Endangered Species

 

Groups Ask Federal Court To Block Obama-Era Reg Revisions. According to E&E News, “Environmental groups want a federal court to stop the Interior Department from implementing new changes to Obama-era greater sage grouse conservation plans. A coalition of groups asked for a preliminary injunction in a motion filed late Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, charging Interior Secretary David Bernhardt with overseeing changes that would ‘rescind or weaken’ sage grouse projections and ultimately harm the iconic Western bird. The four groups — the Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Prairie Hills Audubon Society — said the court should step in because the Bureau of Land Management ‘is now moving rapidly to implement the weakened sage-grouse plans through site-specific decisions that threaten irreparable harm to sage-grouse populations and habitat.’ These ‘site-specific decisions’ include authorizing ‘oil and gas leasing and drilling applications, livestock grazing permits, vegetation treatments, and other actions’ in sage grouse habitat, the motion said. The motion was filed on behalf of the groups by Boise, Idaho-based Advocates for the West. They asked the court to issue an injunction by June 15.” [E&E News, 4/22/19 (=)]

 

Conservation Groups Ask Judge To Block Land Management Plan That Could Destroy Oregon Sage-Grouse Habitat. According to Willamette Week, “Four national conservation groups have asked a federal judge to block land management plans in seven states, including Oregon, in order to protect threatened sage-grouse habitat. Advocates for the West, Western Watersheds Project, Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians filed a preliminary injunction Friday in U.S. District Court in Boise, Idaho, seeking to halt land use plans approved last month by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. According to a release today from Western Watersheds Project, the management plans approved by Bernhardt would ‘gut protections for the birds’ dwindling populations and destroy their habitat.’ Erik Molvar, the group’s executive director, says ‘The most harmful part of Bernhardt’s weakening of sage-grouse plans in Oregon is the elimination of about 20,000 acres of Research Natural Areas.’ Without dedicated research areas Molvar adds that it is ‘more difficult for federal agencies to figure out how much livestock grazing, if any, sage grouse habitats can sustain before population declines are triggered.” [Willamette Week, 4/22/19 (=)]

 

Coalition Seeks Court Order To Stop Destruction Of Sage-Grouse Habitat In 7 States. According to Buckrail, “Four conservation groups have asked a federal judge to block new plans that allow drilling, mining and other destructive activities across 51 million acres of greater sage-grouse habitat in seven western states—Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, California and Oregon. The motion for a preliminary injunction, filed Friday in US District Court in Boise, says the land-management plans approved by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt last month would gut protections for the birds’ dwindling populations and destroy their habitat. ‘Since 2004 scientists have warned that preventing sage grouse from sliding toward extinction requires protecting all its remaining habitats and populations. The Trump administration has gone in exactly the opposite direction,’ said Laird J. Lucas of Advocates for the West, lead attorney for the plaintiffs. ‘Interior Secretary Bernhardt is opening up key sage-grouse strongholds to energy development and other impacts, while falsely claiming this will help sage grouse. Lying about what these plan changes mean violates bedrock requirements of federal law, and we are asking the court to hold this administration accountable.’” [Buckrail, 4/22/19 (=)]

 

Canadian Researchers Warn Of 'Cascading Impacts' As Bumblebee Species Decline. According to CBC, “A team of researchers at York University has warned that the American bumblebee is facing imminent extinction from Canada, and this could lead to ‘cascading impacts’ throughout the country. The imminent extinction classification is considered the highest and most at-risk classification before extinction. About 42 of the more than 850 species of bees in Canada are bumblebees — important pollinators needed to grow crops, including apples, tomatoes, blueberries and legumes, as well as trees, shrubs and wildflowers. Professor Laurence Packer said quite a few of the 42 species of bumblebees are exhibiting substantial declines. ‘We’ve got a situation where ... the number of species that you can find in an area has decreased,’ Packer told CBC Toronto.” [CBC, 4/22/19 (=)]

 

It's Earth Day. Here's What You Should Know About Endangered And Threatened Species In Arizona.  According to Arizona Republic, “It’s Earth Day, which is a good day to remind us that extinct is forever. Arizona is home to 43 endangered or threatened animal species, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Here’s a sampling of the endangered and threatened animals on the list: The Mexican gray wolf. Endangered. Once hunted almost to extinction, conservationists and the federal government began reintroducing populations in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico about 20 years ago over the objections of ranchers, who feared economic losses from livestock predation. While the controversy continues, the population appears to be making a comeback. The black-footed ferret. Endangered. The only ferret native to North America, the black-footed ferret is considered one of the most endangered mammals on the continent. While most have been wiped out by disease and loss of habitat, experimental efforts to reintroduce them in Arizona and elsewhere have been met with some success.” [Arizona Republic, 4/22/19 (+)]

 

Heartland Organizations Join Global Environmental Movement For Earth Day. According to KFVS-TV, “The 49th annual Earth Day is upon us on this Tuesday. The first Earth Day started back on April 22, 1970. The first Earth Day credits 20 million Americans for widely launching the modern environmental movement. This prompted the passage of the landmark Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and other environmental laws according to Earth Day Network. Decades later, popularity for Earth Day has grown to hundreds of millions of people in 190 countries worldwide to tackle environmental challenges and create lasting worldwide movements. Heartland Organizations and individuals also take part in the Earth Day movement. Whether it be reforestation, cleaning up, ending plastic pollution, environmental literacy and more. Heartland News talked with Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) Media Specialist Candice Davis who said she encourages anyone to get out and do their part to help the environment.” [KFVS-TV, 4/22/19 (=)]

 

Op-Ed: A Plea On Earth Day To Protect Open Spaces And Endangered Species, Including Those In N.J.. According to NJ.com, “As we celebrate Earth Day and the environmental progress we’ve made, one area continuing to suffer is adequate protection of our species and natural habitat. Species are disappearing at an alarming rate, and the process is accelerating. Climate change remains the biggest factor, as well as destruction of habitat and breeding areas, and pollution. Man-made activities are wiping out species everywhere, from our oceans to our rainforests to right here in New Jersey. This destruction lessens the world experience as it damages our vital biodiversity. Take one species out, and something else will suffer. More invasive species may come in to fill the gap. Getting rid of predators can result in overpopulation of other species. What’s happening is alarming. For instance, 60 percent of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles have been wiped out since 1970, the year of the first Earth Day. Scientists estimate dozens of species are becoming extinct every day. At that rate, 30 to 50 percent of all species may be extinct by mid-century.” [NJ.com, 4/22/19 (+)]

 

Wildlife & Conservation

 

Eagles May Be Cape’s First Nesting Pair In Very Long Time. According to Cape Cod Times, “Voices below disturbed the occupant of the nest. A few chirped cries and her partner returned, cutting swiftly through the upper branches of the forest before pulling up short on backpedaling wings, yellow feet and talons reaching for a denuded, sun-bleached branch. Wings furled, chocolate brown feathers puffed up against the cool wind, he settled in and eyeballed the pair of interlopers below with a sidelong look. A hundred yards away, Brewster residents dropped off their recyclables at the transfer station, but what may be the Cape’s first documented nesting pair of bald eagles seemed inured to the clanking of bottles, the industrial din of front-end loaders and trucks. The male had simply to spread his wings and the wind would carry him to the Stony Brook herring run to feast on the annual parade of life surging inland to spawn. This was Earth Day, 49 years after the first one on April 22, 1970, and here was one of the environmental movement’s most potent symbols of its success, our national bird once on the brink of extinction, finally putting down roots 114 years after the last known bald eagle’s nest in the state vanished, in Sandwich in 1905. ‘The nest is real,’ said Mark Faherty, the science coordinator for Massachusetts Audubon’s sanctuary in Wellfleet and past president of the Cape Cod Bird Club. About 5 feet across, the nest is well hidden in the crown of a pine tree. Faherty is hoping the pair is incubating eggs, taking turns sitting in the deep nest.” [Cape Cod Times, 4/22/19 (+)]

 

AP | Eaglet Welcomed As New Addition At Dollywood. According to E&E News, “Dolly Parton’s Dollywood has welcomed a fluffy addition to the amusement park: an eaglet. Media outlets report the eaglet hatched Wednesday. The eaglet is part of the park’s Eagle Mountain Sanctuary, a 30,000-square-foot aviary. The park has a live cam labeled ‘Grant & Glenda’ featuring the eaglet. Grant and Glenda are one of two eagle couples at the park that nest together. Dollywood’s website says the birds at the park are taken care of by the American Eagle Foundation, a group that can possess birds for ‘education, exhibition, rehabilitation and breeding’ under permits from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.” [E&E News, 4/22/19 (=)]

 

Unlikely Bedfellows Release Plan To Reduce Herds. According to E&E News, “A diverse coalition of unlikely partners has a new plan to dramatically reduce wild horse and burro herds to manageable levels in a decade without resorting to euthanasia or unrestricted sales. The plan released today — devised by a coalition that includes the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Public Lands Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association — emphasizes greater use of fertility controls, more roundups of animals from federal rangelands, and increased adoptions of wild horses and burros transferred to off-range holding pens and corrals. The plan also proposes that the Bureau of Land Management, which manages the vast majority of the 27 million acres of federal rangelands used by the wild horses and burros, increase contracts with private ranchers to allow more animals to use their lands as pastures until the growth of herd sizes slows. The goal is to reduce wild horse and burro herds within the next decade to near population levels deemed appropriate to protect federal rangelands and natural resources and the wildlife that uses them, Nancy Perry, ASPCA’s senior vice president of government relations, told E&E News today in an interview.” [E&E News, 4/22/19 (=)]

 

Sick Bighorn Sheep Herd In N.D. Might Be Improving. According to E&E News, “An outbreak of deadly bacterial pneumonia that has plagued western North Dakota’s bighorn sheep population for years is showing signs of waning, though it might still be a few years before the herd is out of the woods. North Dakota Game and Fish Department biologists counted 283 bighorns in a population survey that began last fall and was completed in March to see how many lambs survived the winter. The total number is up 7% from the previous year’s count of 265, which was the lowest in a dozen years. ‘The increase in the 2018 count reflects lessening effects of bacterial pneumonia that was detected in 2014,’ big game biologist Brett Wiedmann said. The outbreak five years ago killed about three dozen sheep, leading Game and Fish to cancel the fall hunting season in 2015 for the first time in more than three decades. The agency reinstated hunting the following year but reduced licenses in 2017 after a summer survey documented a significant drop in the number of rams, which hunters seek for their trophy horns. The number of rams dropped again in the latest count. However, adult ewes improved, and there was a significant increase in lambs.” [E&E News, 4/22/19 (=)]

 

Land Conservation Organization Acquires 100,000 Acres. According to Associated Press, “A land conservation organization has acquired 100,000 acres (40,469 hectares) on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. News outlets report The Nature Conservancy announced on Monday that the purchased area covers 156 square miles (404 sq. kilometers) across areas of northern Tennessee and southern Kentucky and will link the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area, Cumberland Gap National Historic Park and Kentucky Ridge State Forest. The Nature Conservancy Tennessee state director Terry Cook says it is the largest acquisition in the state chapter’s history and called it a ‘happy coincidence’ that the announcement came on Earth Day. He says the organization will be able to protect wildlife habitat, secure clean water for the area and keep it open to the public. Cook declined to discuss details of the purchase due to a nondisclosure agreement with the seller.” [Associated Press, 4/22/19 (=)]

 

 

Please do not respond to this email.

If you have questions or comments please contact mitch@beehivedc.com