Cost savings from properly managing endangered species habitats

Needed active habitat management for many endangered species in the United States has often been deferred or neglected, specifically for species threatened by invasive exotic species and fire suppression. For endangered species to recover, the accrued debt of deferred management must be addressed, first by restoring critical habitat and then by continued habitat maintenance. I conducted a survey of management costs for federally listed species endangered by exotic species and fire suppression and compared the cost differences between initial "restoration" control and subsequent maintenance after the threat has been "controlled." Cost estimate analysis (45 cases obtained from contacting over 270 scientists and wildlife managers) indicated that initial control costs are approximately 1.8 to 350 times greater than maintenance costs. Without continued maintenance, these costs may triple in one or more years, depending on the specific threat. In many cases, after initial restoration, continued control is more cost-effective than neglect followed by renewed habitat restoration. In some cases, neglect followed by renewed restoration may be cost-effective, but during this period of neglect, the endangered species may be extirpated. Continued active management on both public and private lands will lead to minimized maintenance costs and the realization of further cost savings.