ABSTRACT
Species protection on federal public lands has been uneven both throughout time and between federal agencies that administer public lands. There exist a number of facets that have made species protection on federal lands an oft-times secondary consideration within public land management, which includes the historical context in which federal public lands were originally designated, agency mission, and entrenched extractive resource industries. Federal public land management agencies are typically divided between preservation oriented and multiple use mission sets, which has implications for species protection and conservation of natural resources in general within agency boundaries. Species protection on federal public lands has been an issue that competes with other natural resource management priorities on public lands, particularly resource extraction and economic development. The development of an organized environmental movement and the passage of federal environmental legislation have served to increase species protection by reducing or influencing public land decision-making discretion.
