Endangered Species Act

 

Happening Today. According to Politico, “Wheeler makes his third trip to North Carolina to make agriculture announcement in Goldsboro. Meanwhile, Bernhardt is expected to visit the Minnesota River Valley National Wildlife Refuge to announce a new rule to remove Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states, the Duluth News Tribune reports. The plan to delist the wolves would hand management back to states and tribal governments.” [Politico, 10/29/20 (=)]

 

Endangered & Protected Species

 

Lawsuit: Pipeline Could Push 2 Fish Species To Extinction. According to Associated Press, “Environmental groups have filed a legal challenge against the Mountain Valley Pipeline that says the project could push two endangered species of fish to extinction. The Roanoke Times reports that the legal challenge was filed Tuesday in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. It involves the Roanoke logperch and the candy darter species of fish. The route of the 300-mile long pipeline would go from northern West Virginia to southwestern Virginia and connect with an existing pipeline in North Carolina. The coalition of environmental groups also asked the federal appeals court to review a recent biological opinion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency had found that construction of the pipeline is not likely to jeopardize protected fish, bats and mussels. The Sierra Club and other groups contend that the Fish and Wildlife opinion failed to adequately consider how fish would be affected by increased sedimentation caused by the steel pipe crossing streams. A Mountain Valley spokeswoman said the ‘comprehensive’ biological opinion exceeds regulatory requirements and addresses earlier issues raised by the court.” [Associated Press, 10/28/20 (=)]

 

New Study: Hood Canal Bridge Is Blocking Half Of All Migrating Steelhead Trout. According to Port Townsend Leader, “A recently completed study at the Hood Canal Bridge has found that about half of juvenile steelhead trout aren’t able to pass under the bridge as the young fish migrate out to sea. The findings are the result of a collaboration between multiple private, state and tribal organizations, and orchestrated by Long Live the Kings, a nonprofit that focuses on the restoration of wild salmon and sustainable fishing in the Pacific Northwest. A report from the group summarizing the results of the six-year-long study detailed the threat by the bridge to local fish populations, in particular, steelhead trout. Some segments of the steelhead population are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. ‘We see a huge opportunity to save our state fish, steelhead are not only beautiful but they are culturally prized by Washingtonians and tribes,’ said Lucas Hall, senior project manager for Long Live the Kings. ‘It’s important that we shine a spotlight on this issue and get it the attention it needs.’” [Port Townsend Leader, 10/28/20 (=)]

 

AP | Young Gray Wolf From California Spotted In Oregon. According to The Alton Telegraph, “A young member of California’s only known gray wolf pack has left the state and ventured into Oregon, wildlife officials said. The male wolf, dubbed LAS13M, traveled to Lake County, Oregon, in early October and has remained there, according to a July-through-September report from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. The wolf was a member of the Lassen Pack first spotted in 2017. The wolves are only the second pack spotted in far Northern California since the species went extinct there in 1924. A pack of seven wolves was seen in Shasta County in 2015 but vanished within a year.” [The Alton Telegraph, 10/28/20 (=)]

 

Wildlife

 

Trump Admin Slashes Roadless-Rule Restrictions. According to E&E News, “The Department of Agriculture tomorrow will formally lift roadless-area restrictions on timber harvest and road construction in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. In a notice to be published in the Federal Register, the department outlined its plan to exempt the entire 16.7-million-acre Tongass from the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, agreeing to a request from the state of Alaska. … ‘The U.S. Forest Service has taken an ax to one of the most popular and effective measures we have to conserve our national forest lands,’ said Nicole Whittington-Evans, Alaska program director for Defenders of Wildlife. ‘Stripping roadless protections will destroy habitat for species like northern goshawks, brown and black bears, and the Alexander Archipelago wolf. With nearly 1 million visitors a year, clearcutting the forest will jeopardize wildlife and the real economic drivers of Southeast Alaska — fishing and tourism,’ she said. The Alaska Wilderness League said the decision would imperil the nation’s largest and most biologically diverse forest. ‘Taking an axe to old-growth protections for the Tongass is among the most reckless and irresponsible of the Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks,’ said Adam Kolton, the Alaska Wilderness League’s executive director, in a statement. ‘It’s bad news for hunters and anglers, for the tourism and fishing industries in Alaska, and for anyone who cares about protecting our planet’s biodiversity and climate.’” [E&E News, 10/28/20 (=)]

 

Nonprofit To Sue Trump Administration Over Historic Hunting, Fishing Expansion Across 2.3M Acres. According to Fox News, “Things are getting a little ornery in the great outdoors. A nonprofit is targeting the Trump administration in a new lawsuit protesting the historic expansion of hunting and fishing across 2.3 million public acres. On Tuesday, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed a notice of intent to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for expanding recreational hunting and fishing access across 147 wildlife refuges and fish hatcheries, a move announced in August. The CBD charges that that the agency violated the Endangered Species Act in failing to analyze the harmful impacts of the expansion on endangered wildlife like grizzly bears, ocelots and whooping cranes. The conservation group also blasted the newly permitted use of lead ammunition, which had been banned at the end of the Obama administration but was restored by former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. ‘For example, endangered whooping cranes rely on numerous refuges in the Midwest, like the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin, where the Fish and Wildlife Service has authorized use of lead ammunition but failed to consider the risk of lead toxicity on the birds,’ the CBD explained in a statement. ‘Endangered species like grizzly bears and ocelots can also be poisoned by scavenging on lead-contaminated carcasses. ‘And grizzly bears are now at risk from being killed in mistaken-identity or self-defense shootings by hunters, such as those targeting black bears in grizzly bear territory in Swan River National Wildlife Refuge in Montana,’ they alleged.” [Fox News, 10/28/20 (-)]

 

Trump To Strip Protections From Tongass National Forest, One Of The Biggest Intact Temperate Rainforests. According to The Washington Post, “President Trump will open up more than half of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to logging and other forms of development, according to a notice posted Wednesday, stripping protections that had safeguarded one of the world’s largest intact temperate rainforests for nearly two decades. As of Thursday, it will be legal for logging companies to build roads and cut and remove timber throughout more than 9.3 million acres of forest — featuring old-growth stands of red and yellow cedar, Sitka spruce and Western hemlock. The relatively pristine expanse is also home to plentiful salmon runs and imposing fjords. The decision, which will be published in the Federal Register, reverses protections President Bill Clinton put in place in 2001 and is one of the most sweeping public lands rollbacks Trump has enacted. … For years, federal and academic scientists have identified Tongass as an ecological oasis that serves as a massive carbon sink while providing key habitat for wild Pacific salmon and trout, Sitka black-tailed deer and myriad other species. It boasts the highest density of brown bears in North America, and its trees — some of which are between 300 and 1,000 years old — absorb at least 8 percent of all the carbon stored in the entire Lower 48′s forests combined. ‘While tropical rainforests are the lungs of the planet, the Tongass is the lungs of North America,’ Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist with the Earth Island Institute’s Wild Heritage project, said in an interview. ‘It’s America’s last climate sanctuary.’” [The Washington Post, 10/28/20 (=)]

 

Lawsuit Planned Over Hunting, Fishing At US Wildlife Refuges. According to Associated Press, “The Trump administration is violating the Endangered Species Act by expanding hunting and fishing by 3,600 square miles (9,300 square kilometers) on the national wildlife refuge system and national fish hatchery system, an environmental group says. The Center for Biological Diversity on Tuesday filed a notice of its intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the nation’s 550 national wildlife refuges. The formal notice is a precursor to a lawsuit, giving the agency 60 days to respond. Interior Secretary David L. Bernhardt announced the expansion in August, saying it increases public hunting to 430 refuges and those open to fishing to 360. ‘We’re going to court to ensure that our nation’s wildlife refuges can actually provide refuges for wildlife,’ said Collette Adkins, the center’s carnivore conservation director. ‘We’ve never before seen such a massive expansion of bad hunting practices on these public lands.’ The U.S. Department of Justice defends government entities in lawsuits. Danielle Nichols, a spokeswoman, said the agency had no comment.” [Associated Press, 10/28/20 (=)]

 

Bank Loans Scrutinized For Harm To Wildlife As Well As Climate. According to Reuters, “Campaigners called on Wednesday for global banks to stop financing industrial activities driving animal and plant species toward extinction, after a report ranked 50 lenders involved in sectors that pose the greatest threat to wildlife. While European and U.S. banks have faced years of pressure from regulators or environmental groups to act on climate change, their role in financing economic activities that destroy biodiversity is also coming under growing scrutiny. Portfolio.earth, a network of researchers that published the ‘Bankrolling Extinction’ report here, said none of the lenders had adequate systems to limit the impact of their loans on the web of animal and plant life that supports human well-being. ‘Banks are starting to realize that if they invest in sectors that cause climate change, that will hurt their returns,’ Liz Gallagher, director of portfolio.earth, told Reuters. ‘Banks need to understand that the same holds true for destroying biodiversity.’ The report found that in 2019, the 50 banks provided loans and underwriting of more than $2.6 trillion to sectors such as industrial farming and fishing, fossil fuels and infrastructure that scientists say are big drivers of biodiversity loss.” [Reuters, 10/27/20 (=)]

 

Interior OKs Expanded Oil Activity In Alaska Petroleum Reserve. According to The Hill, “The Trump administration has finalized its plans to expand drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A), upsetting environmentalists by creeping toward protected territory within the reserve. The approval of the Willow Project allows ConocoPhillips to produce up to 590 million total barrels of oil over the next 30 years. ‘President Trump made his administration focus on American energy independence and the freedom it provides from day one of his term,’ Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said in a release announcing the decision. ‘This decision will make a significant contribution to keeping oil flowing down the 800-mile Trans Alaska Pipeline decades into the future while delivering federal and state revenue as well as important impact assistance to the affected native communities.’ Environmentalists say the oil activity will disrupt polar bear and caribou, particularly as oil activity expands next door at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). On Friday, Interior released a plan that would greenlight seismic testing there as soon as December. ‘The attacks on the Arctic just continue to escalate. The finalization of oil and gas plans for the Willow project and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are a one-two punch to wildlife including imperiled Southern Beaufort Sea polar bears and their critical habitat,’ Nicole Whittington-Evans, Alaska program director at Defenders of Wildlife, said in a release.” [The Hill, 10/27/20 (=)]

 

Groups Sue Over Leopard Trophy Imports. According to E&E News, “Federal officials violated the law when they issued decisions approving leopard trophy imports from four African countries into the United States, conservation groups argued in a new lawsuit. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, aims to protect leopards in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia. Attorneys for the Center for Biological Diversity, Humane Society and a South Africa-based safari operator argue the Fish and Wildlife Service should not have authorized imports in the absence of information on leopard populations and their rate of decline. ‘Federal officials are dishing out leopard import permits right and left despite lacking the data to know how trophy hunting harms this highly imperiled species,’ Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. ‘Regulations clearly require our government not to OK imports without adequate info about these splendid cats and all the ways humans are harming them.’ The center and the other challengers also notified FWS they intend to sue the agency for failing to reach a 12-month finding on a 2016 request to categorize all leopards as ‘endangered’ under the Endangered Species Act.” [E&E News, 10/28/20 (=)]

 

 

Please do not respond to this email.

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