Issues

Yellow-billed Cuckoo Considered for Threatened Listing. This week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposed listing over 850 square miles occupied by the yellow-billed cuckoo as critical habitat. In October 2013, the FWS proposed listing the bird as threatened under the Endangered Species Act’s (ESA) following a settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity. According the FWS, 546,335 acres would be designated as critical habitat – impacting streambanks and floodplains in nine western states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. FWS is considering excluding roughly 193,347 acres from designation given existing conservation plans already in place for those areas that protect the bird and its habitat.

The proposal drew criticism from various stakeholders, including farmers, ranchers, government officials, and the energy industry. Caren Cowan, executive director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, highlighted her concerns surrounding the impact of this critical habitat designation on the region in POLITICO Pro (sub req’d). She noted that as the FWS continues to designate land and list species, ranchers are left to find new areas to graze their herd. “We’re just being inundated,” Cowan stated, noting the listing of the lesser prairie chicken as another species listing that has had a significant impact on ranchers in the region.

Comments on the proposed critical habitat rule will be accepted through October 14, 2014 and can be submitted online at the Federal eRulemaking Portal.

USFWS Offering Sessions on the Northern Long-eared Bat.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has announced it will hold three public information webcasts this month to provide additional information surrounding the proposed endangered listing of the Northern Long-eared Bat. The webcasts will be held on Tuesday, August 19, at 1 p.m. ET,  Wednesday, August 20, at 4 p.m. ET, and Thursday, August 21, at 7 p.m. ET. For more information visiting FWS.gov.

IPAA Attends Sage Grouse Meeting at DOI. This week, a meeting was conducted at the Department of Interior to discuss potential changes to sage grouse conservation measures moving forward based on a letter sent from the National Wildlife Federation requesting national conservation standards be put in place. The meeting coordinated stakeholders from various groups and companies including the Wilderness Society, senior officials from the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, as well as industry including the American Petroleum Institute, Western Energy Association, U.S. Oil and Gas Association, Chesapeake, Occidental, BP, Chevron, Noble, and Exxon.

During the meeting BLM noted that it is stepping up its pre listing decision deadline activities in an effort to prevent a federal listing though the agency did not say whether or not the grouse will be listed. Officials noted that the Conservation Objectives Team report will serve as the guiding document and there will be a larger stakeholder meeting the week of September 8 in Denver, CO.  After that there will be efforts to engage the stateswith the Wyoming Core Areas Plan seen as the model.  BLM Director Kornze also noted at the meeting that the agency is going to delay publication of RODs for the 14 different Resource Management Plans for which sage grouse amendments are being prepared until likely after the first of the year.

Nevada Sage Grouse Plan Ruffles Some Feathers. Back in December 2013, Sens. Harry Reid (D-NV) and Dean Heller (R-NV) released a proposed plan to conserve sage grouse habitat in the state and avoid a federal listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  The Senators recently adjusted the plan by cutting down the total acreage of protected wilderness, enhancing the conservation incentives for local governments – spurring support and opposition to the plan.

Newmont Mining Company, who has been active in Nevada for over fifty years, expressed its overall support for the plan and the revision. Jeff White, Newmont’s director of renewable resources, highlighted the company’s opinion in the Elko Daily Press:

“Newmont believes the second discussion draft of the Nevada Sagebrush Landscape Conservation and Economic Development Act of 2014 presents an opportunity for economic development and the conservation of sagebrush habitat. The mining industry has identified certain public lands associated with existing operations, development projects, and exploration areas that may be of interest for transfer through purchase. At this point in the process, the maps showing these lands are not yet finalized by Congressional Delegation staff.”

Meanwhile, County Commission officals expressed opposition to the plan. Elko County Commission Chairman Charlie Myers stated in the Elko Daily Press that he takes issue with the fact that “of the 136,000 acres that they’re asking to convert from wilderness study areas to wilderness areas, only 90,000 of those are supposedly sage-grouse habitat areas.” Commissioner Jeff Williams went so far to call the plan “garbage” while Commissioner Demar Dahl requested the lawmakers begin a new planfocusing on the positive provisions already in place .

In the News

WEA launches new greater sage grouse public information campaign. Oil and Gas Journal. Listing the greater sage grouse as an endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act would discourage effective local and state conservation efforts while stifling economic growth and job creation, the Western Energy Alliance said in a new public education campaign. “We are running this ad campaign to educate westerners about the greater sage grouse and the threats on the horizon to local economies,” said Jack R. Ekstrom, WEA chairman, as the program was launched on Aug. 4.

Everglades Butterflies Now Have Protection. Courthouse News Service. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed two southern Florida butterflies as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The agency also designated over 22,000 acres of critical habitat for the Florida leafwing and Bartram’s scrub-hairstreak in a separate action.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Determines Wolverine Does Not Warrant Protection Under Endangered Species Act. Sierra Sun Times. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that it is withdrawing a proposal to list the North American wolverine in the contiguous United States as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Two Texas Minnows Are Now Protected. Courthouse News Service. Two small minnows found only in Texas now have endangered status under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also designated critical habitat for the fish in the Upper Brazos River Basin in 11 Texas counties.The listings are part of a 2011 settlement agreement between the USFWS and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), which resulted in a five-year work plan to speed listing decisions for hundreds of species across the nation. NOTE: JD Supra Business Advisor also reports.

BLM launches scoping process for sage-grouse. Montrose Daily Press. The Bureau of Land Management could amend 11 resource management plans within Gunnison sage-grouse habitat to incorporate new or enhanced conservation measures. To do that, the agency needs to prepare an environmental impact statement and consider a host of factors, including its sagebrush management practices; science specifically applicable to the bird; the effects of its sagebrush management on other resources; grazing and recreation.

Oil, sage grouse can coexist; biggest threat is invasive plants. The Missoulian (Op-Ed).The threat of an impending threatened or endangered ruling for sage grouse has prompted many opinions about best management practices. The writers suggested that if it weren’t for oil and gas drilling, we’d have significantly greater sage grouse populations. On the contrary, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has identified the top threats to sage grouse in the western United States, of which this is not included.

In Flux Eagle Regulations Continue to Impact Industries. JD Supra Business Advisor(Blog). Austin associate Brooke Wahlberg’s article “The Curious Problem of Eagles” is featured as one of the lead articles in the Spring 2014 volume of the Texas Environmental Law Journal.  One might think that the removal of the bald eagle from the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) list of threatened and endangered species in 2007 would mean that eagles are now subject to less regulation, the result has been the opposite.