We understand the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service wrote a 40-page criticism of the first draft, requiring 6,000 changes. That's how bad the first draft was. We can only hope this one is better. Habitat Conservation Plans HCPs are voluntary land management plans designed and implemented by landowners in coordination with federal, state and local agencies to protect habitat for threatened or endangered fish and wildlife. The plans, created with the assistance of wildlife biologists and other scientists, vary in size from a few acres to hundreds of thousands of acres.
Some plans focus on a single species, others cover hundreds of species.
More than 240 HCPs are currently in effect, designed by large and small private landowners, cities, counties and states, covering more than 18 million acres and some 400 species. The final report is expected to be released within a few days. They're voluntary plans developed by landowners to protect species and preserve habitat - plans that must be approved by federal wildlife experts. There must be a strong element of practicality in an HCP, a factor that simply was not addressed in the first draft of the review. Even so, a considerable amount of scientific and related data is used to develop HCPs, but it does not always find its way into the formal document.