Endangered Species

 

Sage Grouse

 

The Trump Administration Is Opening Millions Of New Acres To Drilling — And That’s Just The Start. According to The Washington Post, “The Trump administration is aggressively pressing ahead in expanding federal oil and gas industry leases that could lead to more drilling on land and at sea, defying an assessment by government scientists that the production and use of fossil fuels is accelerating climate change. On Friday, the administration announced a final decision to lift protections for a uniquely American bird, called the greater sage grouse, on nearly 9 million acres to provide more leasing opportunities to oil, gas and mining industries. A day earlier, an Interior Department assistant secretary confirmed that he told leaders of the fossil fuel industry last month that the Atlantic coast will almost certainly be included in the administration’s plan to expand federal leasing to nearly the entire outer continental shelf. Offshore leases haven’t been granted in the Atlantic for decades, and drilling hasn’t been allowed for a half-century.” [The Washington Post, 3/15/19 (+)]

 

Trump Administration Loosens Sage Grouse Protections , Benefiting Oil Companies. According to The New York Times, “The Trump administration on Friday finalized its plan to loosen Obama-era protections on the habitat of the sage grouse, an imperiled ground-nesting bird that roams across 10 oil-rich Western states. The plan, which would strip away protections for the bird on nearly nine million acres of land in the West — making it easier for oil and gas companies to drill on that land — was first detailed in a draft proposal published in December. The sage grouse plan is the latest step in a series of moves by the Trump administration to promote oil and gas drilling on public land, in support of what President Trump has called a policy of American ‘energy dominance.’ The architect of the plan, David Bernhardt, is a former oil lobbyist who now serves as acting head of the Interior Department. Mr. Trump has nominated Mr. Bernhardt to formally assume the position of interior secretary. ‘The plans adopted today show that listening to and working with our neighbors at the state and local levels of government is the key to long-term conservation and to ensuring the viability of local communities across the West,’ Mr. Bernhardt said in a statement on Friday. Environmentalists criticized the plan as a giveaway to the oil and gas industry that would devastate the nesting habitat of the bird. ‘By punching oil-rig-sized loopholes through these plans, the administration will drive the sage grouse closer to an endangered species listing,’ said Jesse Prentice-Dunn, policy director for the Center for Western Priorities, an advocacy group. ‘Unfortunately for the grouse, Bernhardt is also leading a charge to gut the Endangered Species Act.’” [The New York Times, 3/15/19 (=)]

 

Trump Administration Lifts Protections On Federal Land, Opens Leases To Energy Industry. According to Axios, “Walking back a 2015 regulation under President Obama, the Trump administration on Friday finalized a move to lift protections on nearly 9 million acres of federal lands for the greater sage grouse, with the aim of expanding leases for the oil, gas and mining industry, reports the Washington Post. The big picture: Also this week, the Interior Department spelled out plans to keep the Atlantic coast in its program to expand offshore oil-and-gas leasing despite criticism. Per WaPo: ‘In pursuit of that agenda over the past two years, the administration has sought to reverse dozens of regulations aimed at making oil platforms safer, reducing carbon dioxide and methane released into the atmosphere, and protecting the habitats of endangered animals and those on the verge of an endangered status.’” [Axios, 3/16/19 (+)]

 

Interior Announces Changes To Sage Grouse Bird Protections. According to UPI, “The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management announced Friday that changes have been made to the protection of sage grouse birds that could open land in seven Western states to oil and drilling. Former interior secretary Ryan Zinke signed an order two years ago asking state government their cooperation in protecting the bird but allowing ‘local economic opportunities.’ The change appears to be another move away from the Obama administration’s efforts in 2015 that protected the bird’s habitat. ‘Months of close coordination and cooperation with state governments in Wyoming, Nevada, California, Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Colorado has gone into the development of today’s decision,’ acting interior secretary David Bernhardt said in a statement Friday. ‘The plans adopted today show that listening to and working with our neighbors at the state and local levels of government is the key to long-term conservation and to ensuring the viability of local communities across the West,’ he continued.” [UPI, 3/16/19 (=)]

 

Trump Opens Sage Grouse Habitat To Oil And Gas Drilling. According to CNN, “The Interior Department finalized changes Friday to protections for the sage grouse bird, which could open lands in seven Western states to oil and gas drilling. The Interior Department has been working on changing sage grouse protections since June 2017, when former Secretary Ryan Zinke signed an order asking federal and state governments to strengthen ‘communication and collaboration... with the shared goal of conserving’ sage grouse while also not impeding ‘local economic opportunities,’ according to the Bureau of Land Management. The effort looked at changing land use guidelines across the West that had been put in place under the Obama administration in 2015 to protect the bird’s habitat. Under Zinke, Interior asked 11 states whether they thought changes should be made to the 2015 plans, and seven said they thought there should be changes, according to BLM. The department’s task force recommended that sage grouse not be protected under the Endangered Species Act and suggested changing land use guidelines in the states that indicated they thought there should be changes to the plans. The states impacted by Interior’s new sage grouse plan are Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada and northeastern parts of California.” [CNN, 3/15/19 (+)]

 

Revisions Of Obama-Era Regs Highlight Deep Partisan Divide. According to E&E News, “‘Unlike during the Obama administration, which turned a blind eye to local efforts and only seemed to listen to extreme special interest groups, it is now refreshing to have an administration that cares more about species recovery than just controlling more land,’ said Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, in a statement. But for top Democrats, the revisions affecting tens of millions of acres of federal lands in seven Western states is a betrayal of a yearslong effort by the Obama administration to work with states to come up with a strategy that protected the imperiled bird but still allowed for energy development. The original plans finalized in 2015 amended 98 Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land-use plans to incorporate strong grouse protection measures across nearly 70 million acres in 10 Western states. They were stringent enough to convince the Fish and Wildlife Service not to list the bird for protection under the Endangered Species Act. ‘Today’s decision could upend almost a decade of cooperative, bipartisan conservation efforts and eventually lead to a sage grouse Endangered Species Act listing,’ said Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee.” [E&E News, 3/15/19 (=)]

 

U.S. Eases Protections For Threatened Bird In Western States. According to Reuters, “The Trump administration on Friday amended Obama-era land-use rules put in place to protect a threatened bird in 11 Western states and its shrinking sagebrush habitat, siding with oil and gas interests that opposed the measures as too restrictive. Conservation groups denounced the move as a handout to the oil and gas industries, while an industry group praised it. The new rules, announced by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, fits within the Trump administration’s broader plan to increase energy production on federal lands by loosening environmental regulations. Former President Barack Obama’s 2015 plan to protect the ground-dwelling sage grouse imposed restrictions to development in their habitat but fell short of placing the bird on the endangered species list, which would have imposed far more rigid rules. In 2017, the DOI ordered a review of protections for sage grouse to ‘ensure conservation efforts to not impede local economic opportunities.’” [Reuters, 3/15/19 (=)]

 

The Latest: House Chairman Blasts Trump Sage Grouse Plans. According to Associated Press, “The Latest on the Trump administration’s changes to protections for the ground-dwelling sage grouse in the U.S. West (all times local): 10:30 a.m. The chairman of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee says the Trump administration’s decision to ease restrictions on energy development in the West will ‘hand over’ more public land to fossil fuel companies. Rep. Raul Grijalva is an Arizona Democrat and said Friday’s decision will most directly benefit former clients of Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. Bernhardt was an oil and gas industry lobbyist. Drilling rules and other land use restrictions are being eased through changes to plans meant to guide conservation efforts for greater sage grouse, a ground-dwelling bird that’s been in decline. U.S. Bureau of Land Management Acting Director Brian Steed told The Associated Press the changes better align federal and state management of grouse habitat. The chicken-sized birds range across portions of 11 Western states.” [Associated Press, 3/15/19 (=)]

 

Final BLM Plans Sharply Rebuke Obama-Era Regs. According to E&E News, “The Trump administration has finalized revisions to Obama-era greater sage grouse conservation plans that include a number of provisions that could allow for oil and gas drilling, mining activity, and other development near sensitive grouse habitat. At issue are records of decision (RODs) released today by the Interior Department that finalize revisions the department has been working on since 2017. The RODs are based on six environmental impact statements and amended resource management plans, first released last year, covering grouse plans in seven Western states. Conservation groups blasted the revisions, saying the added ‘modifications, exemptions and waivers’ to mandates in the 2015 plans regarding compensatory mitigation, buffers around breeding grounds, no-surface occupancy and seasonal restrictions near sensitive habitat will drive the bird toward extinction. Jim Lyons, who helped write the original grouse plans as Interior’s deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management during the Obama administration, said in a statement the revised plans ‘risk undermining key elements of the successful science-based, collaborative conservation strategy developed to protect’ the bird.” [E&E News, 3/15/19 (=)]

 

BLM Finalizes Relaxed Sage Grouse Management Plans. According to Politico, “The Bureau of Land Management today finalized its plan to ease restrictions on oil and gas drilling on lands that are home to the greater sage grouse. The decision, which acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said came after ‘close coordination and cooperation with state governments in Wyoming, Nevada, California, Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Colorado,’ won unanimous bipartisan backing from the affected governors. ‘I believe the updates are surgical and recognize that the Greater sage-grouse is a state-managed species,’ Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon said in a statement. The Obama administration originally finalized 11 state land-use plans for the sage grouse in 2015, but Interior kicked off an internal review of those plans in 2017. Opponents of new move contend the amended plans will further disrupt the birds’ habitat and imperil the survival of the species. ‘The new BLM sage-grouse plans risk undermining key elements of the successful science-based, collaborative conservation strategy developed to protect an iconic species of the West,’ said Jim Lyons, a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress. ‘As a result, the remaining sagebrush landscape is likely to continue to shrink, increasing the grouse’s risk of extinction.’” [Politico, 3/15/19 (=)]

 

Interior Sage Grouse Decision Consistent With Energy Dominance. According to Wyoming Public Media, “The Interior Department has issued its final amendments to how sage grouse habitat will be managed across the west. The record of decision (ROD) changes the 2015 land use plans that helped the iconic western bird avoid an endangered species listing. The Interior’s decision reduces protections for over 50 million acres in six states including Wyoming. It changes sagebrush focal areas and priority habitat management areas. It also makes it easier for oil and gas companies to lease on or near the bird’s habitat. Jesse Prentice-Dunn, policy director for the advocacy group Center for Western Priorities, said that’s because there are more accessible exceptions to no-surface occupancy stipulations. It also eliminates the requirement to prioritize energy leasing outside of sage grouse habitat in Utah and parts of Wyoming. ‘If these weakened protections result in smaller grouse populations, then we might end up with a scenario that nobody wanted in the first place—an endangered species listing,’ Prentice-Dunn said. Andrew Bernhardt, the acting deputy secretary of the Interior Department, said its plan promotes responsible development of natural resources while easing regulatory burdens.” [Wyoming Public Media, 3/15/19 (=)]

 

Gray Wolves

 

What Gray Wolves' Endangered Species Status Means For Minnesota. According to Post Bulletin, “After a decades-long effort to restore the gray wolf population in the United States, federal wildlife officials announced Thursday they are ready to take the animals off the endangered and threatened species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls the wolf population’s recovery one of the ‘greatest comebacks for an animal in U.S. conservation history.’ More than 6,000 wolves now live in nine states. ‘The facts are clear and indisputable: The gray wolf no longer meets the definition of a threatened or endangered species,’ David Bernhardt, acting secretary of the U.S. Interior Department, said Thursday when he announced the proposal. The plan would revoke gray wolves’ federal protection, which could leave them potentially subject to hunting and trapping in Minnesota and several other states. But many environmental groups call the move premature, arguing the wolf still has not recovered a large portion of its historic range. It’s the latest move in a 15-year legal tug-of-war, during which federal officials have acted on several occasions to remove endangered species protection for wolves in the upper Great Lakes, only to see federal courts restore those protections.” [Post Bulletin, 3/15/19 (=)]

 

Op-Ed: Putting America's Gray Wolves Back In The Crosshairs. According to The Hill, “As wolves have begun their return to federal public lands, nature’s balance has returned, but social problems with the industry have erupted. Not because wolf ‘depredations’ on cattle and sheep are numerous: Wolves remain one of the smallest causes of livestock losses according to federal data, with domestic dogs killing 20 times more livestock than wolves. Instead, the cause of the conflict is the 19th-century mentality of a livestock industry that rents public lands for grazing, aiming to kill off wolf populations before they can get re-established in their native habitats. In the state of Washington, the state plan authorizes wolves to be killed if there are livestock losses. Theoretically, ranchers are supposed to employ non-lethal methods on public lands to protect their stock. This doesn’t always happen. One particular public-land rancher — the largest cattle operation in the state — turned out their livestock in close proximity to a wolf den site in what appears to be a deliberate effort to create livestock-wolf conflicts so the wolves could be killed. The facts of this case were documented by a Washington State University wolf scientist, who soon found his research shut down and his position terminated thanks to pressure from an anti-wolf legislator and corruption within the university system.” [The Hill, 3/18/19 (+)]

 

Other Endangered Species

 

Activists Report Probable Dead Vaquita In Mexico. According to E&E News, “The environmentalist group Sea Shepherd said yesterday that it found the body of what appeared to be a vaquita porpoise, one of perhaps only 10 that remain in the world. The group said the remains were too badly decomposed for immediate identification and had been turned over to authorities for further study. Two Sea Shepherd patrol boats found the animal in a net Tuesday in the Gulf of California, the only place the critically endangered tiny porpoises live. The group patrols the gulf, also known as the Sea of Cortez, removing illegal fishing nets. The vaquitas get caught in nets set illegally for totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder is considered a delicacy in China. In a report issued earlier this week, an international commission of experts estimated only six to 22 vaquitas remain alive. The lower figure was the number of vaquitas actually seen on the surface during a trip by researchers last fall. The higher estimate was the number of the animals that may have been heard over a system of floating acoustic monitors making distinctive, dolphinlike ‘clicks.’ The commission said the most likely number of remaining vaquitas was somewhere around 10. And the vaquitas are concentrated in an increasingly small area of about 15 miles by 7 miles, its report said. ‘The few remaining vaquitas inhabit a very small area, approximately 24 by 12 kilometers, most of which lies within the Vaquita Refuge. However, high levels of illegal fishing for totoaba occur in this area,’ the report said.” [E&E News, 3/15/19 (=)]

 

This Songbird Is Nearly Extinct In The Wild . An International Treaty Could Help Save It — But Won’t. According to The New York Times, “Fewer than 500 black-winged mynas remain in the wild in Indonesia, but each year more of the songbirds are captured and sold as pets. Banteng — ‘the most beautiful and graceful of all wild cattle,’ according to the World Wide Fund for Nature — were listed as endangered in 1996, but their horns still are sold in markets across Southeast Asia. And the critically endangered giant carp, a Mekong River native that can weigh up to 600 pounds, recently began turning up on restaurant menus in Vietnam. Experts warn that the fish might soon be pushed into extinction. International trade poses a threat to all of these species, yet not one is subject to key regulations that would help protect it. They are not listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), a treaty meant to ensure that trade does not imperil the survival of threatened and endangered species.” [The New York Times, 3/15/19 (+)]

 

Wildlife & Conservation

 

President Trump Quietly Signs Largest Wilderness Preservation Bill In A Decade. According to The Western Journal, “President Donald Trump this week signed a massive wilderness preservation bill that sets aside 1.3 million acres of federal land in California, Oregon, Utah and New Mexico as wilderness. Land designed as wilderness cannot be used for logging, oil drilling or mining. ‘This law will give countless Americans the chance to enjoy the natural wonders of our country as we uphold our responsibility to protect the beauty and glory of God’s creation for generations to come,’ Trump said, according to the Victorville Daily Press. The bill creates 375,000 acres of wilderness in the Mojave Desert, according to San Jose’s The Mercury News. The bill expands Death Valley National Park by 35,929 acres and Joshua Tree National Park by 4,518 acres. Geary Hund, executive director of the Joshua Tree-based Mojave Desert Land Trust, called the action a ‘huge win for conservation.’” [The Western Journal, 3/15/19 (=)]

 

BLM Revokes Policy That Sparked Slaughter Concerns. According to E&E News, “The Bureau of Land Management has pulled the plug on a wild horse and burro policy that animal rights advocates worried would make it easier to sell the animals for slaughter. The internal BLM policy allowed any individual or group to buy up to 25 horses at one time without requiring approval from BLM assistant director of resources and planning — currently Kristin Bail. The intent was to spur more sales of wild horses and burros that the bureau is caring for in holding pens and corrals. But this week BLM rescinded the policy, telling E&E News that it was not as protective of animal welfare as they wanted it to be. The bulk buying policy was established without public notice in a May 2018 instruction memorandum. The memo replaced a 2014 policy that capped sales at five wild horses and burros without the assistant director’s approval. Purchases of five or more animals were limited to once every six months” [E&E News, 3/15/19 (=)]

 

Court Temporarily Blocks Western Mont. Logging Project. According to E&E News, “A federal appeals court has blocked a western Montana logging project while it considers a lawsuit that claims the project could harm threatened species. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday granted an injunction to the conservation groups that requested the Glacier Loon project near Condon be halted. The groups say the project includes 2 square miles of logging, building nearly 6 miles of new temporary rzoads and reopening 16 miles of previously closed roads. They say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t properly analyze the project’s potential harm to threatened grizzly bears and the habitat of wolverines and threatened Canada lynx. Attorneys representing the Forest Service say the project would reduce wildfire threats. A U.S. district judge previously ruled in favor of the project.” [E&E News, 3/15/19 (=)]

 

Stiff Sentence Sheds Light On Turtle Smuggling Schemes. According to E&E News, “The turtle smuggler can stuff live contraband inside a sock. One or two might fit, depending on the turtle’s size. Each is wrapped so it can’t wiggle. Then they are boxed up and camouflaged. ‘Generally, there’s a variety of things that are placed in the box, such as candy and aluminum foil or other treats or trinkets, to kind of disguise them from X-ray detection or for wildlife-sniffing dogs to kind of throw them off,’ said Fish and Wildlife Service special agent Thomas Chisdock. Chisdock’s turtle smuggling tutorial last year for a federal magistrate judge was captured on a hearing transcript. The session was part of a broadly illuminating case that turned a new page this week but that also isn’t finished yet. On Tuesday, a federal judge sentenced 38-year-old South Carolina resident Steven Verren Baker to 27 months in prison after Baker pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to smuggle wildlife. Baker was also ordered to forfeit $263,225 in proceeds. A high school dropout whose parents went to prison when he was 7 or 8, Baker was previously found guilty of a wildlife trafficking charge in 2015 for selling rare spotted turtles. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when he was a teenager, according to his attorney.” [E&E News, 3/15/19 (=)]

 

Whale Watching In Japan Is On The Rise, Even As Commercial Hunts Are Set To Resume. According to National Geographic, “THE JAPANESE, IT seems, are becoming more interested in watching whales than eating them. Researchers at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), an animal welfare and conservation organization based in Massachusetts, have been tracking the numbers, which they’ve shared exclusively with National Geographic ahead of a global whale watching report they plan to publish next year. Japan’s whale watching industry emerged during the 1980s but has been gaining momentum in recent years. During the seven-year period ending in 2015, the last year for which IFAW has statistics, the number of whale watchers increased by more than 40,000. IFAW estimates that about two-thirds of the people who take to the sea with binoculars are Japanese nationals rather than foreign visitors. With the new fascination has come increased revenue for tour operators and others. According to IFAW, Japan’s whale watching industry generated some eight million dollars in 2015, an amount the organization believes has been growing by 20 percent a year.” [National Geographic, 3/15/19 (+)]

 

 

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