yes, Request A Species List.
10. After you click yes, complete the questionnaire about your project and organization.
11. Use the drop-down lists, where provided, to assist with your responses.

12. Click Submit Official Species List Request.

Your request will automatically generate an official species list letter from the Service that is valid for 90 days. If your species list has expired, simply open your project in IPaC and click the Request Updated Species List button.  Note that IPaC official species list includes a “project code” near the top left portion of the list.  Please include this project code in the subject line of all future correspondence. 

Step 2. Use IPaC’s Determination keys (Dkeys), if available and applicable, to evaluate the project’s effects to listed species

Dkeys provide consistent and transparent consultation outcomes, significantly reducing the time to complete consultation for qualifying projects. Dkeys are logically structured sets of questions designed to assist users in determining if a project qualifies for a pre-determined consultation outcome based on existing programmatic consultations or internal Service standing analyses. 

• When you click the “Next Step: Determination Key”, the IPaC system will list any DKeys that may apply to your project based on the project information and location.
• Select Evaluate for the appropriate key.
• Review the key description and click Check If My Project Qualifies
• You will be asked qualification interview questions to determine whether the key applies to your project. The Dkey questionnaire will ask you a series of yes/no questions. Select the appropriate radio button to indicate your response. If you make an incorrect selection, you can click on Change Answer to go back and change your response. If you answer questions that indicate the key does not apply, you will be notified that your project is outside the scope of the key and will not be allowed to continue.
• If your project qualifies for the Dkey, you will also be asked questions to help you reach an effects determination for species that are on your species list and covered by the key. Continue to answer yes/no questions about your project. For some questions, you can click on hyperlinks or hover over underlined text to get additional clarification. Some questions are answered for you automatically based on previous input or spatial data embedded within the Dkey.
• After you finish answering questions about your project, you will be given a preliminary determination for species covered by the Dkey. IPaC can then generate a letter for your records with the determinations and copies of all the questions and answers about your project.
• Select Generate Consistency (Verification) Letter to receive a copy of the letter. At any time from your Project Home Page, you can view the official species list and verification letter in Documents.

Three potential determinations can be generated by a Dkey. If you receive “no effect” or “may affect, not likely to adversely affect” determinations for species covered by the Dkey, IPaC will generate a letter that documents your ESA project review with the Service is complete and there is no need to contact the Service.

If a clearance letter is not able to be generated in IPaC through a D-Key, that indicates that additional information is needed to discern if the project reaches a “may affect, likely to adversely affect, or “may affect, not likely to adversely affect determination regarding the effects to the species; and additional consultation with the Service is usually needed (see Steps 3 and 4). 

Step 3. Make effect determinations on your own for listed species not available or applicable via IPaC DKeys 

Once you obtain your official species list and complete any IPaC DKeys available for your project, you are finished with IPaC and should continue making an effects determination for the remaining listed species or designated critical habitat that could potentially be affected by the proposed project. We are aware that the official species list you obtain from IPaC may include species that are not likely to occur in your project area. However, one of the three following effect determinations should be applied to each species identified on your official species list, as well as for each designated critical habitat area identified as overlapping with your project location:

• “No effect” means that there will be no impacts, positive or negative, to federally listed species or designated critical habitat from the proposed project. This determination is usually not appropriate if suitable habitat, designated critical habitat, or species are present in areas affected directly or indirectly by the project, and not merely the footprint of the planned project (i.e., the action area action area
  All areas to be affected directly or indirectly by the federal action and not merely the immediate area involved in the action.
  
  Learn more about action area as defined at 50 CFR 402.02).
• “May affect, is not likely to adversely affect” means that all effects to federally listed species or designated critical habitat from the proposed project would be insignificant, discountable, or completely beneficial. Insignificant effects relate to the size of the impact and include those effects that are not measurable. Discountable effects are effects that are extremely unlikely to occur. Completely beneficial effects include entirely positive effects without any adverse effects to the species.
• “May affect, is likely to adversely affect” means that adverse effects may occur to federally listed species or designated critical habitat from the proposed project and the effect is not insignificant, discountable, or completely beneficial. Adverse effects can result from habitat loss, habitat alteration, or impacts to the species life history needs.

To summarize your effects determinations, we recommend you make a table with three columns: species/critical habitat, effect determination, and rationale for your determination for each species/critical habitat. For example:

Please note that when analyzing the potential impacts of your project, all consequences to listed species or critical habitat resulting from the project, including the consequences of other activities resulting from project need to be considered (i.e., effects of the action defined at and 402.17)

Also note that the effects of the project can result in a “no effect”, “may affect, is likely to adversely affect” or “may effect, is not likely to adversely affect” determinations. Larger projects can become complex very quickly. For complex projects, we recommend a person knowledgeable in the ESA consultation process reviews the project and the effects determinations prior to sending it to the FLESFO for review.

The ESA does not require the Service to review projects for which a "no effect" determination for all species or critical habitat within the Action Area determination has been made.  Therefore, if “no effect” determinations are made for each species and designated critical habitat on your list, then there is no need to contact the Service. 

Step 4. Additional Consultation with FLESFO (when required)

When a project may affect listed species or designated critical habitat, and you do not have a DKey output that indicates no further consultation is needed, then consultation with the FLESFO will be required for projects with a federal nexus. For projects that lack a federal nexus the FLESFO may or may not be available to provide technical assistance based on workload and capacity.  A federal nexus means any activity that requires a federal permit, receives federal funding, or is carried out by a federal agency. Regardless, a project review package, also called a biological assessment (BA) or biological evaluation (BE), will need to be provided to the FLESFO to initiate project review. 

The following list includes the information needed in the BA to initiate ESA project review  (or consultation) with the FLESFO. An IPaC-generated official species list provides some of this needed information (see Step 1). Therefore, we require that applicants complete an IPaC-generated official species list before consulting directly with the FLESFO. Information included with your IPaC official species list is marked with an asterisk. 

Information needed to initiate consultation for listed species includes the following:

• *The description of the project (see Step 1).
• *A map of the project (see Step 1).
• *An official species list (see Step 1).
• A map of all areas to be affected directly or indirectly by the project, and not merely the footprint of the planned project (i.e., the action area defined at ).
• A description of any measures intended to avoid, minimize, or offset effects of the action to listed species.
• An effects determination table for listed species and critical habitat identified in the IPaC-generated official species list (see Step 3).
• Plans, blueprints, or similar schematics of the project.
• The specific components of the project and how they will be carried out including the duration and timing of the action.
• Any listed species or habitat surveys regarding the presence, abundance, density, or periodic occurrence of listed species and the condition and location of the species' habitat, including any critical habitat within the action area. Survey methods are required here including timing and results.
• A description of the effects of the project within the action area and an analysis of any effects to listed species in the action area resulting from the project (i.e., effects of the action defined at 50 CFR 402.02 and 402.17).
• Any other available information related to the nature and scope of the proposed project relevant to its effects on listed species or designated critical habitat.

Failure to provide adequate, site-specific information will result in delays in reviewing projects.  

Additional information may be requested by the Service if the initial BA does not include sufficient information to quantify the project’s effects to federally listed species or designated critical habitat. 

How to contact us for additional consultation (when required)

Submit your request for additional consultation (when required) is electronically to FW4FLESRegs@fws.gov. Please include the Project Title and Project Code from your IPaC official species list in the subject line of your request. 

After submitting your consultation request electronically to this email address, your request will be assigned to a biologist and the Service’s review process will begin. Additional information regarding consultation procedures with the FLESFO can be found in 50 CFR 402.10-17 and on our website (/library/collections/florida-consultation-and-project-planning-resources). 

Failure to adhere to these steps will likely result in delays reviewing your project.  If we receive project review requests without an IPaC generated official species list we may be unable to review them in a timely manner.  Beginning June 13, 2025 we will require all project review requests to have been initiated in IPaC and include an Official Species List.