Endangered Species

 

AP | Grizzly Bear Protections In Colorado, 6 Other States To Be Reviewed. According to KCNC-TV, “Federal officials will review whether enough is being done to protect grizzly bears in the contiguous U.S. states after environmentalists sued the government to try to restore the fearsome animals to more areas, according to a court settlement approved Monday. The review must be completed by March 31, 2021, U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen ordered. Grizzly bears have been protected as a threatened species in the U.S. — except in Alaska — since 1975, allowing a slow recovery in a handful of areas. An estimated 1,900 of the animals live in portions of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington state. Tens of thousands of grizzlies once populated western North America before hunting, trapping and habitat loss wiped out most by the early 1900s. Federal wildlife officials said in 2011 that additional areas should be considered for grizzly bear recovery, but that work has never been completed. In a lawsuit filed in June, the Center for Biological Diversity sought to force officials to consider restoring grizzlies to parts of California, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Oregon. ‘There are a lot of places where grizzly bears used to live where we believe they could currently live,’ said Andrea Santarsiere, an attorney for the group.” [KCNC-TV, 12/9/19 (=)]

 

Judge: FWS Must Review Grizzly Bear Status. According to E&E News, “A federal judge today instructed the Fish and Wildlife Service to review protections for grizzly bears by next spring. Chief Judge Dana Christensen for the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana found that the agency fell short of its responsibility to conduct a five-year review of bear populations in the contiguous United States and ordered FWS to complete that status update by March 31, 2021. The Center for Biological Diversity, which sued the Trump administration earlier this year for failing to update the 1993 recovery plan to reflect the latest science, said the judge’s order could force FWS to craft a broader strategy (E&E News PM, June 27). ‘Grizzlies in the lower 48 still face an uphill battle to recovery,’ Andrea Santarsiere, a senior attorney for the group, said in a statement. ‘I really hope this review will convince the Fish and Wildlife Service to revisit the idea of reintroducing grizzly bears in more areas of their historic range, as the agency proposed in its last status review.’ FWS published its last status review of the grizzly bear eight years ago, in 2011, the Center for Biological Diversity said. ‘We look forward to receiving an updated recovery plan that can serve as a step toward fully recovering grizzly bears in the wild,’ Santarsiere said. FWS and the Interior Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Christensen was appointed by former President Obama to the Montana district court.” [E&E News, 12/9/19 (=)]

 

AP | Nene Bird No Longer An Endangered Species. According to Honolulu Star Advertiser, “U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announced Sunday in a ceremony at Honouliuli that the nene, Hawaii’s state bird, has been ‘downlisted’ from an endangered species to a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. There are currently about 2,800 nene birds, up from a low of 30 birds in the wild in 1960, said Dr. Rachel S. Sprague, president of the Conservation Council for Hawai’i, in an article published by the National Parks Traveler, a nonprofit media organization. Bernhardt said, ‘This is a story about what the Endangered Species Act is supposed to be about, and the great thing here is we are moving this bird, really in my opinion, from the emergency ward or the intensive care unit where it is still in the hospital. We still need to be protective of it and thoughtful of it, but we are doing it in a way that now, as we downlist it to a threatened species, we insure that there is some flexibilities built in for the neighbors. The act provides us significant flexibility to insure we utilize common-sense approaches.’ … U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said in a statement, ‘The recovery of the nene shows how the Endangered Species Act is supposed to work. With a science-based recovery plan and a strong partnership between the state and federal governments, the species has gradually rebounded. We have a long way to go before the nene is completely recovered, and it will require continued protections, but this is an important milestone. I thank the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, and the many environmental organizations and volunteers who have worked to save our iconic state bird.’” [Honolulu Star Advertiser, 12/9/19 (=)]

 

Nēnē Downlisted From Endangered To Threatened. According to Maui Now, “Hawaiʻi’s state bird, the nēnē goose, was officially downlisted from endangered to threatened during a ceremony at Pearl Harbor National Wildlife Refuge over the weekend. In the mid-20th century, there were fewer than 30 nēnē in the wild on Hawaiʻi Island, and another 13 birds in captivity. The nēnē was listed as an endangered species in 1967 and in the decades following, nearly 3,000 captive-bred birds were released at more than 20 sites throughout the main Hawaiian Islands. Federal officials say the release of captive-bred nēnē on national wildlife refuges, national parks and state and private lands has saved the species from imminent extinction. As a result, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized a decision to downlist the nēnē under the Endangered Species Act. Today, there are more than 2,800 birds with stable or increasing populations on Kaua’i, Maui and Hawaiʻi Island and an additional population on Moloka’i.” [Maui Now, 12/9/19 (=)]

 

AP | Conservation Groups Make Major Land Buy Along Ga. Coast. According to E&E News, “Conservation groups have purchased a swath of land in Georgia that they describe as one of the largest unprotected open space parcels along the southeast Atlantic coast. The Conservation Fund and Open Space Institute announced Friday that they had bought the 16,000-acre site along the Satilla River east of Woodbine, Ga. They declined to say how much they paid for it. The groups plan to sell it within the next few years to the state of Georgia for use as a wildlife management area where people can hunt, fish and hike. ‘It’s providing a tremendous opportunity for the people of Georgia to enjoy our great outdoors,’ said Andrew Schock, Georgia state director at the Conservation Fund. The land near Cumberland Island — dubbed the ‘Ceylon property’ — has several types of habitat, including salt marsh and longleaf pine forest. Longleaf pine used to cover tens of millions of acres in the southeastern U.S., but now only a few million acres remain and most of that is fragmented and in poor condition, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The new property is also home to an estimated 2,000 gopher tortoises, whose burrows provide shelter for many other species. Conservation groups and Georgia officials are aiming to protect 65 of the roughly 122 viable gopher tortoise populations in the state to try to prevent the turtle from a listing under the Endangered Species Act.” [E&E News, 12/9/19 (=)]

 

Wildlife

 

Plea Deal Yields Prison Time And Fine For Polar Bear Killing. According to E&E News, “An Alaska man has agreed to serve up to four months in prison and pay a $4,500 fine for the wasteful killing of a polar bear, under a plea deal with federal prosecutors. Whaling captain Christopher Gordon has also agreed to serve a one-year term of supervised release, during which time the only marine mammals he will hunt or kill will be bowhead whales, as part of pleading guilty to one count of violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Gordon admitted he killed the polar bear outside his home in the village of Kaktovik without harvesting any of its abundant meat. ‘The defendant did not shoot the Polar Bear in self-defense or to save the life of another person in immediate danger,’ the plea deal made public last Friday stated, adding that Gordon ‘had the knowledge and ability to harvest and use the meat and other parts for subsistence and other purposes.’ The Marine Mammal Protection Act covers polar bears but allows coastal-dwelling Alaska Natives to take marine mammals for subsistence or for the purposes of creating Native handicrafts and clothing, as long as the taking is not done in a wasteful manner (Greenwire, Nov. 19). ‘Wasteful manner’ means a taking that results in the waste of ‘any substantial portion’ of the mammal or which is likely to result in killing or injuring mammals ‘beyond those needed for subsistence and the other permitted purposes,’ prosecutors explained. Kaktovik is located on Barter Island in remote northeastern Alaska. The village has about 300 residents, more than 88% of whom are Iñupiat.” [E&E News, 12/9/19 (=)]

 

Work On Private Barrier Continues Despite Court Order. According to E&E News, “Despite a court-mandated work stoppage, privately funded construction continues on a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border that could harm a bird and butterfly sanctuary in Texas, according to a newspaper report. A South Texas judge last week issued a temporary restraining order to anti-immigrant group We Build the Wall, which has raised millions of dollars for a 3.5-mile-long concrete fence on private property in Hidalgo County. Former White House adviser Steve Bannon is chairman of the conservative group’s advisory board. Reporters from the London Guardian witnessed crews continuing work Thursday and Friday, using heavy machinery to put up metal posts and move soil. The proposed wall, to be built in the Rio Grande floodplain, could potentially send floodwater and debris to the adjacent National Butterfly Center, a 100-acre nature reserve, disturbing the ecosystem (Greenwire, Dec. 5). A day after the state order was issued, We Build the Wall founder Brian Kolfage said construction would go on because the order hadn’t been physically served to him or his group. The not-for-profit organization has raised $25 million for border wall construction through crowdfunding.” [E&E News, 12/9/19 (=)]

 

 

Please do not respond to this email.

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