Was an economic analysis prepared when the Service listed the bay checkerspot butterfly as a threatened species?
A. No. Under the Act, a decision to list a species is made solely on the basis of scientific data and analysis. Critical habitat designation is the only process where economics may be taken into consideration. Q. Is critical habitat designated for all listed species? A No. The Service has designated critical habitat for 132 of the 1,233 species currently listed as threatened or endangered. The Act requires us to identify critical habitat at the time a species is listed. However, in some cases, designating critical habitat may be considered “not prudent” if it would cause harm to the species, such as increasing the possibility of collection or vandalism. Or we may find that such a designation is “not determinable” if we don t have enough information where a species is listed to define areas as critical habitat. Recently, there have been a number of lawsuits based on critical habitat designation. On August 30, 2000, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California
