Threatened and Endangered Species

The BLM is a leader in the conservation of wildlife, fish, and plant species and their habitats. BLM-managed lands provide habitat for more than 3,000 special status species. The BLM Threatened and Endangered Species Program works to conserve all special status species, which include species federally listed as threatened or endangered and species identified as “sensitive” by the BLM. Special status species include mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, invertebrates, fish, and plants. Learn more on our special status species webpage. 

Each BLM state organization has fish and wildlife biologists and botanists who work to conserve species and habitats. Biologists and botanists work together to protect habitat that species use throughout the year, such as for breeding, migration, or wintering. The BLM coordinates with state and federal agencies, Tribal governments, universities, industry, private landowners, non-governmental conservation organizations, and other partners to conserve and recover fish, wildlife, and plant species and their habitats on public lands. Learn more about our partners. 

The priority of the BLM Threatened and Endangered Species Program is the proactive conservation and recovery of BLM special status species. By protecting and improving what we have today, we can increase conservation successes and avoid future species populations and habitat declines.

BLM Threatened and Endangered Species Program mission:  

Conserve and recover BLM special status species by collaborating across programs and with our partners, implementing proactive, science-based ecosystem-level conservation, and communicating Threatened and Endangered Species Program successes within the BLM and to our partners and the public. 

The BLM Strategic Plan for T&E Species, 2022-2027 describes the BLM’s priorities for conservation of wildlife, fish, plants and their habitat. 

Conservation Success Stories

BLM is a leader working with partners to conserve and recover ESA Endangered, Threatened, and BLM Sensitive species on BLM-administered lands. Here are a few examples of our work: 

California: Moving toward the recovery of the Amargosa Vole

In the hottest and driest parts of the Mojave Desert lives the endangered Amargosa vole, a small mouse-like rodent with short ears and a short tail. This rare species only lives in small patches of habitat, about 75 acres spread across 55 patches of bulrush marsh along the Amargosa River near Tecopa, California. Near Tecopa, the Amargosa River rises above ground and creates a green oasis for the vole and other rare plants and animals found nowhere else on earth. The Amargosa vole was thought to be extinct in the early 1900s but was rediscovered in the late 1970s. Read More>