Issues
Rusty patched bumble bee listed as an endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) declared this week that it had listed the rusty patched bumble bee (RPBB) as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), marking the first time a bumble bee has been protected under the ESA within the 48 contiguous states. In its statement, Fish and Wildlife claims the species once found in 28 states from Connecticut to South Dakota is now on the brink of extinction due to a combination of habitat loss, disease, pesticides, and climate change impacts.
IPAA has highlighted the lack of scientific and commercial data to support a listing of the RPBB throughout the decision process. In comments submitted last year, IPAA wrote that Fish and Wildlife had failed to effectively assess the RPBB’s population by relying on “inappropriate and unreliable data” and basing its evaluation on speculations instead of facts. IPAA also suggested the Service should issue a special rule to help conserve the RPBB without placing unnecessary restrictions on commercial activists that have no significant impact on the bee. Instead, IPAA urged the Service to work with state, local, and industry partners to conserve the RPBB without limiting economic development. The final rule listing the bee was placed in the Federal Register on Jan. 10 and will be effective as of Feb. 10, 2017 unless changed by the incoming administration.
Judge dismisses Idaho sage-grouse lawsuit. A U.S. District Court judge ruled this week that Idaho Governor Butch Otter’s lawsuit against the federal government failed to prove Idaho had been injured by the Interior Department’s sage-grouse plan. Gov. Otter had accused the Obama administration of illegally imposing land-use restrictions in an effort to protect the sage-grouse while avoiding listing the species under the Endangered Species Act.
In a statement, Gov. Otter expressed his concerns saying, “The State of Idaho was a partner in the development of a collaborative, state-based plan to conserve sage-grouse on federal lands. At the last minute, federal bureaucrats in D.C. pulled the rug out from under us and decided to implement their unilateral top-down plan that ignored local input and science.”
The land-use plans were designed to conserve large swaths of sage-grouse habitat in Idaho and ten other states, and Gov. Otter and others have argued that the states are better suited to understand and conserve the habitat within their borders. While it is unclear whether Idaho will appeal the decision, Gov. Otter went on to say he’s looking forward to the new administration and the hope that wildlife management comes under state sovereignty.
In the News
Important Lesser long-nosed bat to be removed from endangered list, helps tequila producers. Fox5 NY. Good news for bats and tequila producers alike. Wildlife experts say an almost endangered species of bat important to the pollination of the agave plant used to make tequila is making a comeback. U.S. Fish and Wildlife service is proposing to remove the lesser long-nose bat from the endangered list. The bats are found both in Arizona and New Mexico. Federal officials say decades of conservation efforts by biologists and tequila producers have paid off. It was once thought less than a thousand were still in the region and now it’s estimated there are about two-hundred thousand. If approved, it would be the first ever bat removed from the U.S. endangered list.
Dan Ashe: For the sage grouse, much is at stake in the coming year. Salt Lake Tribune (Op-Ed). Few birds are tougher than the greater sage grouse. For millennia, this incredible species has thrived across the sagebrush sea of the West — one of our nation’s most unique and imperiled landscapes. Yet the sage grouse was on the road to extinction less than two years ago — threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, wildfires and human disturbance of nesting and breeding grounds in 11 Western states. The looming possibility of Endangered Species Act listing spurred a broad coalition of state and federal agencies, Native American tribes, sporting and conservation organizations, industry groups and private landowners to take action. Now more than ever, we need the new Congress to stand with us and support our shared, longterm commitment to sage grouse conservation in the years to come. Because far more than the bird’s future is at stake.
Feds write off polar bears without climate change action. Associated Press. Federal officials appeared to write off the polar bear without “decisive action to address Arctic warming.” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pinpointed that the quickly declining sea ice in the Arctic was “the primary threat to polar bears” and that action was needed to address Arctic warming driven by the human emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, The Washington Post reported. The service acknowledged, according to the Post, that “short of action that effectively addresses the primary cause of diminishing sea ice, it is unlikely that polar bears will be recovered.” The agency released its polar bear recovery plan Monday, addressing threats such as oil spills and excessive hunting.
Study: Some bats showing resistance to deadly fungus. Associated Press. The little brown bat, a species that has been decimated by a deadly fungus, could be taking the first tentative steps to recovery, scientists say in a recent study published by Great Britain’s Royal Society. Researchers for the first time are finding the bats showing some resistance to white-nose syndrome — the fungus that has killed millions of them across North America. First discovered in 2006 in New York, white-nose syndrome has spread through the Northeast and has been confirmed in 29 states and five Canadian provinces. The fungus has caused the decline of little brown bats, an animal weighing less than half an ounce, and other bat species important to controlling insects that can damage wheat and other crops.
Lawmakers float bill to end gray wolf protections. E&E News (sub req’d). A bipartisan House bill introduced yesterday is the first attempt in the 115th Congress to remove federal protections from gray wolves. The legislation (H.R. 424) from Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), the ranking member on the Agriculture Committee, would direct the Interior secretary “to reissue final rules relating to the listing of the gray wolf in the Western Great Lakes and Wyoming.” Interior attempted to remove wolves in both areas from the endangered species list in 2011 and 2012. But those moves were challenged by wildlife advocates and eventually overturned by federal courts. Peterson’s bill, dubbed the “Gray Wolf State Management Act,” would force Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service to reissue those rules within 60 days of the legislation’s enactment and prevent them from being “subject to judicial review.” Note: Wisconsin Public Radio, KDAL, Wisconsin Gazette and KDAL also report.
