ESA's provisions include the federal listing of such species as threatened or endangered, establishment of standards for their treatment, and specification of mandated actions towards recovery of listed species. To date, there exists no structured approach for the survey, inventory, and subsequent monitoring of TES on public lands. However, methodological approaches for plant TES assessment and conservation for compliance with ESA and other agency-specific regulations and policies have been developed for use on some state and federal lands. Methods are often designed for individual plant species and are intended for localized use. This localized approach is necessary because each species has particular requirements and sensitivities, and because individual populations may have problems associated with local conditions.
Field studies are expensive and time-consuming.
Limited funds should be distributed among efforts for assessing TES according to some method of prioritizing research needs. Prioritization provides for implementation of an investment strategy, by which funds and other resources can be allocated as efficiently and effectively as possible. Prioritization, in turn, requires specific information that identifies species that are declining and species that are most likely to be negatively impacted by current land-use practices. Customized monitoring and other research plans can then be developed according to the data requirements of individual species and populations, and according to assigned priorities, rather than according to a rigid or pre-established methodology. Although TES studies are usually specific to individual species and populations, a number of studies relating to general methodology for plant TES research have been published.