WATERBURY, Vt. (AP) – Population growth among species have prompted state officials to consider removing ospreys, loons and peregrine falcons from Vermont’s list of threatened and endangered species.

Meanwhile, black terns, upland sandpipers and two snakes – the eastern rat snake and the eastern racer – may be added to the lists after a public hearing set for later this month.

The Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife will host the hearing from 7 to 9 p.m. Jan. 25 in the Old Dorm Lounge at Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center.

The need for revisions to the list “shows we have a conservation program that was a success and we should be celebrating that,” said Craig McLauglin, director of wildlife for the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department.

McLaughlin said the proposal to take the loon off the endangered list is the most controversial of recommended changes to the state’s threatened and endangered list.

The statewide loon population was estimated to exceed a record 160 birds in the summer of 2004, with future population growth limited primarily by the number of large solitary ponds.

Endangered species are those that, if not protected, are in imminent danger of permanently disappearing from the habitat. Threatened species are species that, if not protected, are likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future.

One plant deemed ready to come off the list is the many-leaved sedge, which is found mainly in wetlands.

Species on the list might require landowners and builders to alter development plans to avoid impacts on the plants or animals.

Under the changes, two species of snakes that appear on the current endangered list – the eastern rat snake and eastern racer – would be reclassified as threatened species. Also, two plant species, the dwarf chinkapin oak and the pygmy water lily, would be listed as endangered.