What if the species recover before expiration of the incidental take permit? Is the County still bound by the terms of the permit?

If the species recover so that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were to “delist” the species, Benton County would no longer have a need for an incidental take permit and habitat conservation plan for those species as far as ESA compliance. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would have to verify that there are no outstanding mitigation requirements before the permit would be relinquished. Outstanding mitigation would occur in situations where activities involving take have not yet been mitigated through conservation measures that sometimes require years of development and maintenance. Prior to delisting, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would need to evaluate if the management actions in place under the habitat conservation plan would ensure that the species continued to thrive and would not need to later be relisted.