NATIONAL

Counties, associations challenge DOI’s Greater Sage Grouse tactics. Oil & Gas Journal. A coalition of national and regional oil, gas, coal, and mining associations and county governments in four Rocky Mountain states charged three US Department of the Interior agencies with using bad science and poor information to make public lands and Endangered Species Act listing decisions for the Greater Sage Grouse. The US Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and US Geological Survey are using selective and questionable data to justify top-down restrictive measures that will damage communities within the bird’s 11-state habitat while discouraging more effective state and local conservation efforts, the group said in three Mar. 18 challenges filed under the Data Quality Act.

Successful conservation efforts along Florida, Pacific coasts recognized in revised ESA listing of Green Sea Turtle. NOAA, Press Release. NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed today to reclassify the green sea turtle under the Endangered Species Act, and list turtles originating from two breeding populations currently considered endangered as threatened due to improvements in their populations. After a review of the global status of green sea turtles, the agencies are proposing to reclassify the species into 11 Distinct Population Segments (DPS) under the ESA, which maintains federal protections while providing a more tailored approach for managers to address specific threats facing different populations. NOTE: KHON2, Maui News, Associated Press, E&E News (sub req’d) and Chronicle Bulletin also report.

With fungal disease, state mulls ‘endangered’ tag for bats. Associated Press. A deadly fungal disease is prompting the state to recommend classifying five of Connecticut’s eight native bat species as endangered, including three that weren’t even at risk just five years ago. The agency cites survey data showing the numbers of eastern small-footed bat, little brown bat, northern long-eared bat, and tricolored bat are low enough now to be considered endangered in Connecticut, officials say.

Cornyn Offers ESA Reform Bill. Heartland Institute, Blog. Sen. John Cornyn has introduced a bill to reform the listing procedure for the Endangered Species Act and change the way settlements are reached when environmentalists sue the U.S. Fish & Wildlife service to force a listing. The Texas Republican intends his “Endangered Species Act Settlement Reform Act” to limit the impact on individuals’ lives from legal settlements between special-interest groups and the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

ALASKA

Wood bison set for return to Alaska wilderness after a century away. Alaska Dispatch News. Alaska wildlife officials are preparing to release North America’s largest land mammal into its native U.S. habitat for the first time in more than a century. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2013 declared that wood bison reintroduced in Alaska would be considered an experimental population not essential to the continued existence of the species. Wood bison will be managed by state wildlife officials and exempt from certain restrictions in the Endangered Species Act.

IDAHO

Idaho may serve as a ‘Noah’s ark’ for trout. Idaho Statesman. Bull trout are listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act. Idaho’s Department of Fish and Game argues that efforts over the past 20 years to connect and improve bull trout habitat have made enough improvement to justify removing them from the list.

KANSAS

Odd-duck screeds. Wichita Eagle, LTE. It must strike some citizens as odd that the Endangered Species Act, a conservation law signed in 1973 by President Nixon and seen as valuable by President Reagan, would today be under siege by our new conservatives. Sedgwick County Commission Chairman Richard Ranzau and a host of far-right organizations see progress being halted and business stunted by having to accommodate animals that have been decimated to near nonexistence. Gov. Sam Brownback is appalled at having to accommodate the job-killing prairie chicken.

NEBRASKA

Water Release to Benefit Whooping Cranes Along the Platte. NTV. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is planning to release stored water into the Platte River to aid the whooping cranes that use the river as a stopover site during their migration north. The extra water seeks to provide adequate roosting and feeding habitat for the whooping cranes, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act. NOTE: Lexington Clipper Herald also reports.

NEW YORK

Tiny bat could derail millions of dollars worth of projects in region. Times Herald-Record. A furry brown bat, less than 4 inches tall and weighing about as much as a nickel, could cost our region millions of dollars in economic development and hundreds of jobs, say the mid-Hudson’s business leaders, government officials and environmental consultants. That’s what they fear will happen if the federal government on April 2 lists the northern long-eared bat as an endangered species and prohibits tree-cutting in areas where it lives – Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties and most of the rest of the state.

Prep work moving fast for Sullivan County casino. Associated Press. Prep work is moving fast for Sullivan County’s long-awaited casino. The breakneck speed has been fueled, in part, by fear of a possible ban on cutting trees that could host the northern long-eared bat, which may soon be listed as endangered or threatened. The cutting ban could stretch from April through September or October.