The authors state, "Even with this combined local-global strategy, most state lists were predominated by species that represent local but not global conservation significance. Such a strategy could have profound negative consequences for many species that are not formally recognized under national endangered species protections but that are also left off of state-level endangered species lists." The key word in this statement is “could.” To assess whether states are actually ignoring high global risk or high global responsibility species in favor of "local" species, the question that really needs examination is whether states fail to list species that occur in their states and that fall into one of the three high global conservation need categories. Although this article’s discussion cites cases of individual species that are in the “upper” three conservation-need ranks but are not included in state lists, the analysis did no calculation of this incidence of this as a percentage statistic. It would have been much more illuminating to learn what percentage of high global conservation need species indigenous to particular state’s biotic are NOT included in those state’s lists than the statistic this assessment dwells most heavily upon, i.e., the percentage of low conservation need species that ARE included in state’s lists.

Beyond this criticism, the perhaps more important failing of this analysis stems from the implication that listing equates to effort/funding priority. The only way to determine if the feared policy implications are actually occurring – i.e., that state list’s purported emphasis on local conservation significance, “is” diverting rescource from globally at-risk species -- would be to undertake the much more difficult investigation of how state agencies charged with conservation of at-risk species are actually allocating conservation dollars among the species under their purview.

Dave Jenkins, Chief
N.J. Division of Fish and Wildlife
Endangered and Nongame Species Program
P.O. Box 400
501 E. State St
Station Plaza 5, 3rd Floor
Trenton, NJ 08625-0400