Endangered Species Act Expenditures for Fish Taxa Managed by The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Are Predicted by Lawsuits, Captive Propagation, and Region

Abstract

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) established a priority ranking system in 1983 to guide expenditure allocations for implementing recovery plans. Priorities were intended to be based on factors such as magnitude and immediacy of threat as well as distinctiveness of gene pools. We examined what predicts expenditures for fish taxa listed under the Endangered Species Act and managed by the USFWS. Multiple log‐linear regressions on combined state and federal expenditures for listed species for each fiscal year from 2012 to 2017 indicated that expenditures varied between USFWS legacy regions, and increased with species geographic range and if a species has been propagated in captivity or litigated. If a species is litigated, the corresponding expected increase in expenditures ranges from 166% to 606% depending on the year. If a species is propagated, the corresponding increase in expenditures ranges from 142% to 494% depending on the year. We recommend that the USFWS evaluate the priority ranking system in the context of litigation, propagation, and legacy region being predictors of expenditures.