NATIONAL

Squirrel removed from endangered list. The Hill. A mid-Atlantic squirrel species that was one of the first animals placed on the endangered species list no longer needs federal protection, officials ruled Friday. The Delmarva Peninsula fox squirrel, native to the mostly rural peninsula shared by Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, was removed from the list after it was determined to not be at risk of extinction. The success story comes as congressional Republicans are working to weaken or otherwise change the species law. They argue that it has been ineffective in bringing species back from extinction, pointing to the fact that only a few dozen animals have been removed from the list. Note: WBOC also reports.

Grey wolves could lose endangered species status, senators submit legislation. 9 & 10 News. New legislation is in Congress this week could take grey wolves off the Endangered Species List. If passed, it would lift protections from the wolves in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Wyoming. Gray wolves were put back on the Endangered Species List after a lawsuit from Keep Michigan Wolves Protected passed last year. That sparked a heated debate of whether agencies should be able to control the wolf population. Note: Associated Press and Capital Press also report.

Feds make $4 million available to farmers to boost monarch habitat. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. he Department of Agriculture is devoting $4 million for technical assistance to farmers in 10 states, including Missouri and Illinois, to help them plant milkweed and other plants critical to the monarch butterfly. The iconic butterfly is under pressure from the loss of milkweed that is essential to its reproduction and survival in its annual migration across the United States, and on monarch wintering grounds in Mexico. Farmers can apply at their local USDA offices for help in planting “milkweed and nectar-rich plants along field borders, in buffers along waterways or around wetlands, in pastures and other suitable locations,” the USDA said in a release out of Kansas City, where the national farm broadcasters met this week.

Tribes want protections to remain for grizzly bears, worry about hunting of sacred species. Associated Press. American Indians across the Western U.S. are challenging moves by federal wildlife officials to lift protections for grizzly bears that roam a vast wilderness centered on Yellowstone National Park, citing worries over potential trophy hunting of a species many tribes consider sacred. The tribes’ opposition marks the latest turn in the saga of a massive, ferocious predator driven to widespread extermination by overhunting and trapping early last century. It also adds a new, cultural dimension to a wildlife controversy that previously centered on disagreements over science and how many bears are enough.

Milkweed alone will not bring back the monarch butterflies (It’s the pesticides, stupid). NRDC (Blog). It is clear that the loss of monarch butterflies and their milkweed habitat began with the invention of genetically engineered crops that are designed to be resistant to the herbicide glyphosate (also known as Roundup). But even as all of this new monarch habitat is being planted, glyphosate use continues to proceed unabated and in fact new weed control products that include additional herbicides are being introduced to the market. A growing body of research is also demonstrating that any milkweed (or other flowering plant) that survives the application of herbicides on the edges of agricultural fields is likely to become contaminated by the widespread use of neonicotinoid pesticides. A USDA researcher (who recently filed a whistleblower complaint) published a study earlier this year showing that milkweed along agricultural edges can contain neonics at levels high enough to cause stunted growth to monarch caterpillars.

CALIFORNIA

Greens demand scenic rivers be protected. Courthouse News Service. The U.S. Forest Service is six years overdue on creating boundaries and management plans for two wild and scenic rivers in Northern California and the threatened wildlife that live there, fishermen and environmentalists claim in court. As a major tributary of the Eel River’s Middle Fork, Black Butte provides essential spawning habitat for Chinook salmon and winter steelhead. A segment of the Northern California steelhead population is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

State must provide a safety net for California’s blackbird. Contra Costa Times (Op-Ed). A century later, history is poised to repeat itself with the impending loss of another North American bird, the tricolor blackbird. Once abundant, the blackbird is now under review to be protected by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The 60-day public comment period ends at midnight on Tuesday. As a biologist who has studied the blackbird, I urge readers to support the blackbird’s protection before it’s too late. By every account, tricolor blackbirds are dying in large numbers. A decade ago the largest colonies had 138,000 birds; in 2015 the largest colony was a quarter of that size.

IDAHO

Otter says sage grouse comment was tongue-in-cheek, he doesn’t prefer an ESA listing. Spokesman-Review (Blog). Gov. Butch Otter’s office said today that Otter didn’t mean comments he made about sage grouse in a speech earlier this week to be taken seriously, and he is not taking the position that it’d be better for the sage grouse to be listed as an endangered species. He’s been critical of new federal rules that accompanied the decision not to list, and is challenging those rules in court. “It was tongue-in-cheek,” Otter’s spokesman, Jon Hanian, said today. “What he was expressing was his frustration, because in his view he feels the feds pulled a sleight of hand by imposing extremely restrictive management provisions in lieu of a listing, but in actual practice on the ground, (it) amounts to the same thing.”

MICHIGAN

Only venomous rattlesnake in Michigan could be the next endangered species. Michigan Radio. Massasauga — the sole rattlesnake to inhabit the state of Michigan — is facing rapid population loss that’s prompting national concern for Michigan wildlife. In September 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to list the snake as a “threatened species” under the Endangered Species Act, which would qualify the snake for national funds to help preserve the species. The rattlesnake has been declining rapidly over the past few decades — now, 30 percent of the historical populations are gone, or cease to exist in areas they once inhabited.

MONTANA

Tell your Montana lawmakers to support Endangered Species Act. Billings Gazette (Op-Ed). The Endangered Species Act is the most effective tool I’ve seen for protecting endangered animals and promoting biodiversity. It’s an exceptional law that rests on the proposition that decisions impacting endangered species and their habitat should be based on sound science, not political expediency. Unfortunately, that hasn’t precluded congressional attempts to change or bypass the Act. Members of Congress — many of them from the Northern Rockies, unfortunately — have tried to dilute the act, have inserted language in unrelated legislation to strip protection from individual species and have even tried to exclude entire states or regions from Endangered Species Act protections.

NEBRASKA

Reversing the monarch butterfly decline in Nebraska. NET News. An Iowa State University report estimated an 81 percent decline in monarch production in the Midwest between 1999 and 2010, with a 58 percent decline in milkweed presence during the same time. “We’ve got plans to do more but we’ve started planning milkweed production plots on more than two dozen of our wildlife management areas, and that will serve as a seed source to do more habitat work in the future,” said Scott Taylor, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Wildlife Division administrator. “We’ve also started planning milkweeds across the state.”

NEVADA

Grazing within the new sage grouse rules. Elko Daily Free Press (Column). Grazing is compatible with maintaining sage grouse habitat, although this may be small consolation to ranchers operating within Elko County’s sage grouse habitat areas. Their grazing practices face more scrutiny as part of the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service’s Greater Sage-grouse Conservation Effort. Livestock grazing is expected to maintain or enhance sage grouse habitat. When livestock management practices are not meeting or making progress toward habitat objectives, a range of modifications can occur including season, timing and duration of use, numbers and distribution of livestock, along with rest and deferment. As a last tool in the toolbox, last case scenario, the allotment can be temporarily closed to grazing.

NORTH CAROLINA

Conservationists sue over dwindling red wolf population. Associated Press. Conservationists have asked a federal court to intervene after they say wildlife officials failed to prevent the only wild population of red wolves from dwindling. A lawsuit filed Thursday argues that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act when it gave landowners permission on two occasions to kill wolves without meeting strict legal requirements. It asks a judge to force the service to stop such incomplete kill approvals and to perform a past-due review of the wolves’ endangered status. Federal officials estimate that the population of red wolves roaming eastern North Carolina has dwindled in recent months to between about 50 and 75. Previously, the number had hovered around 100 for more than a decade.

OREGON

Gray wolf still protected in Central Oregon. The Bulletin. The gray wolf coming off Oregon’s endangered species list does not mean it is open season on the controversial animal, particularly in Central Oregon where the wolf is still protected by the federal Endangered Species Act. By a 4-2 vote Monday, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission removed the gray wolf from the state’s protected list , which includes other mammals such as the Canada lynx and fish such as the bull trout. The state delisting was mainly ceremonial as the state’s Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan requires more breeding pairs of wolves be found in consecutive years before Oregon could allow any controlled hunts of wolves in response to declines in wildlife numbers or attacks on livestock. And that would occur in Eastern Oregon, where more wolves are found, before it happens in Central Oregon.

UTAH

1,100 pages of BLM plans spark more debate on Utah’s public lands. The Spectrum. Monday is the deadline for public comment on the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed resource management plans for a pair of national conservation areas in Washington County. The two conservation areas include about 108,000 acres, or a little more than 7 percent of the entire Washington County, but the BLM’s decisions could have longstanding impacts on a wide range of issues close to home for area residents. They’ve sparked intense debate over a slew of issues, from grazing permits to access to water, from open access for off-road vehicles to whether the endangered California Condor should be reintroduced to the area.

WASHINGTON

Plan to boost Snake River fall chinook run in the works. Seattle Times. he Snake River fall chinook return in the 1990s was in dire straits, and since then the run has seen a significant growth and now a plan is in the works that will hopefully further jump start to fish toward a path of recovery. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Department recently released a proposed plan to rebuild this threatened run of fish, which declined after dams in Hells Canyon blocked much of their historic habitat but have since made a resurgence.