Endangered Species

 

Enviros Sue Bernhardt, FWS For Updated Grizzly Recovery Plan. According to E&E News, “An environmental group today filed a federal lawsuit in an effort to compel the Trump administration to update a more than 25-year-old recovery plan for grizzly bears across the United States. The lawsuit, filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, says the Fish and Wildlife Service ‘has failed to prepare a timely grizzly bear five-year status review’ in violation of the Endangered Species Act. FWS also violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it ‘unreasonably denied’ a CBD petition five years ago ‘for an updated and amended grizzly bear recovery plan,’ the complaint says. FWS has only supplemented the recovery plan since it was last revised in 1993, according to the complaint, which names Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Margaret Everson, FWS’s acting director, as defendants. The group wants the court to issue an order ‘providing deadlines for the Service to prepare a timely five-year status review for the grizzly bear, update the recovery plan, and evaluate the need to pursue grizzly bear recovery in additional areas,’ the complaint says. ‘The recovery plan for grizzly bears is more than 25 years old, doesn’t reflect current science and is unambitious,’ Collette Adkins, CBD’s carnivore conservation director, said in a statement. ‘Grizzlies now live in just a small fraction of the lands they once roamed, but there’s great habitat in the West where these magnificent animals could once again survive.’” [E&E News, 6/27/19 (=)]

 

Group Wants Grizzly Bears Restored To More US States. According to Associated Press, “Wildlife advocates are seeking a court order that would force U.S. officials to consider if grizzly bears should be restored to more Western states following the animals’ resurgence in the Northern Rockies. Grizzly bears are protected as a threatened species outside Alaska. An estimated 1,900 bears live in portions of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington state. In a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Montana, the Center for Biological Diversity said grizzlies should also be considered for areas of California, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Oregon. The request comes after environmentalists successfully sued last year to block grizzly hunts planned in Wyoming and Idaho. Federal officials have appealed the ruling. They want to lift protections for about 700 bears in and around Yellowstone National Park.” [Associated Press, 6/27/19 (=)]

 

Eagle Feathers Fan Religious Debate. According to E&E News, “The Fish and Wildlife Service now finds itself in the middle of a debate over the religious use of federally protected eagle feathers. It’s a dilemma that spans a lot of territory from tribal identities and religious freedom to the strains placed upon the National Eagle Repository, a unique federal facility located in Colorado. And after more than 12 years, a tricky decision point is getting nearer with the conclusion of a public comment period on July 1. Prompted by litigation that began in March 2007, the Fish and Wildlife Service is airing a petition to allow all ‘sincere religious believers’ access to the National Eagle Repository’s feather stockpile. Currently, only federally recognized tribes enjoy access. ‘The department’s regulations are so restrictive that they ban all kinds of sincere religious behavior,’ the petition filed by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty states, adding that ‘enforcement of these regulations can have devastating consequences.’ Some worry, though, about the potential consequences of expanding access to a facility they describe as understaffed, underfunded and slow to process existing requests. ‘The addition of anyone that can show a ‘sincere religious belief’ to those eligible to apply for and obtain federally protected bird feathers and parts will likely collapse the system entirely,’ the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho declared.” [E&E News, 6/27/19 (=)]

 

AP | Rare Golden Eagle Nest Found In Mountains Outside LA. According to E&E News, “Biologists at a national park near Los Angeles have found a pair of golden eagle chicks — the first seen there in decades. The National Park Service in Thousand Oaks, Calif., yesterday annouced that a nest containing the pair of 12-week-old chicks was found in March in a cave in the Santa Monica Mountains. It’s the first golden eagle nest confirmed in the mountains since the late 1980s. Sightings of adult birds also have been vanishingly rare. The chicks, a male and a female, were given ankle bands to help scientists monitor them. Although the golden eagle is protected under the law, experts believe the population may be declining in the United States, especially in California. Researchers say loss of habitat is a major threat.” [E&E News, 6/27/19 (=)]

 

AP | Conservationists Accuse E.U. Countries Of Overfishing Sharks. According to E&E News, “Greenpeace is warning about overfishing of endangered sharks in the North Atlantic, often by Spanish and Portuguese boats. The group has published a report today arguing that tens of thousands of endangered sharks are killed each year because of a lack of measures to protect them in international waters. It claims that vessels, which go in search of swordfish in the North Atlantic catch, by weight, four times more sharks. However, it notes that the figures are disputed. The Spanish and Portuguese longline fleets are a key focus of the report. Greenpeace says their cables with hundreds of baited hooks attached along them end up snagging sharks. The report’s publication coincides with a pole-to-pole voyage by the Greenpeace ship Esperanza as part of the group’s campaign for better ocean protections.” [E&E News, 6/27/19 (=)]

 

Wildlife & Conservation

 

Plan To Drop Poison On Farallon Islands To Eradicate Mice Draws Criticism. According to KPIX-TV, “The US Fish and Wildlife Department is floating a controversial plan to dump one and a half tons of poison pellets on the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge to get rid of an infestation of mice. The Farallon Islands are an essential breeding ground for all kinds of seabirds including the ashy storm petrel. Half of the world’s population of that rare bird come from here. But during the Gold Rush, sailors accidentally introduced mice to the islands and now, at times, the place is teeming with them. ‘You can see the grass move with the mice,’ said Fish and Wildlife spokesman Doug Cordell. ‘That’s how many there are out there. So it’s plague-like infestation.’ The department says about six burrowing owls have migrated to the island to eat the mice and when the mouse population dies down in the winter, the owls feed on the petrel chicks. So to discourage the owls, officials are proposing dropping 3,000 pounds of poison pellets on the islands to eradicate the mice. ‘Because that’s the only method that’s been proven in the field to do 100 percent eradication,’ Cordell said. ‘You have to get rid of every single mouse, because if you don’t the population comes back.’ But if the plan seems like a strange way to protect nature, the folks at Wildcare wildlife hospital in San Rafael would agree. Communications Director Alison Hermance says their research on poisoned animals helped get the proposed product, Brodifacoum, banned for public sale in California.” [KPIX-TV, 6/27/19 (=)]

 

G20 Leaders Urged To Denounce Japan's 'Cruel Assault' On Whales. According to Reuters, “Environmentalists from around the world urged global leaders at the G20 summit on Friday not to ‘turn a blind eye’ to what they called a ‘cruel assault on whales’ planned by host Japan when it restarts commercial whaling next week. Japan is withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) on Sunday and resuming commercial whaling a day later after roughly three decades, during which its widely reviled ‘scientific research’ whaling program was decried by opponents as commercial whaling in disguise. ‘This week, while one part of the Japanese government is proudly facilitating international cooperation by hosting the G20 meeting, another is quietly extricating itself from the obligation for global collaboration on the protection and management of the world’s whales,’ said Kitty Block, president of Humane Society International, in a statement. ‘Japan leaving the IWC and defying international law to pursue its commercial whaling ambitions is renegade, retrograde and myopic....’” [Reuters, 6/27/19 (=)]

 

 

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