LD883: An Act to Protect Endangered Species Whose Life Cycles Include Maine Land or Waters

“There is no biological reason for Maine not to list a species that U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service or National Marine Fisheries Service has listed as Threatened or Endangered, If they are threatened or endangered at the national level, they are by default threatened or endangered at the state level. Inclusion of all threatened or endangered species under either Maine Endangered Species Act or the Maine Marine Endangered Species Act of 2003 will help improve management and restoration efforts across state agencies. -Emily Bastian - Native Vice Chair, Native Fish Coalition”

The Maine chapter of NFC is part of a coalition of state and national conservation organizations and prominent individuals working to try to close a loophole that allows Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IFW) and Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) not to list federally endangered species at the state level.

To be clear, by the time a species gets a federal ESA designation, it has been deemed to be in trouble throughout its range. The purpose of a state-level ESA is to allow states to list a species that is not federally listed, or upgrade a federally listed species that is in more trouble locally than at the national level. It is not intended to challenge or downgrade the federal listing as is now being done in Maine.

Thirty-six states (or 72% of the total) have laws that require federally listed species to be listed at the state level as well, a fair and common sense practice. Another 4 states “Recommended” or “Highly Recommended” listing federally listed species at the state level. Just ten (or 20%), one of which is Maine, do not require that federal species be listed at the state level.

From 1979 to 1996, Maine law required that federally listed species be listed at the state level. An amendment that appears to have been initiated by the legislature itself, changed the law to allow the commissioners of IFW and DMR to propose the state-level listing of federally listed species at their discretion, while placing responsibility for doing so in the hands of the legislature and at their discretion.

Since the amendment, state listing of federally listed species in Maine has been arbitrary and inconsistently handled. The most glaring omission is the lack of a state listing for Atlantic salmon, a federally listed that exists only in Maine. In fact, the state designation for Atlantic salmon (Priority 1 Species of Concern) is two levels down from the federal listing.