MN State Statue 84.0895 (PROTECTION OF THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES) states that the DNR Commissioner “may undertake management programs, issue orders, and adopt rules necessary to bring a resident species of wild animal or plant that has been designated as threatened or endangered to a point at which it is no longer threatened or endangered.”
Recovery plans are intended to provide goals and actions for bringing endangered and threatened species to the point of no longer needing protection. They are intended for use by land managers, environmental professionals and consultants, researchers and others interested in working towards species recovery.
Recovery criteria describe the conditions needed for a species to be considered ‘recovered’ in Minnesota. Recovered in this context is defined as no longer meeting the criteria for State listed status. Thus, the species is expected to be able to persistent without the protection of the Endangered and Threatened Species Statute. Recovery plans outline species-specific recovery criteria to be met and actions that can be taken in support of those criteria.
Recovery plans written after 2025 develop criteria based on three core conservation biology principles: redundancy, resiliency, and representation.
These principles generally align with the conservation status factors from defined by the NatureServe’s Conservation Status Assessment methodology (Master et al 2012, Faber-Langendoen et al 2012). The NatureServe method provides repeatable and comparable ranks as well as flexibility to quantitatively evaluate the status of species in Minnesota and generate s-ranks.
Recovery plans provide information based on biological and ecological factors only. They provide common goals and recommendations intended to empower conservation practitioners to implement actions that will be most effective for species’ recovery. Recovery plans should not be interpreted as individual site management plans, recommendations for avoidance of take, or as a replacement for permits necessary for activities involving threatened or endangered species.
- Read more about how recovery criteria are developed
- Redundancy is defined as the ability of the species to withstand catastrophic events. This is measured by the number of populations, typically represented as Element Occurrences (EOs), and the total range extent they occupy. The more populations there are of a species, and the greater the total area they occupy, the less likely it is that a single, large event can have a large negative impact (a catastrophe) and substantially increase a species’ risk of being lost from Minnesota.
Resiliency is defined as the ability of a population to withstand natural stochasticity or human induced disturbance events. Most populations experience fluctuations in size from year-to-year. These fluctuations can be random, referred to as stochastic. They can be caused by natural disturbance events, such as windfall or erosion. Or, they can be caused by human activity. Ultimately, fluctuations in size can have positive or negative effects on a population, but they more often lead to population decline than growth unless done specifically as management to benefit the species or its habitat. Resiliency is typically represented by the quality rank assigned to EOs. Quality ranks are derived from measures of population size, habitat conditions and landscape context.
Representation: is defined as the ability of a species to adapt to changing conditions. Representation can be ecological or genetic. Species with greater geographic distribution or more genetic diversity tend to have more ability to adapt to changes. Representation is typically assessed geographically as the number of Ecological Subsections in which viable populations occur. Additional geographic or genetic factors are incorporated where those data are available for a species.
Plans
- Rubus Stipulatus
- Species B
- Go to Plan