Endangered Species Act

 

EPA: Farm Chemical Threatens Most Endangered Species. According to E&E News, “The insecticide carbaryl is likely to adversely affect the great majority of federally protected species potentially exposed to it, EPA said as it begins a formal consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service to reduce the chemical’s threats. In a final biological evaluation, the environmental agency said carbaryl would likely adversely affect 1,640 out of 1,805 species evaluated, with just 162 unlikely to be harmed. The biological evaluation for carbaryl, and an accompanying one for methomyl, are the first for those chemicals under a revised method EPA adopted last March. The final evaluation allows the agency to begin discussions with FWS about ways to mitigate the risks under the Endangered Species Act, while allowing for the pesticides’ continued use. Methomyl poses adverse effects to 1,098 species, or about 61% of protected plants and animals, the agency found. Growers use it on many crops, including in greenhouses. The results of the evaluation were no surprise to environmental groups that oppose their use. The Center for Biological Diversity welcomed the review and said EPA had faced ‘enormous pressure’ from the pesticide industry to disregard the harms. ‘Now it’s incumbent upon the expert wildlife agencies to do their job expeditiously, and lay out a path forward to take the reasonable measures necessary to protect these amazing creatures from the extinction-level threats caused by these pesticides,’ said CBD’s environmental health program director, Lori Ann Burd, in a news release.” [E&E News, 3/31/21 (=)]

 

Endangered & Protected Species

 

Agency Says Grizzly Bears Still Threatened. According to E&E News, “The Fish and Wildlife Service has concluded that the grizzly bear in the Lower 48 states still merits protection as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. As a result of the most recent five-year status review, the federal agency noted the iconic species remains vulnerable despite some encouraging improvements. ‘Progress toward recovering the species has been made through close partnerships with local, state, federal and Tribal agencies since the original listing in 1975,’ FWS said in a statement, calling this work ‘a significant factor in the species not being listed as endangered.’ The agency added, though, that ‘considerable challenges remain’ to fully recover the grizzly bear in the Lower 48 states. ‘These remaining challenges include limited habitat connectivity, management of access by motorized vehicles, human-caused mortality and uncertainty surrounding future conservation efforts in some ecosystems,’ the agency said. The grizzly bear is listed under the ESA as a single entity in the Lower 48 states, and the status review covers the listed species as a whole, although grizzly bear populations in the Northern Continental Divide and Greater Yellowstone ecosystems are deemed by FWS to be biologically recovered.” [E&E News, 3/31/21 (=)]

 

Scientists: Grizzlies Expand Turf But Still Need Protection. According to Associated Press, “Grizzly bears are slowly expanding the turf where they roam in parts of the northern Rocky Mountains but need continued protections, according to government scientists who concluded that no other areas of the country would be suitable for reintroducing the fearsome predators. The Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday released its first assessment in almost a decade about the status of grizzly bears in the contiguous U.S. The bruins are shielded from hunting as a threatened species except in Alaska. Grizzly populations grew over the past ten years in two areas -- the Yellowstone region of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, with more than 700 bears; and around Glacier National Park in Montana, which is home to more than 1,000 of the animals. Grizzly numbers remain low in other parts of the Northern Rockies, and scientists said their focus is on bolstering those populations rather than reintroducing them elsewhere in the country. The bears now occupy about 6% of their historical range, up from 2% of that range in 1975. Conservationists and some university scientists have pushed to return bears to areas including Colorado’s San Juan Mountains and California’s Sierra Nevada. The 368-page assessment makes no recommendation on the topic, but scientists looked at the possibility of bears in more areas as part of an examination of their remaining habitat.” [Associated Press, 3/31/21 (=)]

 

States Push Back At Trump's Shrunken Owl Habitat. According to E&E News, “Washington state officials said yesterday they found it ‘troubling’ when the Trump administration dramatically shrank critical habitat for the northern spotted owl. They aren’t the only ones to raise concerns. Now, amid renewed litigation and a public review that turns a page at midnight tonight, the Biden administration is preparing to try its hand at resolving a decadeslong puzzle. ‘We found no explanation to justify the eventual increase of critical habitat exclusion areas by an additional three million acres,’ Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Kelly Susewind wrote about the Trump-era move. ‘From a public process perspective, this is a troubling revision.’ The Washington state agency’s critique was one of more than 1,000 to arrive in advance of the midnight deadline for public comments on the Biden administration’s proposal for a critical habitat do-over (Greenwire, Feb. 22). In the Trump administration’s last week in office in mid-January, the Fish and Wildlife Service published a rule that excluded 3,472,064 acres, mostly in Oregon, from the bird’s critical habitat designated under the Endangered Species Act. The final amount far exceeded the 204,653 acres proposed in August. The exclusion reduced the northern spotted owl’s critical habitat from about 9.6 million acres to about 6.1 million acres.” [E&E News, 3/31/21 (=)]

 

Wildlife

 

Judge: US Agency Illegally Paid For Colorado Predator Hunt. According to Associated Press, “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service illegally helped pay for a Colorado program to kill dozens of mountain lions and black bears in an experiment to determine if the predators were partly responsible for declining mule deer populations, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Marcia Krieger in Denver found that Fish and Wildlife failed to do a required analysis of the program’s environmental effects, possibly so it could fast-track federal funding for most of the $4 million program. Tuesday’s decision stops that funding for state-authorized kills of mountain lions and black bears in southern Colorado’s Upper Arkansas River Valley. A second Colorado Parks and Wildlife program in northwestern Colorado’s Piceance Basin has been completed. Concerned about declining populations of mule deer, which help sustain Colorado’s nearly $1 billion hunting industry, Colorado Parks and Wildlife decided in 2016 to conduct an experiment to see if limited killing of mountain lions and black bears would have an impact on deer numbers. The plan would test whether removing some lions and bears, which also prey on deer, would produce higher deer survival rates. As many as 15 lions and 25 black bears would be killed each year for three years in one area near Rifle, in northwestern Colorado. About 60 lions could be killed over three years in southern Colorado in a study lasting nine years.” [Associated Press, 3/31/21 (=)]

 

Wildlife Corridors

 

Legislature Strips Game And Fish Of Elk Feedground Closure Power. According to WyoFile, “The Wyoming Legislature on Monday passed a bill that strips the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission of the authority to close any of Wyoming’s 22 winter elk feedgrounds and gives that power to the governor. The bill passed the Senate 28-1-1 after breezing through the House and a Senate committee. It now heads to the governor’s desk for final approval. Sponsored by Rep. Albert Sommers (R-Pinedale) the bill comes amid elevated worries about fatal incurable Chronic Wasting Disease infecting feedground elk and spreading more rapidly because of the artificial crowding on feedgrounds. Those worries, and the discovery of CWD in a feedground herd in 2020, have accelerated conservationists’ calls for closing feedgrounds. … Subjecting the Game and Fish director to the governor’s will ‘took the voice away from the Game and Fish,’ said Dwayne Meadows, executive director of the Wildlife Federation. Often when Wyoming politicians learn of a potential wildlife protective measure like designating a migration corridor or guarding an animal under the Endangered Species Act ‘they see it as a threat, especially to the oil and gas industry,’ he said. That became apparent when Game and Fish biologists were tracking, observing and mapping wildlife migrations. The agency designated several migration corridors before industry protested and Gov. Gordon stepped in to take over the process. Once mapped and designated, the corridors are used by regulating agencies when deciding whether to restrict development or activity in sensitive wildlife areas. Designating a migration route, ‘it’s an observation,’ Acri said. ‘You can’t argue with an observation.’ Madson said migration corridor designation is ‘their best technical analysis [that] this is an important route.’” [WyoFile, 3/30/21 (=)]

 

Op-Ed: Montana's Next Wilderness Area Could Be In Helena's Backyard. According to an op-ed by members of Montana Wilderness Association’s Wild Divide Chapter in Helena Independent Record, “Along the Continental Divide, roughly 25 miles or so from Helena as the crow flies, rises Nevada Mountain. This could be the site of the first new wilderness area Montana has had in almost 40 years, a move that would greatly benefit wildlife and boost the quality of life we enjoy in Helena and its surroundings. The proposal to make Nevada Mountain a designated wilderness area – something conservationists from around the state have advocated for well over 60 years – comes from the Lincoln Prosperity Group. The group dates back to 2015, when a coalition of conservationists, outfitters, ranchers, firefighters, business leaders, hunters and mountain bikers from the Lincoln and Helena area started working collaboratively towards a proposal for managing public lands near Lincoln and southward along the Continental Divide. The product of that collective work is the Lincoln Prosperity Proposal, designed to boost local economies, create jobs, enhance outdoor recreation, and protect wild areas, Nevada Mountain especially. Nearly visible from Fire Tower hill, the proposed 40,000-acre Nevada Mountain Wilderness Area would be the second designated wilderness in Helena’s backyard (in addition to the 29,000-acre Gates of the Mountains Wilderness). This designation would permanently protect this roadless area from any kind of development and ensure that it continues to serve as a home and migration corridor for the wildlife that depend on the area – and there is a wealth of species that do depend on it.” [Helena Independent Record, 3/31/21 (+)]

 

Invasive Species

 

Study: Exotics Have Inflicted $1.28T In Damage Since 1970. According to E&E News, “Invasive species have racked up $1.29 trillion in global economic damages between 1970 and 2017, a new study finds. The research, published today in Nature, is the first complete tally of economic costs from biological invasions of all species. Animals, plants and pathogens introduced in regions they haven’t previously occupied are hitting agriculture, tourism, public health and other sectors. The work shows how invasive species damage crop yields, critical national infrastructure and divert billions of taxpayer dollars annually. Lead author Christophe Diagne, a professor at University Paris-Saclay, said in a press release that he and his colleagues created the catalog of economic costs to help ‘clarify the importance of effective management policies going forward.’ The annual bill has tripled each decade. ‘We found that costs roughly doubled every six years, a pattern that mimics the continuous increase in the number of alien species worldwide,’ said Corey Bradshaw, a professor at Flinders University, in a press release.” [E&E News, 3/31/21 (=)]

 

 

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