FW exam 2

Bill

A proposed legislative act introduced to regulate, sanction, grant, outlaw, declare, or restrict, which becomes a law or Act of Congress (promulgated) after being passed by the House of Representatives and Senate and approved by the President (or having a presidential veto overridden by a 2/3 majority).

Take (Endangered Species Act)

Under the ESA, to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct regarding protected wildlife.

Harm (Endangered Species Act)

An action that injures or kills wildlife, which explicitly includes habitat modification or destruction that significantly impairs essential behavioral patterns such as breeding, feeding, or sheltering.

Lacey Act (1900)

The first federal law protecting wildlife in the United States, making it illegal to trade or transport fish, wildlife, or protected plants across state or international borders if they were illegally taken, possessed, or sold anywhere along the chain.

Migratory Bird Treaty Act (1918)

A treaty-based federal law enacted during the Market Hunting Era that makes it unlawful to take, possess, import, export, transport, sell, purchase, barter, or offer for sale any migratory bird, or its parts, nests, or eggs without a valid federal permit.

Pittman-Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (1937)

A federal law funding the restoration of wild birds and mammals and the acquisition and management of wildlife habitats, financed by an 11% excise tax on sporting arms, ammunition, and archery equipment, and a 10% tax on handguns.

Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (1940)

A federal statute protecting bald and golden eagles by prohibiting their taking (pursuing, shooting, poisoning, wounding, killing, capturing, trapping, molesting, or disturbing), possession, or commerce without a specialized permit.

Dingell-Johnson Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act (1950)

A statute modeled after the Pittman-Robertson Act that finances the restoration of fishery resources, sport fish programs, and boating access through excise taxes on fishing equipment, fish finders, motorboat and small engine fuels (~$0.18 per gallon), and import duties.

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (1970)

A federal statute requiring all branches of government to evaluate potential adverse environmental effects, consider reasonable alternatives, and identify mitigation measures before undertaking any major federal action.

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

A detailed evaluation required under NEPA for major federal actions significantly affecting the environment, analyzing probable adverse impacts, reasonable alternatives, and potential mitigation measures.

Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) (1972)

A law that prohibits the taking of marine mammals in U.S. waters and by U.S. citizens on the high seas, as well as the importation of marine mammals and related products into the U.S., with narrow exceptions such as accidental bycatch.

Endangered Species Act (ESA) (1973)

Federal legislation signed by President Nixon that provides for the protection and recovery of imperiled plant and animal species (excluding non-native species and pest insects) and the conservation of ecosystems upon which they depend.

IUCN Red List (1964)

A global inventory established to catalogue and highlight taxa facing high risks of global extinction, categorizing threatened species as Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable.

CITES (1973)

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora; an international agreement between 185 contracting parties ensuring that international commercial trade in wild animal and plant specimens does not threaten their survival.

ESA Section 2

The section of the Endangered Species Act outlining the findings, purposes, and policy of the law, specifically to protect and recover imperiled species and the ecosystems on which they depend.

Endangered Species (ESA Section 3)

Any species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

Threatened Species (ESA Section 3)

Any species that is likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

Critical Habitat (ESA Section 3)

Specific geographic areas containing physical and biological features essential to the conservation of a listed species, which may include areas currently unoccupied by the species that are necessary for its recovery.

Three Phases of Conserving Endangered Species

The sequential framework used under the ESA to conserve species: 1. Identification, 2. Protection, and 3. Recovery.

Listing Criteria (ESA Section 4)

The five biological criteria evaluated to list a species: habitat destruction or curtailment; overutilization; disease or predation; inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; and other natural or manmade factors.

Candidate Species (ESA Section 4)

Species that warrant listing as endangered or threatened based on available scientific information, but whose formal listing is precluded by higher workload priorities ('warranted but precluded').

Recovery Plan (ESA Section 4)

A management blueprint developed with stakeholders specifying a recovery strategy, tasks, partner responsibilities, measurable delisting or downlisting criteria, and an estimated timetable and cost.

ESA Section 6

The section of the Endangered Species Act establishing cooperation between federal authorities and individual states through cooperative management agreements, funding assistance, program review, and regulations.

ESA Section 7 Consultation

The statutory requirement that federal agencies initiate consultation with the USFWS or NMFS to ensure any agency-authorized, funded, or conducted action is not likely to jeopardize listed species or adversely modify critical habitat.

Reasonable and Prudent Alternatives (ESA Section 7)

Recommended alternative courses of action provided during Section 7 consultation when a proposed action is determined likely to cause jeopardy or adverse modification, allowing the project to proceed in compliance with the ESA.

ESA Section 9

The section of the Endangered Species Act prohibiting unlawful acts, including the taking, possession, sale, or transportation of listed endangered wildlife by any person or federal agency.

ESA Section 10 Exceptions

Provisions allowing permits and exceptions to Section 9 prohibitions for non-federal entities, including Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs), Safe Harbor Agreements (SHAs), Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances (CCAAs), and experimental populations.

Experimental Population (ESA Section 10(j))

A reintroduced group of an endangered or threatened species released outside its current range, treated as threatened and often categorized as 'nonessential' to afford management flexibility.

ESA Section 11 Penalties

Statutory sanctions for ESA violations, including civil penalties up to $25,000 per violation and criminal penalties up to $50,000 and/or one year of imprisonment per violation.

Blanket 4(d) Rule

A historical regulatory provision that automatically extended the full take prohibitions of Section 9 to species listed as threatened, unless superseded by a tailored species-specific 4(d) rule.

Recovering America's Wildlife Act (RAWA)

A proposed legislative bill aimed at amending the Pittman-Robertson Act to provide dedicated supplemental funding derived from environmental violation fees and penalties for state management of species of greatest conservation need.

Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973

Federal legislation passed in 1973 to protect and recover imperiled species and the ecosystems upon which they depend.

Endangered Species (ESA definition)

A species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

Threatened Species (ESA definition)

A species that is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)

An agency within the Department of the Interior with primary responsibility for terrestrial and freshwater organisms under the Endangered Species Act.

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)

An agency within the Department of Commerce responsible mainly for marine wildlife, such as whales, and anadromous fish, such as salmon, under the Endangered Species Act.

ESA Listing Factors

The five biological criteria evaluated by the FWS to determine listing status: 1) habitat destruction or damage, 2) overutilization, 3) disease or predation, 4) inadequacy of existing protection, and 5) other natural or manmade factors.

Candidate Species (ESA)

Species for which the FWS has sufficient biological information to warrant proposing them for listing under the ESA, but listing is precluded by higher priorities.

Take (ESA)

Defined under the ESA as to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect listed species, or attempt to engage in any such conduct.

Harm (ESA regulation definition)

An act that actually kills or injures wildlife, which may include significant habitat modification or degradation that impairs essential behavioral patterns such as breeding, feeding, or sheltering.

Section 7 Consultation

A requirement under the ESA for federal agencies to consult with the FWS or NMFS to ensure their actions are not likely to jeopardize listed species or destroy/adversely modify critical habitat.

Critical Habitat

Specific geographic areas designated under the ESA containing physical or biological features essential to the conservation of a listed species that may require special management or protection.

Endangered Species Committee

A Cabinet-level committee created in 1978 with authority to exempt development projects from ESA restrictions if project benefits clearly outweigh species conservation; it has only been convened three times.

Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP)

A planning document required under ESA Section 10 allowing non-federal entities to receive an incidental take permit provided they assess impacts and outline mitigation steps.

Safe Harbor Agreement (SHA)

A voluntary agreement providing regulatory assurances to non-federal landowners who restore or enhance habitat for listed species, allowing them to return the land to agreed baseline conditions at the end of the agreement.

Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA)

A voluntary agreement for non-federal landowners conserving candidate species in exchange for regulatory assurances that no additional restrictions will be imposed if the species is later listed.

Conservation Banking

A free-market enterprise where permanently protected and managed lands generate mitigation credits that developers can purchase to offset adverse impacts to listed species elsewhere.

CITES

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora; a 175-nation agreement designed to prevent species endangerment or extinction due to international trade.

Greenback Cutthroat Trout

The official state fish of Colorado.

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

A committee required for all entities conducting research on vertebrate animals to review and approve protocols to ensure methods are ethical, legal, and necessary.

Non-invasive Wildlife Sampling Techniques

Data collection methods that do not involve capturing or physically handling animals, such as track plates, camera traps, hair snares, scat analysis, acoustics, Doppler radar, eDNA, and drones.

Track Plate Station

A non-invasive detection setup consisting of an aluminum plate, soot, bait, and adhesive shelf paper to capture animal footprints for species identification.

Sherman Live Trap

A small folding box trap used for the non-lethal live capture and release of small mammals in mark-and-recapture studies.

Havahart Trap

A wire cage live trap larger than a Sherman trap, used for capturing medium-sized mammals such as squirrels and foxes.

Drift Fence

A barrier fence paired with pitfall or funnel traps used to intercept and temporarily capture reptiles, amphibians, and terrestrial invertebrates.

Berlese Funnel

A sampling device that uses a light and heat source above a leaf litter sample to drive small soil arthropods downward through a screen into preservative fluid.

Corral Trap

A large enclosure capture system capable of trapping groups of animals; highly efficient but carries higher stress and mortality risks.

Free/Ground Darting

A chemical immobilization method conducted on foot; features low stress and minimal mortality risk for the animal but is time-consuming and ineffective for elusive animals.

Helicopter Darting/Netting

An aerial capture technique that is highly efficient for capturing elusive large mammals, but is very expensive, high-stress, and dangerous.

Mist Netting

Fine mesh netting suspended between poles used to safely entangle and capture flying birds or bats for research and banding.

Harp Net

A frame supporting vertical monofilament lines that guide flying bats into a collection pouch without entangling them.

Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT Tag)

An internal microchip implanted into an animal that transmits a unique identification number when scanned by a reader.

Radio Telemetry

A tracking method using a radio transmitter attached to an animal and a directional receiver antenna used by researchers to monitor fine-scale local movement.

'Ake'ake (Band-rumped Storm Petrel)

A small, nocturnal, burrow-nesting endangered seabird (Oceanodroma castro) that breeds in high-elevation volcanic lava fields in Hawaii.

Conservation Detection Dogs

Specially trained dogs used by wildlife managers to locate cryptic, rare, or burrow-nesting species by scent across challenging landscapes.

Fish

An aquatic vertebrate that has gills, lacks limbs with digits, and lives wholly in the water.

"Fish" vs. "Fishes"

"Fish" refers to multiple individuals of a single species, whereas "fishes" refers to multiple individuals across different species.

Fishery (Traditional Definition)

An exploited population of aquatic animals, which is not limited to fish and includes crustaceans, mollusks, coral, and marine mammals.

Fishery (Broader View)

A system where aquatic biota (plants and animals) interact with the habitat (on land and in water) and humans (recreational and commercial).

Greenback Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii)

Colorado's State Fish, listed as State and Federally Threatened, which prefers cold, clear, gravely headwater streams and mountain lakes, and faces its greatest threat from competition with nonnative trout.

The Cod Wars (1958–1974)

Armed conflicts over fishery access that led to the establishment of a $200\text{ nm}$ exclusive economic zone around a country's waters.

Linked Stream-Riparian Food Web

An ecological framework demonstrating reciprocal energy fluxes between stream habitats and surrounding land, linking organisms like stream invertebrates and fish with terrestrial biota like birds, bats, lizards, and spiders.

Fisheries-Independent Data

Data gathered directly through scientific sampling or research efforts independent of commercial or recreational fishing operations.

Fisheries-Dependent Data

Data collected directly from commercial catches or recreational angler activities, such as landed catch reports and creel surveys.

Active Sampling

Fisheries collection methods where sampling gear is actively moved through the water to capture or locate fish (e.g., purse seining, trawling, electrofishing).

Passive Sampling

Fisheries collection techniques where stationary gear is set and left in place for fish to move into on their own (e.g., gill nets, trap nets, long lines).

Non-capture Sampling

Fisheries data collection methods that visually or remotely detect and measure fish without physically catching them (e.g., sonar, snorkeling, stationary cameras).

Gill Nets

Passive sampling mesh nets made of natural or synthetic fiber where fish swim in, attempt to pass through, and become stuck.

Fyke Nets

A passive trap net setup with leads, wings, frames, hoops, and internal throats that guide fish into holding chambers with low mortality rates.

Long Line Sampling

A passive sampling method consisting of a single main line with multiple baited drop lines and hooks, capable of extending for miles in the open ocean.

Purse Seining

An active sampling net method used to encircle a school of fish and pull the bottom closed like a drawstring purse.

Trawling

An active sampling technique where a net is pulled behind a vessel at top, midwater, or bottom depths.

Electrofishing

An active sampling technique that uses electrical current in water to temporarily stun fish for capture and measurement.

Sonar

A non-capture technique using sound waves to detect fish and underwater structures in the water column.

Creel Survey

A survey method used to collect fishery-dependent data directly from recreational anglers by interviewing them or measuring their catch.

Condition Factor

An indicator of an individual fish's health and well-being derived from its length and weight measurements.

Otoliths

Ear bones in fish that display growth rings, used along with scales and spines to determine fish age.

Fisheries Population Dynamics

The processes governing fish population size and structure, including immigration, emigration, recruitment, growth, natural mortality, and fishing mortality.

Visual Implant Elastomer (VIE)

An individual fish tagging method where a fluorescent liquid silicone mark is injected into translucent tissue.

Barriers to Connectivity

Natural or human-made obstacles, such as seasonal water level fluctuations, dams, and culvert pipes, that restrict fish movement.

Fish Passage Facilities

Structures or tools (such as fish ladders, trucking systems, or salmon cannons) created to help fish bypass movement barriers like dams.

Snowshoe Hare (Lepus americanus)

A native North American herbivore introduced to Hay Island in 1959 that rapidly proliferated to densities of 3–50 times that of the mainland, arresting tree seedling recruitment for nearly half a century until its eradication in April 2007.

Ecosystem Engineer

An organism that directly or indirectly modulates the availability of resources to other species by causing physical state changes in biotic or abiotic materials, such as snowshoe hares altering forest understory architecture and seedling recruitment on Kent Island.

Exclosure

An area fenced off to protect vegetation from animals; on Kent Island, $4\text{ m}^2$ fenced plots erected in 1990 yielded over 150 seedlings per square meter inside compared to 0 outside.

Martha (Passenger Pigeon)

The last known living individual passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), who died in captivity at 1300 hours on September 1, 1914, at the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio.

Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius)

A species once numbering 3 to 5 billion birds that inhabited over half of North America before going extinct in 1914 due to market hunting, severe forest habitat loss, and nesting colony disruption.

Lacey Act of 1900

A landmark federal law regulating the interstate commerce of wildlife, passed partly in response to the severe exploitation and decline of species like the passenger pigeon.

Transcendentalism

A 19th-century mystical, religious, and philosophical movement originating in Boston after Ralph Waldo Emerson published Nature in 1836, teaching that direct interaction with nature allows direct experience with the divine.

George Catlin

An 19th-century artist who published Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians in 1841 and proposed the creation of a 'Nations' park containing man and beast'.

Dispossessing the Wilderness

A 1999 book by Mark David Spence that linked the creation of early national parks (Yellowstone, Glacier, Yosemite) to federal policies of Indigenous removal and the myth of uninhabited virgin wilderness.