Issues

Endangered Species Act Working Group Releases Final Report & Recommendations. This week, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) Congressional Working Group released a final report featuring its findings and recommendations on the ESA. The report focuses on input and comments received regarding the effectiveness and workability of the Act as it currently stands, and what can be done to improve it moving forward.

From the report:

“The Working Group found that the ESA, while well-intentioned from the beginning, must be updated and modernized to ensure its success where it matters most: outside of the courtroom and on-the-ground. A two percent recovery rate of endangered species is simply not acceptable.

“Americans who live near, work on and enjoy our lands, waters and wildlife show a tremendous commitment to conservation that is too often undermined and forgotten by the ESA’s litigation-driven model. Species and people should have the right to live and prosper within a 21st century model that recognizes the values of the American people and fosters, not prohibits, a boots on-the-ground conservation philosophy that is working at many state and local levels. The ESA can be modernized to more successfully assist species that are truly in danger. It can be updated so species conservation does not create conflicts with people. All the while, the ESA should promote greater transparency in the way our federal government does business.”

One primary recommendation from the Working Group is to reduce the level of ESA litigation and encourage settlement reform. In 2011, for example, the Center for Biological Diversity and Wildearth Guardians’ settlement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) resulted in listing deadlines for hundreds of species. According to the report:

“In summary, lawsuits to list species under strict statutory deadlines only end up impeding recovery efforts for truly endangered species. Serial litigation actually makes ESA success even harder to accomplish. More listed species do not necessarily equate to ESA progress.”

The Working Group also recommends empowering states, local governments, and tribes to be involved in ESA decisions affecting their property, increasing the transparency and prioritization of species to focus on species recovery and de-listing, and requiring increased transparency and accountability of ESA science and data.

NESARC Commends Working Group Report. The National Endangered Species Act Reform Coalition (NESARC) commended the Working Group for their efforts to improve the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In a release following the announcement of the final report and recommendations, NESARC Chairman Leslie James highlighted the group’s comments as an important step towards improving the ESA for species and people alike. From the release:

“Policymakers and stakeholders involved in the protection of threatened and endangered species have learned many lessons since the ESA was enacted over forty years ago. The findings of the Working Group are a reasonable and balanced assessment of those lessons, and an important starting point in identifying pragmatic, targeted improvements to the Act that can benefit species and people alike.”

NESARC also thanked the leadership of Chairman Hasting and Representative Lummis for their efforts, highlighting this report as a “solid starting point” to pursue improvements to the ESA.

Industry Enrolls Land for Lesser Prairie Chicken Conservation. This week, five oil and natural gas companies pledged 1.5 million acres of land over a five state region for the conservation of the lesser prairie chicken. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department described the action as the first enrollment in the “range-wide plan” developed by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and state wildlife agencies in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.  Ben Shepperd, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, commended the action and the range-wide plan in the Associated Press:

“We believe this plan offers the best, most comprehensive approach available to conserve the lesser prairie chicken and its habitat, while providing some assurance for participating companies so we can continue to do business.”

Continental Resources, Devon Energy, Apache Corp., Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation and Samson Resources have each enrolled acreage in the plan.

In the News

Jennison says rangeland plan for Lesser Prairie Chicken preferable to threatened species listing. Lawrence Journal-World. Despite grousing from Gov. Sam Brownback and many legislators, Kansas will face some kind of federal action to protect the Lesser Prairie Chicken, according to the state’s top wildlife official. Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism Secretary Robin Jennison told a legislative committee that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will either put in place a rangewide conservation plan to protect the bird, or list the Lesser Prairie Chicken as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

FWS proposes sage grouse conservation agreement. Burns Times Herald. A partnership effort among diverse interests in Eastern Oregon has resulted in a draft Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) to conserve Greater Sage Grouse and their habitats on private rangelands in Harney County. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) partnered with the Harney Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD) and a steering committee comprised of local private landowners and representatives from Harney SWCD, Harney County Court, Oregon State University Extension, The Nature Conservancy, Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center, as well as numerous state and federal agencies to develop this agreement.

Neugebauer among congressmen to seek changes for Endangered Species Act. FOX News. Congressman Neugebauer serves on the working group that has released a report on making the 40-year-old law more effective. He said one key is empowering states, stakeholders and landowners to lead conservation efforts. He cited the range-wide plan to protect the Lesser Prairie-Chicken as an example.

The dirty little secret on the sage grouse. The Missoulian (Guest Column by Rep. Nicholas Schwaderer, House District 14). The humble sage grouse has earned a new moniker in Montana and other western states: the spotted owl of the prairie. That description started as a joke, but for the tens of thousands of Montanans who earn their living in agriculture or energy development, it’s no longer a laughing matter. That’s because there’s a very real threat this bird could be listed under the Endangered Species Act. The result would dramatically impact Montana’s economy.

Endangered mighty mouse cripples Colorado flood-recovery efforts. Washington Times. As Coloradans try to rebuild after record floods devastated the state last year, some are claiming that a 9-inch, slug-eating mouse with an impressive vertical leap is standing in the way. A Republican congressman is seeking a waiver from the Endangered Species Act after a federal agency warned this week that concerns about the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse, a species found only in the uplands of Colorado and neighboring Wyoming, may stall flood-recovery efforts in communities still struggling with the disaster’s aftermath.

Heller: Let Nevada decide sage-grouse habitat conservation. Elko Daily Free Press. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., on Tuesday defended a bipartisan plan based off Gov. Brian Sandoval’s sagebrush ecosystem council’s recommendations to keep sage grouse off the endangered species list in Nevada. In December, Heller and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced co-sponsorship for a “draft discussion” of a sage grouse conservation bill, according to the Associated Press.

Documents show FWS officials repeatedly committed scientific misconduct. E&E News (sub req’d). Two supervisors at the Fish and Wildlife Service purposely ignored staff concerns in order to shrink the habitat of the endangered American burying beetle, committing scientific misconduct of a “serious and intentional nature,” according to newly released internal documents.