Hawaiian Stilt to be downlisted from endangered to threatened

[Laura Bies]

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to downlist the Hawaiian Stilt or ae'o (Himantopus mexicanus knudseni) from endangered to threatened. The agency is also proposing what is known as a 4(d) rule to set out specific protections for the species while it is listed as threatened. 

The USFWS cited the success of voluntary and regulatory conservation measures in its announcement. 

You can learn more and submit comments – through May 24 – here. 

The USFWS is particularly interested in comments regarding:

(1) Reasons it should or should not reclassify the Hawaiian Stilt as a threatened species.

(2) New information on the historical and current status, range, distribution, and population size of the Hawaiian Stilt.

(3) New information on the known and potential threats to the Hawaiian Stilt, including predation; urban development, nonnative plants, alterations in surface or ground water; data on avian botulism; contaminants; impacts associated with climate change; or trends in the status and abundance of wetlands used by the subspecies.

(4) New information regarding the life history, ecology, and habitat use of the Hawaiian Stilt.

(5) Current or planned activities within the geographic range of the Hawaiian Stilt that may have adverse or beneficial impacts on the subspecies.

(6) Information on regulations that are necessary and advisable to provide for the conservation of the Hawaiian Stilt and that the Service can consider in developing a 4(d) rule for the subspecies.

(7) Information concerning the extent to which we should include any of the section 9 prohibitions in the 4(d) rule or whether any other forms of take should be excepted from the prohibitions in the 4(d) rule.

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