Issues
**NOTE: IPAA has released a new one-pager to provide members and ESA Watch readers a brief summary of the Endangered Species Act. Check out the new fact sheet HERE.
Lesser prairie chicken officially removed from endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final rule on Wednesday officially removing the “threatened” status for the lesser prairie chicken. The rule complies with a 2015 court order that overturned the Service’s 2014 decision to protect the bird under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), noting that a “threatened” designation was unnecessary due to efforts by states, industry, and landowners to preserve the bird’s habitat. Though the bird has been delisted, it remains eligible for candidate conservation agreements and candidate conservation agreements with assurances.
Sen. Inhofe (R-OK) praised the decision, remarking, “The agency’s original listing was rushed and failed to properly take into consideration the facts on the ground.” Sen. Moran (R-KS), however, warned ranchers and developers that the fight was not yet over, saying “It’s critical that we do not let our guard down and allow the USFWS to restart the listing process.”
Conservation groups worried that the Service lacked an appropriate plan for protecting the species in the absence of ESA protections. “The Service’s own scientists have warned that losing even a small amount of suitable habitat could send these magical birds into a death spiral,” warned Tanya Sanerib, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe said the agency is already conducting a new status review and would continue to work with state partners to protect the bird.
Second species of bat contracts WNS on West Coast. Biologists in Washington reported that a silver-haired bat tested positive for white-nose syndrome (WNS) – the second species ever discovered with the fungus West of the Rockies. The disease is estimated to have killed over 7 million bats across 28 states and five Canadian provinces in recent years. A little brown bat infected with WNS was discovered in Washington in March of this year, marking the disease’s first appearance on the West Coast and alarming scientists and officials concerned about the spread of the fungus.
The silver-haired bat discovered this month was not harmed by the fungus as the species is migratory and does not hibernate. Scientists are concerned, however, that the bat could spread the fungus to more vulnerable bat populations. In upstate New York and Vermont, close to where the disease was first discovered in the United States 10 years ago, some affected populations have begun to stabilize. Researchers hypothesize the fungus may not be able to spread as easily among thinned cave populations following the initial die-off.
In the News
Interior bill lays groundwork for addressing Western issues. Capital Press. The bill contains language preventing a future endangered species listing for sage grouse, and prohibiting the federal government from making planned sage grouse-related changes to resource management plans inconsistent with state management plans. Lane said surveys have shown a 63 percent increase in males at leks — areas where sage grouse perform mating rituals to woo females — across the bird’s territory during the past two years. “Implementing these one-size-fits-all federal regulations on top of (state management plans) will only derail that progress,” Lane said.
Lawyers make millions off taxpayers, Endangered Species Act as ranchers try to live with rare bird. Daily Signal (Blog). Feathers are flying over whether the federal government is overprotecting a rare bird in Colorado, in what critics grouse is an example of lawyers making millions while abusing the Endangered Species Act. Trial lawyers who collect taxpayer-funded fees under the law file so many suits that they undermine local conservation efforts in Western states, according to government officials, industry advocates, and legal analysts familiar with the situation. In Colorado, the situation prompted Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, to sue the Obama administration early last year. Over 25 years, Colorado officials spent more than $40 million to preserve the habitat of a paunchy, ground-dwelling, chickenlike bird known as the Gunnison sage grouse.
NMFS approves plan to harass whales during seismic tests. E&E News (sub req’d). The National Marine Fisheries Service will issue a five-year permit that allows Apache Alaska Corp. to harass endangered beluga whales during seismic testing in Cook Inlet. NMFS announced the final authorization in today’s Federal Register. Apache has acquired 850,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Cook Inlet, and it plans to use seismic surveys over the next five years to locate mineral deposits. The species was listed as endangered in 2008; in the Federal Register notice, NMFS notes that the whales “have not made significant progress towards recovery” since then.
Greens fight oil drilling in western Colorado. Courthouse News Service. Environmentalists have sued the Bureau of Land Management, claiming it illegally approved drilling of 4,198 oil and gas wells on 147,000 acres in the Colorado River Valley, and leasing another 456,100 acres for other projects. They say the management plan violates the National Environmental Planning Act, and is too superficial to anticipate the environmental impact it will have on the Upper Colorado River, which provides water to 40 million people, and is pivotal to the welfare of Coloradans and several important wildlife species. The affected land hosts America’s largest elk herd, bighorn sheep, Canada lynx, cutthroat trout, sage grouse and other species.
Endangered flower accidentally ‘taken’ from Vermont Gas pipeline construction area. WPTZ. Not long ago, Vermont Gas and environmental officials were talking about a little yellow flower that could impact the company’s pipeline project. But now, instead of a request to transplant the flowers, company officials found out that late Monday, some of those flowers were removed – but not on purpose. Vermont Gas President and CEO Don Rendall spoke with WPTZ about how an unknown number of harsh sunflowers were “taken,” or removed, from a protected parcel in Monkton. “I’m very disappointed,” said Rendall, “We have been dealing with this sunflower for some time in the permitting process. This is not a new issue for us. This is something we’ve been focused on for a very long time.”
Litigation reveals anti-sage grouse agendas. Casper Star Tribune (Column). Even as conservationists labor in the courts to win scientifically sound protections for sage grouse in new land-use plans, Gov. Matt Mead and the fossil fuel industry are lawyering up to preserve special-interest loopholes that assure continued habitat destruction. Last month, Mead filed a motion to intervene against a conservationist lawsuit challenging the scientific integrity of 15 federal sage grouse plans across the West, arguing that the federal plans are “a model” that should be defended. Over half the remaining sage grouse live on national forest and BLM public lands, so the federal sage grouse plans are key to the survival of the species.
