Endangered Species Act: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has Incomplete Information about Effects on Listed Species from Section 7 Consultants

This report by the government Accountability Office (GAO-09-550) dated May 2009 finds that the Service lacks a systematic means oftracking the monitoring reports it requires in biological opinions and does not know the extent of compliance with these requirements. The Service also lacks a systematic method for tracking cumulative take of most listed species. Out of 497 listed species in the western states, GAO identified 3 species for which the Service has a formal, Web-based database for tracking cumulative take: northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet,and bull trout. GAO identified 7 more species for which Service biologists developed informal means to track cumulative take.