Illinois Endangered Protection Species Act Glossary: Key Terms & Definitions for Developers and Consultants

Illinois Endangered Protection Species Act Key Terms & Definitions

Adverse Modification: A direct or indirect alteration to critical habitat that appreciably diminishes the value of that habitat for the conservation of a listed species. The alteration may include effects that occur at a later time, but it must be reasonably certain to occur. (50 CFR 402.02)

Conservation: The use of all methods and procedures necessary to bring any endangered species or threatened species to the point at which the measures provided under the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Act are no longer necessary. Such methods and procedures include, but are not limited to, all activities associated with scientific resources management such as research, census, law enforcement, habitat acquisition and maintenance, propagation, live trapping, and transplantation. (520 ILCS 10/2)

Critical Habitat: Specific geographic areas that contain features essential for the conservation of a threatened or endangered species and that may require special management and protection. Critical habitat may also include areas that are not currently occupied by the species but will be needed for its recovery. (520 ILCS 10/2)

Endangered Species: Any species which is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. (520 ILCS 10/2)

Endangered Species Protection Board: The board established under Section 4 of the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Act, responsible for listing, delisting, or changing the status of species on the Illinois list of endangered and threatened species. (520 ILCS 10/4)

Essential Habitat: The specific ecological conditions required by an endangered or threatened species for its survival and propagation, as determined by the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board. (520 ILCS 10/2)

Habitat: The area or type of environment in which an organism or biological population normally lives or occurs. (520 ILCS 10/2)

Harm: An act which actually kills or injures wildlife. Such an act may include significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding, or sheltering. (520 ILCS 10/2)

Harass: An intentional or negligent act or omission which creates the likelihood of injury to wildlife by annoying it to such an extent as to significantly disrupt normal behavioral patterns which include, but are not limited to, breeding, feeding, or sheltering. (520 ILCS 10/2)

Illinois List: The list of endangered and threatened species in Illinois, as established and amended by the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board. (520 ILCS 10/2)

Incidental Take: Any taking otherwise prohibited, if such taking is incidental to, and not the purpose of, the carrying out of an otherwise lawful activity. (520 ILCS 10/2)

Person: An individual, corporation, partnership, trust, association, or any other private entity; or any officer, employee, agent, department, or instrumentality of the federal government, of any state, municipality, or political subdivision of a state, or of any foreign government; any state, municipality, or political subdivision of a state; or any other entity subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. (520 ILCS 10/2)

Possession: The detention and control, or the manual or ideal custody of anything that may be the subject of property, for one's use and enjoyment, either as owner or as the proprietor of a qualified right in it, and either held personally or by another who exercises it in one's place and name. (520 ILCS 10/2)

Species: Any subspecies of fish or wildlife or plants, and any distinct population segment of any species of vertebrate fish or wildlife which interbreeds when mature. (520 ILCS 10/2)

Take: To harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct. (520 ILCS 10/2)

Threatened Species: Any species which is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. (520 ILCS 10/2)

Transport: To move, convey, carry, or ship by any means, or to deliver or receive for the purpose of movement, conveyance, carriage, or shipment. (520 ILCS 10/2)

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