Issues
IPAA Submits Comments to Fish and Wildlife Service. Yesterday the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), alongside various other representatives of the oil and natural gas industry, submitted comments regarding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s and the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) proposed changes to the designation of critical habit under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The first proposed change would provide the Services vast new authority to designate areas as critical habitat that are not currently, and have never been, occupied by a listed species. FWS is seeking this authority to deal with the changes in habitat that it anticipates will result from climate change. Read IPAA’s comments on this proposed change HERE.
The second proposal would change the definition of “destruction or adverse modification.” The proposed change seek to clarify how “adverse modification” is to be determined, yet fails to provide clear direction. As such, this change could result in a significant expansion of the habitat features that must be protected from “adverse modification.” Read IPAA’s comments on this proposed change HERE.
The third proposal aims to clarify how FWS will exercise its authority under section 4(b)(2) of the ESA to exclude certain areas from designation that would otherwise qualify. While the ESA states that such an exclusion is appropriate when the benefits of excluding an area outweigh the benefits of including the area, the draft policy imposes a de facto moratorium on the exclusion of areas on federal lands. Read IPAA’s comments on this proposed change HERE.
Congress Sends Letter to FWS on Yellow-billed Cuckoo. This week, 17 members of Congress sent a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) regarding the proposed listing of the yellow-billed cuckoo. The letter, addressed to Service Director Dan Ashe, urges the FWS to extend the comment period for the proposed critical habitat designation for the bird, highlighting the negative impact this decision could have on the western United States. As currently proposed, the critical habitat designation would impact 546,335 acres across Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
From the letter:
“While we oppose this proposed listing proposal, we find it completely unacceptable that the FWS has proposed only 60 days of public comment with no public hearings, effectively shutting out meaningful public comment on a sweeping critical habitat designation proposal of the yellow-billed cuckoo. These habitat designations will cost $3.2 million per year for hundreds of new federal permitting requirements associated with landowners, states and local governments’ activities in designated habitat areas. It is hard to believe that this would not cost much more in direct and indirect costs, regulatory delays and other impediments to vital economic activities.”
The final listing rule for the yellow-billed cuckoo as threatened was announced on October 2 and will become effective November 3, 2014. Comments on the proposed critical habitat rule are currently being accepted through October 14, 2014.
Texas Lizard Has Some in Oil-Patch Worried. Last week, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upheld a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to not list the dunes sagebrush lizard under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a decision met with optimism and agreement from many involved stakeholders. A week later, however, the potential future listing of another Texas reptile has some worried.
In 2011, the FWS announced that the spot-tailed earless lizard “may warrant federal protection as a threatened or endangered species” following the review of a WildEarth Guardians petition seeking to list the lizard under the ESA. While the species has not received much attention in recent years, many believe a listing decision could have a large impact on the state’s thriving oil and natural gas sector. From the Houston Chronicle:
“The rare lizard’s likely habitat includes large swaths of the Eagle Ford Shale, the prolific oil and gas field south of San Antonio. As the Eagle Ford rapidly approaches the 1 million barrels-per-day mark for crude oil production, a 2010 petition by an environmental group to list the spot-tailed earless lizard as a federally protected species continues hanging in the balance.
“…‘It’s been something of a sleeping issue.’ said Austin attorney Alan Glen, who specializes in environmental law. ‘People have not been focused on it, but the economics are enormous. It would be as big a deal as the prairie chicken. The concern is that at some point the Fish and Wildlife Service could list it as threatened or endangered. It clearly would conflict with the Eagle Ford Shale.’”
Lesli Gray, a spokeswoman with the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the agency doesn’t have a timeline for the species and that it is not included on the agency’s work plan of species to be considered by 2018. Meanwhile, the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts has awarded a grant to the University of Texas at Austin to study the lizard and its range. For a map of the lizard’s estimated range and overlapping Eagle Ford Shale development see HERE.
Conservation Groups File Notices of Intent to Sue. Multiple conservation groups filed formal notices this week of their intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over various species listings. The Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice against the FWS for “failing to decide whether 16 increasingly rare amphibians and reptiles in California warrant consideration for Endangered Species Act protection.” These include the Western Spadefoot Toads, the Colorado Desert Fringe-toed Lizard, and the Kern Canyon Slender Salamanders. The Center first filed petitions to list the California species in July 2012.
The Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife also filed a formal notice to sue the FWS over the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl. According to the White Mountain Independent, the two groups plan to sue FWS “for not protecting the owl under the Endangered Species Act.” The owl’s range extends from central Arizona to parts of Mexico.
WildEarth Guardians also followed filed a lawsuit this week in the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque against the U.S. Forest Service. The group announced its intent to sue in July 2014 over the Service’s allowance of livestock grazing in streamside areas in the Santa Fe National Forest. The area is considered critical habitat for the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse.
In the News
A better way for species conservation. The Hill, Op-Ed. Throughout the 41-year history of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), most conservation efforts have focused on restrictive measures to save species that have already reached the threshold of extinction. Recently, states, landowners and individuals have taken steps to help species that aren’t yet facing extinction, but soon could be. The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has announced a policy to recognize these proactive efforts.
Shale industry appreciates the congressional look at this endangered species issue. Patriot News, LTE. In the debate over whether to list the northern long-eared bat as an endangered species, those constituents include, among others, members of the scientific community; farmers; and those who work to improve the environment through safe shale development, as our members do.
Government moves to protect pot-threatened weasel. Associated Press. Citing a threat from rat poison used on illegal marijuana plantations, federal biologists on Monday proposed Endangered Species Act protection for West Coast populations of the fisher, a larger cousin of the weasel. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published notice in the Federal Register that it wants to list the fisher as a threatened species in Oregon, California and Washington.
Cutthroat trout not endangered species. Taos News. New Mexico’s state fish, the Río Grande cutthroat trout, no longer is a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday (Sept. 30). Since 2008, aggressive conservation efforts by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and its partners have enhanced or restored pure-strain native cutthroats in 127 streams that are open to public fishing. Rio Grande cutthroats now occupy about 700 miles of stream habitat.
Clock ticking on sage grouse listing decision. Great Falls Tribune. The clock is ticking on a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision whether to protect sage grouse using the Endangered Species Act, and it won’t be an easy call, a Montana-based FWS official told a federal advisory council Tuesday. “The hardest part of the job is, ‘How do you know if it is or isn’t threatened?’” said Jodi Bush, field supervisor for the FWS Montana office in Helena. “It’s the analysis that tells us that, to the best of our ability.”
Wyoming’s lawmakers might use law to remove wolves from endangered species list. Billings Gazette. Wyoming’s wolves are back on the endangered species list again, and this time the state’s lawmakers might come up with a solution. Following Montana and Idaho’s one-of-a-kind legislation, Wyoming’s congressional delegation said it might look into taking wolves off the list by law, and keeping them off.
One more thing Texas Does Right. Farmington Daily Times, Op-Ed. “When the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard was being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act,” Chris Bryan, agency spokesman for the Texas Comptroller, told me, “significant parts of the Texas economy were placed at risk.” On Sept. 30, District of Columbia District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled against the environmental groups that brought litigation aiming to require the Fish and Wildlife Service to reverse its 2012 decision not to list the lizard as endangered.
