The slogan, “Endangered means there’s still time,” greets visitors to the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) highly informative Web site which provides current status data for threatened and endangered species, along with policy and historical information concerning species protection in the USA. There are also fully developed resources for kids and teachers.
The home page uses a bulleted list style to lay out access to four significant areas: Program Information, Species Information, What’s New, and Frequently Asked Questions. There is also a sidebar with a hotchpotch of links that could be better organized for more effective navigation. A nontables text version is an option for those with older Web browsers.
The Program Information includes an overview of the Endangered Species Program and a history of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The ESA is available in full text and is the primary law that guides the actions of the USFWS’s Division of Endangered Species. A “Policies” section links to the full‐text of Federal Register notices for recent policies relating to the implementation of the ESA. The Program Information also includes contact information for program coordinators in each of the seven regions of the USFWS. There is a map showing the states covered by each region; but it is not “clickable;” and one must scroll down past the map to see mailing addresses for each region. The contact information could be further enhanced by linking to e‐mail addresses for the coordinators and to each region’s Web site for additional information about programs and activities.
The Species Information section is the heart of the Web site and provides access to species listing data and descriptions. The Listed Species Indexes and Counts link has data for the date a species was first listed, the states affected by its listing, its critical habitat, recovery priority, historic range, and indicates whether a recovery plan has been developed. There is also a “Learn More” link for most species. The Learn More information varies and can include a photograph, a fact sheet, a detailed species account, full‐text of final rules on species listing, and press releases. The lists of species can be downloaded in pdf and text files. There is a separate link for the proposed and candidate species that may require listing in the future.
The species information is also presented in alternative ways. There are the popular “boxscores,” which tally the number of species listed in broad taxonomic categories (mammals, birds, reptiles, etc.). As of October 1998, the USA has 1,175 threatened and endangered species and 878 recovery plans. The species information is also broken down into state “views” where the number of species listed are tallied for each state and another link details out which species are listed in each state.
The Species Information section also includes FAQs and program background for the USFWS habitat conservation plans and recovery efforts. However, I was disappointed to see that in order to obtain recovery plans, one must contact the Fish and Wildlife Reference Service and pay a fee if not affiliated with another agency. There is no special category for educational institutions; and it would be useful to have a referral link to the Federal Depository Library Programs (FDLP) since FDLPs often acquire copies of recovery plans pertaining to species in their area of the country. There is an FDLP directory on the GPO Access Web site (http://www.access.gpo. gov/su_docs/libpro.html), which would be a quick and easy link to add. A nice example of species recovery information prepared for the public can be found on the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Web site. NMFS is the responsible agency for threatened and endangered species in marine environments. They provide excerpts, summaries of major points, and some full text of recovery plans (http://kingfish.ssp.nmfs.gov/tmcintyr/prot_res.html).
This Web site offers numerous and well developed educational resources. There is a Web‐based slide show that anyone can use for presentations on endangered species. Hard copies of this slide show are also available to educators through the USFWS National Conservation Training Center. There are also many links to resources for teachers, including a pdf version of a teacher’s packet. Some of the games in the teacher’s packet (a crossword puzzle and a question/answer game) can also be played on the Web site. These games are easily accessible through the “Kid’s Corner.”
Overall, I recommend this authoritative Web site to all educators and librarians because it has resources for people of all ages with an interest in threatened and endangered species.
