Analysis Considerations Sample Clauses

Analysis Considerations. Under the ESA Sec. 3(19) “take” is defined as “to harass, harm, pursue, xxxx, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct”. The Interior Secretary further defined “harm” as that “which actually injures or kills wildlife, including acts which annoy it to such an extent as to significantly disrupt essential behavioral patterns, which include, but are not limited to, breeding, feeding, or sheltering; significant environmental modification or degradation which has such effects.” (50 CFR 17.3). If the Service lists the monarch under the ESA, a variety of management and development actions will have the potential to result in take of the species. For example, direct mortality of monarchs from covered activities may occur from mowing vegetation that contains monarch eggs, larvae, or pupae, or collisions with vehicles. Off-road access, vegetation management, and construction activities may harm monarchs if they result in major disturbance to breeding and foraging. Similarly, management activities for monarch conservation purposes, such as common vegetation management practices, prescribed burning, and seeding of native seed mixes, all have the potential to result in take depending on whether or not suitable monarch habitat exists at the management site, the timing of the management actions, and other factors. This section is intended to summarize potential impacts or take of monarchs that is reasonably certain to occur as a result of the covered activities. There are several challenges related to estimating the amount of take of monarchs that covered activities will cause. First, the Agreement covers all of the monarch’s breeding, migratory, and overwintering range across the lower 48 United States. Second, the species’ presence on covered lands and their exposure to covered activities will be influenced by the time of year, variations in weather patterns among years, and on the extent and quality of habitat affected. Likely impacts on monarchs will also depend on the location and timing of the covered activities. Last, participation in the Agreement may vary over its duration, causing overall impacts to fluctuate over time. The extent of take that will occur will likely depend partly on the number of acres that Partners enroll under the Agreement and we do not know what that number will be at this time. Preliminary indications are that Partners may enroll up to 26 million acres, but the amount may be greater. Covered...