US Fish and Wildlife Service writes down how it already weighs economic costs of protecting species

The US Fish and Wildlife Service is formalizing the rules it uses to decide when to exclude land from endangered species protection. This means the agency will follow a more detailed process when it considers economic or national security impacts of protecting an area.

For decades, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has had the power to exclude land from species protection if other costs outweigh the benefits. This document simply writes down the steps the agency already takes to make those decisions. The goal is to make the process clearer, which might reduce legal challenges against the agency's choices.