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Endangered Species Range Areas

Metadata Updated: September 17, 2024

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) provides a program for the conservation of threatened and endangered species and the habitats in which they are found. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service of U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization (NMFS/NOAA) lead federal implementation of the ESA, though they are supported by other federal agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). Section 7 of the ESA directs all Federal agencies to conserve endangered and threatened species and to use their authorities to ensure actions do not jeopardized the further existence of threatened and endangered species or adversely modify designated critical habitats. As part of the Section 7 coordination, federal agencies work with USFWS and NMFS to identify species found within the jurisdiction of the United that could be affected by actions carried out by the agency. Of note, the US EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) is responsible for ensuring that Agency actions under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) are in compliance with ESA. OPP determines if ESA-listed species or their designated critical habitat may be affected by pesticide products. Pesticide products that “may affect” an ESA-listed species or its designated critical habitat may be subject to additional regulation. Species ranges represent anywhere an individual of the listed species could be found based on the best available information at the time of delineation. As defined in ESA, critical habitat delineates habitat characteristics in specific geographical areas and may be occupied or unoccupied by a threatened or endangered species at the time of listing. These areas must contain physical or biological features essential to conservation of a species and may require special management considerations or protection. Critical habitat may also include areas that are not currently occupied by the species but that may be needed for their recovery. Range areas represent more generalized habitat where species are or could be found based on the best available information. For some species, best available information is based on site specific surveys. For others, it will be historical location information based on political boundaries. These areas are, therefore, less geographically explicit than critical habitat. Consideration of both the species range and critical habitat ensures the conservation of the ecosystems upon which endangered and threatened species depend. To support EPA’s implementation of ESA, critical habitat and range data for species listed under ESA Section 7 were obtained by the US EPA from the USFWS Environmental Conservation Online System (ECOS) database in November 2020. These data were supplemented with areas provided by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) where NOAA has species authority. For NMFS species not found in either location, a request was made directly to the NMFS scientists. The last download of the species locations occurred in November 2020.

Access & Use Information

License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Date September 15, 2024
Metadata Created Date July 15, 2024
Metadata Updated Date September 17, 2024
Reference Date(s) October 1, 2022 (publication)
Frequency Of Update weekly

Metadata Source

Harvested from Environmental Dataset Gateway ISO Geospatial Metadata

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Date September 15, 2024
Metadata Created Date July 15, 2024
Metadata Updated Date September 17, 2024
Reference Date(s) October 1, 2022 (publication)
Responsible Party U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Pesticide Programs (Publisher)
Contact Email
Guid AF047E5D-B6AE-4207-9582-33AB848C76E1
Access Constraints https://edg.epa.gov/EPA_Data_License.html
Bbox East Long 180.00002
Bbox North Lat 89.987675
Bbox South Lat -85.470289
Bbox West Long -180.00002
Coupled Resource
Frequency Of Update weekly
Harvest Object Id 2675c5cd-08ae-460c-bb04-d9e209e490c2
Harvest Source Id 9b3cd81e-5515-4bb7-ad3c-5ae44de9b4bd
Harvest Source Title Environmental Dataset Gateway ISO Geospatial Metadata
Licence
Lineage Critical habitat and range data for species listed under ESA Section 7 were obtained by the US EPA from the USFWS Environmental Conservation Online System (ECOS) database. These data were supplemented with areas provided by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) where NOAA has species authority. For NMFS species not found in either location, a request was made directly to the NMFS scientists. Attribute data are synchronized with USFWS ECOS API weekly, and polygons are synchronized quarterly following manual QA review.
Metadata Language eng
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-180.00002, -85.470289], [180.00002, -85.470289], [180.00002, 89.987675], [-180.00002, 89.987675], [-180.00002, -85.470289]]]}
Progress
Spatial Data Service Type
Spatial Reference System 4269
Spatial Harvester True

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