NATIONAL
Forest Service plan to help sage grouse on NV-CA line ripped. Associated Press. Conservationists have criticized the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest’s plan to protect habitat for a distinct species of sage grouse found along the Nevada-California line south of Reno. Forest Supervisor Bill Dunkelberger, in releasing the final environmental impact statement Friday, said the plan addresses key threats identified by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in its 2013 proposal to list the species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. NOTE: Reno Gazette-Journal also reports.
White-nose syndrome has almost completely wiped out some North American bat colonies. Science Magazine. In just 7 years, a fungal disease known as white-nose syndrome has killed more than 5 million North American bats, nearly wiping out entire colonies, according to a new study. The disease, named for its initial discovery as a white fungus growing on bat noses, drains hibernating bats of their energy reserves.
Federal officials propose plan to save Columbia River salmon. Associated Press. Federal officials are considering a plan to spray vegetable oil on cormorant eggs in an effort to save Columbia River salmon. That would reduce the size of the black seabird colony on East Sand Island. A federal study says the seabirds eat 11 million juvenile salmon and steelhead each year. The fish are protected under the Endangered Species Act. NOTE: Tech Times, Reuters, and Longview Daily News also report.
Lawmakers to grill Vilsack on crop insurance cuts. E&E News (sub req’d). Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will likely get an earful from House members on proposed cuts to crop insurance, upcoming regulations and highly anticipated trade deals when he heads to Capitol Hill this week to testify on the state of the rural economy. From the U.S. EPA-Army Corps of Engineers Waters of the United States proposal to the listing of animals under the Endangered Species Act, regulations will likely also be a topic of discussion. While House Agriculture Chairman Michael Conaway (R-Texas) has said he is unsure about holding hearings on the regulations, he has vowed to denounce them from the “bully pulpit” and could work behind the scenes with the Energy and Commerce Committee to thwart regulations through legislation.
ALASKA
New state Arctic policy reflects views and concerns of the state’s inhabitants. Petroleum News. The Alaska Arctic Policy Commission has published its final report setting out an Alaska perspective for the future of the state’s Arctic region. It says that support for healthy Arctic communities would include initiatives to reduce the cost of power and heating in rural Alaska; anticipating and responding to the impacts of climate change; and promoting practices for sustaining subsistence resources while protecting against the impacts of over-zealous Endangered Species Act designations.
COLORADO
Couple’s research plants seeds for reclamation of sagebrush. Associated Press. The West’s “sagebrush sea” has gotten a lot of attention recently for supporting some 350 species of plants and animals, with the future of creatures from mule deer to greater sage-grouse inextricably linked to this habitat on which they rely. Now increasing research, including a new study by a Grand Junction couple, is finding that this sea is populated with countless islands of soil fertility typically associated with sagebrush plants themselves.
Soapbox: West’s health depends on sage-grouse plans. The Coloradoan, Op-Ed. Much has been reported about congressional action to delay the listing decision on the greater sage grouse. Folded into the 2015 federal spending bill was a rider prohibiting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from working on rules related to a sage grouse listing under the Endangered Species Act. Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said the provision would have no effect on an ongoing effort to manage sage-grouse habitat, and as a wildlife biologist who has studied grouse and other game birds, I support Jewell’s commitment to carry on as promised.
FLORIDA
Perdido Key habitat plan paves way for development. Pensacola News Journal. It won’t spark a building boom on Perdido Key, but Escambia County’s newly adopted Perdido Key Habitat Conservation Plan, along with a federal incidental take permit, is expected to energize development that’s been nearly at a standstill for a decade. The permit calls for maintaining protective measures outlined in the Endangered Species Act. At the same time, it allows “incidental” or accidental take of endangered species during the development process without the builder facing stiff fines and prison terms they’d be subjected to under the Endangered Species Act.
KANSAS
Bat’s federal status of great interest to Kansas developers. Wichita Eagle. Although Kansas is on the periphery of the Northern long-eared bat’s 30-state range, some local officials have voiced concerns that road projects could face delays if the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife designates the animal as an endangered or threatened species, as expected in April. Last week, Gary Janzen, city engineer, told the Wichita City Council not to delay decisions on an interchange project at K-96 and Hoover too long, because tree removal could be affected by the bat.
MAINE
Review of ordinance continues. Scarborough Leader. Last spring the Town Council was able to reach a compromise and adopt an animal control ordinance that both protected the piping plover, a shore bird that is endangered in Maine and federally threatened, and allowed dogs to roam free during certain hours throughout the summer. Although town officials applauded the efforts, officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) are still reviewing it to determine if it meets federal endangered species standards.
MASSACHUSETTS
Voracious protected seals starting to overrun waters off New England. South Coast Today. Canada has continued to conduct seal hunting all these years while at the same time restoring the population of seals from a low of 1 million to today’s count of between 7 million and 8 million. It’s an approach the opposite of that of the United States, which has stopped anything from affecting marine mammals. The environmentalists have been completely dominant in setting U.S. policy, with the 1982 Marine Mammal Protection Act and the 1993 Endangered Species Act, which were passed to end the decline of many species including seals, which had virtually disappeared from the waters off Southern New England.
NORTH DAKOTA
Monarch butterfly deserves Endangered Species Act protection. Dickinson Press, LTE. I want to respond to an article published on Jan. 29. I think that the monarch butterfly should receive the protection of the Endangered Species Act. Most people don’t know that the monarch butterfly population has decreased by more than 80 percent since 1998 (1 billion to 56.5 million). The monarch butterfly is the most popular butterfly that everybody knows of. Their lifecycle is often used in school textbooks. They are a common symbol of spring and summer. We will lose them completely if we do nothing. It takes more than just thinking they’re beautiful to restore their population. We must take action and care for the species God has given us.
OREGON
Obama seeks $18 million for Klamath Project. Herald and News. A federal budget request released earlier this week calls for $18 million to manage the Klamath Project and resources associated with it. The 2016 budget requests $5.2 million for water and energy management and development, including $200,000 for Klamath Project operations planning that will provide direction for Endangered Species Act, Indian trust and irrigation contracts.
UTAH
Legal scholars predict Utah land transfer takes the public out of public lands. Salt Lake Tribune. Acquiring title to 31 million acres of public lands could lead to less public access, less public involvement in land-use decisions and perhaps a better chance that imperiled plants and animals win federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. Those and other unintended consequences could await Utahns if state leaders succeed in their fight to wrest control of federal lands, according to a new report by the University of Utah law school’s Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment. NOTE: Associated Press also reports.
WASHINGTON
‘Blackfish’ ban enters Washington Legislature. E&E News (sub req’d). Washington state, the source of more than half the orcas taken into captivity, is considering legislation banning the increasingly controversial killer whale entertainment industry. Animal activists are currently pushing for the release of Lolita, a 7,000-pound killer whale captured in 1970 northwest of Seattle. Lolita has lived at the Miami Seaquarium for 44 years in one of the smallest tanks housing orcas. But the National Marine Fisheries Service announced Wednesday that the animal will gain Endangered Species Act protections, raising activists’ hopes she could be released into the wild.
WYOMING
New Studies Look At How Ravens Affect Sage Grouse Nest Success. Wyoming Public Media. In the last 50 years, as energy development has moved in, raven numbers have skyrocketed, by some estimates 20 percent. Several new studies across the West show that these “ominous birds of yore” are feasting on sage grouse eggs and chicks, a species that’s already on the brink of extinction. And so, to protect them, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering upping the number of ravens they’re controlling lethally.
On the docket. Gillette News Record. Like a prospector protecting his land from would-be claim jumpers, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead says he makes no apologies for an aggressive legal stance that has helped define his administration as one of the more litigious in the United States. The state and BLM have an agreement on a plan to conserve more than 2 million acres of sage grouse habitat in a deal Mead said he hopes will keep the bird off the endangered list. If that’s not successful, he vowed the state would “vigorously” make any legal challenge it could to protect Wyoming’s interests. “If that bird’s listed, it’s just another example of (the federal government) piling on Wyoming in a big way,” he said.