Species that are listed by the Federal or a state government are considered protected and are therefore of direct concern for compliance with the Endangered Species Act. In addition, knowledge of the reasons for their endangerment may be extrapolated to other species and perhaps aid in avoiding listing. For example, 28 species of snails are endangered primarily because of exotic organisms and 30 species of clams primarily from habitat modification (Foin et al. 1998).
The Endangered Species home page of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) also covers concerns of the National Marine Fisheries Service, and leads to a variety of information such as updated listings, copies of laws and policies, policy on recovery and habitat conservation plans, past issues of the Endangered Species Bulletin, etc. Please go to: http://endangered.fws.gov/. A box score of Federally protected species is maintained at http://endangered.fws.gov/wildlife.html. The various lists lead to links about the species. Some recovery plans are available on-line: http://endangered.fws.gov/recovery/recplans/index.htm.
Because "species will be conserved best not by a species-by-species approach but by an ecosystem conservation strategy that transcends individual species," an FWS policy for the ecosystem approach to the Endangered Species Act was published in the Federal Register in July 1994. The text may be found at http://endangered.fws.gov/policy/pol001.html .
State listings are found on most state Web sites and can be accessed by following links from http://www.dfg.ca.gov/html/links_st.html.