Issues
CCAA approved by FWS. This week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) approved a final Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) for the Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout in New Mexico and Colorado. The FWS also issued its final environmental assessment (EA) and the draft Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). According to E&E News (sub req’d):
“The Fish and Wildlife Service approved a voluntary conservation agreement yesterday for Ted Turner’s Vermejo Park Ranch in northern New Mexico aimed at providing federal assurances for efforts to restore native fish on the 920-square-mile ranch. Biologists working to return the Rio Grande cutthroat trout to streams on the property applied for a ‘candidate conservation agreement with assurances’ (CCAA) from the agency, which would protect Turner from any potential violations of the Endangered Species Act from routine ranch operations if the species is listed. Such agreements provide a legal safety net for landowners who undertake projects to help ESA candidate species.”
In May 2008, the FWS found a listing was warranted and the trout species became a candidate for federal protection. Read more on the CCAA from the Federal Register HERE.
Western states work on sage grouse conservation plans. Western states continue to work on plans to avoid a federal listing of the greater sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) while still preserving the bird and its habitat. Paul Schlegel, American Farm Bureau Federation, emphasized the importance of these efforts this week in the bureau’s newspaper:
“BLM and the USFWS really need to recognize the greater sage grouse conservation practices ranchers are already working with. Farmers and ranchers can do more to save the sage grouse through voluntary, incentive-based conservation measures than an ESA listing would. …Ranchers are constantly improving their land and striving to better manage their resources, an approach that not only reduces threats to the sage grouse, but gives the species better habitat, water sources and forage.”
Read more about the efforts being made by the Western states from the Farm Bureau and stay up to date on the proceedings at ESA Watch.
In the News
Grouse listing delay a sound decision. Montrose Daily Press (Editorial). Sometimes, government works. And when like minds come together, it can work toward the greater good. This was seen Monday, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to delay its decision on listing the Gunnison sage-grouse as an endangered species.
Energy industry, conservationists floating ‘habitat exchange’ plan for prairie chicken population. Wichita Business Journal. A new proposal aims to create a free-market solution that would focus on prairie chicken habitat conservation while at the same time still allowing oil and gas activity to continue.
Citing civil rights, Democrats slow-walk — but can’t stop — GOP push to curb ‘sue and settle’. E&E News (sub req’d). Republicans say that environmental groups abuse the process, colluding with agencies to set priorities, such as recent lawsuits that have required the Fish and Wildlife Service to consider hundreds of species for endangered species listings. But environmentalists and Democrats say the lawsuits merely allow citizens to force agencies to do their mandated duty and point out that the rulemaking process is open to the public.
N.D. will be recipient of a sage grouse transplant. Associated Press. Wildlife officials hope to move as many as 60 greater sage grouse from Montana to North Dakota during the next two years to supplement numbers.
Federally Endangered Clapper Rail Found Dead At Solar Plant. Care 2. The Yuma clapper rail was listed as Endangered in 1967 under the Endangered Species Preservation Act, which was a precursor to the 1973 Endangered Species Act. The bird used to roam in marshes and estuaries up and down the Colorado River from Utah to Mexico, but decades of human interference in this mighty river have hugely reduced the amount of freshwater habitat available for the bird.
Turbines’ potential threat to plovers measured. Renewablesbiz. The view from Spring Hill Beach includes pieces from a complicated puzzle: large wind turbines, tiny birds and David. Day and night, through wind and rain, David watches over piping plovers, a bird species listed as threatened on the Atlantic Coast under the federal Endangered Species Act.
New Studies Indicate Protected Areas Needed to Conserve Greater Sage-grouse. eNews Park Service. A new report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other peer-reviewed research published this spring indicate that conserving Greater Sage-grouse will require both protecting large areas of habitat and making significant changes in land management to reverse population declines of this wide-ranging species.
Western Governors Unite on Need to Update the Endangered Species Act. Outdoor Hub. On July 1, 2013, the nonpartisan Western Governors’ Association, which represents 19 governors from Kansas to American Samoa and Guam, approved a very important resolution concerning the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) and its current use.
Game and Fish wants to know about dead sage grouse. Associated Press. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is asking people to report any dead sage grouse they find immediately so they can be tested for West Nile virus.
Shale Oil And Gas Development Is Heavily Regulated. Forbes, FTI’s David Blackmon. At one point, the HSE Director displayed a slide listing the major federal acts the company must comply with. Lo and behold, that list included “RCRA, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act” and other major environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and OSHA, the act that governs workplace safety.
