State Director’s Special Status Species List

United States Department of the Interior 
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT 
Oregon State Office
P.O. Box 2965  
Portland, Oregon 97208

MAR 21, 2019

IN REPLY REFER TO:
6840 (OR931) P 

EMS TRANSMISSION 03/22/2019
Permanent Instruction Memorandum No. OR-2019-003 

To:  All District Managers 
From:  Acting State Director, Oregon/Washington
Subject:  State Director’s Special Status Species List

Program Area:  Special Status Species (SSS)

Purpose:  The purpose of this instruction memorandum (IM) is to issue a final, updated State Director’s Special Status Species List (List). The List is developed as an interagency effort with U.S. Forest Service Region 6.

Administrative or Mission Related:  Mission.

Policy/Action:  This IM officially updates the List, which includes federally designated threatened, endangered, and proposed species as well as Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sensitive species for BLM Oregon/Washington (OR/WA). The updated List reflects comments and corrections received from field staff in response to the March 7, 2018, email requesting review of the draft, updated list.

The attachments to this IM include the final List (Attachment 1) and the criteria for determining inclusion as a BLM-designated sensitive species (Attachment 2). All attachments are available for download from the Interagency Special Status/Sensitive Species Program (ISSSSP) website at fs.fed.us/r6/sfpnw/issssp/agency-policy/.

Management of BLM-designated sensitive species follows the Special Status Species (SSS) policy as identified in BLM Manual 6840 (12/12/2008). In addition, observations, surveys, and site information of the List’s wildlife and botanical species shall be entered into the BLM OR/WA corporate database Geographic Biotic Observations (GeoBOB). Annually, all information pertaining to the List’s species that is collected in the previous year is to be entered into the GeoBOB database by March 1 of the following year. Observations, surveys, and site information of the List’s fish species shall be entered into the agency’s Aquatic Data & Tools corporate databases.

Strategic species, which have no standing in policy or regulation, will no longer be tracked on the List, and districts are not expected to track these species. This will allow improved focus on BLM (and U.S. Forest Service Regional Forester) sensitive species and actions that provide conservation benefit to sensitive species and their habitats.  

Timeframe:  Apply the updated List included in Attachment 1 to all projects initiated on or after the date of this IM. Projects initiated prior to the date of this IM may apply either the updated List transmitted in this IM or the SSS list in effect when the project was initiated. For the purpose of this IM, “initiated” means that a signed, dated document such as a project initiation letter, scoping letter, or Federal Register Notice has been completed for the project. 

The List will remain in place until the next update (normally about every three years) except for changes relating to Federal listing status. You will be notified whenever Federal listing-related changes are made (for example, if a species becomes federally proposed or listed as threatened or endangered), and these changes become effective immediately. Similarly, newly designated Federal candidate species are immediately considered BLM sensitive on BLM districts where the species is suspected or documented to occur.  

Budget Impact:  None.

Background:  The State Director transmitted new criteria (July 25, 2007, IM-OR-2007-072, Attachment 1) jointly approved by the U.S. Forest Service Region 6 Regional Forester and the BLM OR/WA State Director for determination of species included within the BLM SSS and Forest Service Sensitive Species Program. The new criteria were designed to make the two agencies more consistent in their approaches to the development of lists of species with conservation concerns. Subsequent memorandums (IM-OR-2008-038, IM-OR-2012-018, IMOR-2015-028) reissued updated SSS lists. 

Bureau of Land Management Manual Section 6840 (Special Status Species Management) was updated in December 2008. The BLM Washington Office asked state offices to review their criteria for identifying sensitive species and update their lists. Policy objectives are to initiate proactive conservation measures that reduce or eliminate threats to BLM sensitive species to minimize the likelihood of and the need for listing under the Endangered Species Act (BLM Manual 6840.02). The manual, policy, and IM-2009-039 can be found at: fs.fed.us/r6/sfpnw/issssp/agency-policy/.

Pages of Manual/Handbook Sections Affected:  None.

Instruction Memorandums Affected:  Supersedes IM OR-2015-028.

Coordination:  Branch of Biological Resources (OR-931); OR/WA districts; and Forest Service, Region 6, Natural Resources.

Contact:  Carol Hughes, ISSSSP Assistant, 503-808-2661; Rob Huff, ISSSSP Conservation Planning Coordinator, 503-808-6479; Bruce Hollen, State Office Wildlife Threatened and Endangered Lead, 503-808-6604; Scott Lightcap, State Office Fisheries Program Lead,  541-464-3325; and Chelsea Waddell, Regional Wildlife, Botany and Fisheries Data Coordinator, 503-808-6302.

Districts with unions are reminded to notify their unions of this IB and satisfy any bargaining obligations before implementation.  Your servicing Human Resources Office or Labor Relations Specialist can provide you with assistance in this matter.

Signed by 
Linda Clark
Acting Associate State Director

Authenticated by 
K. Wentworth 
Data Records Administrator

Attachments:
1 – Final OR/WA State Director’s SSS list (Excel file)
2 – Criteria for determining Forest Service R6 and OR/WA BLM Sensitive Species (1 p)

Distribution:

BLM: 
WO-220 
WO-230 
OR930 (Kathryn Stangl, Anthony Selle, Rachele (Shelley) Moore) 
OR931 (Lee Folliard, John Wilson, Rob Huff, Bruce Hollen, Carol Aron, Scott Lightcap, Kelli Van Norman, Chelsea Waddell, Marcia Wineteer) 
blm_or_botany_all@blm.gov
blm_or_wildlife_all@blm.gov
blm_or_fish_biologists_all@blm.gov
blm_or_geobob_users@blm.gov
 
FS:     
John Chatel, jchatel@fs.fed.us  
Carol Hughes, cshughes@fs.fed.us 
Kevin James, kmjames@fs.fed.us  
Eric Johnston, ejohnston@fs.fed.us 
Darci Rivers-Pankratz, dpankratz@fs.fed.us