NATIONAL
Western states coalition disputes ‘biased’ federal science on sage grouse. Washington Times. A coalition of rural Western counties and business interests is contesting the science being used to decide whether to list the Greater sage-grouse as endangered or threatened, accusing the Obama administration of relying on “selective, false and biased” research. Denver attorney Kent Holsinger filed three Data Quality Act challenges Wednesday with the Department of the Interior on behalf of the coalition, which includes the Western Energy Alliance, ranchers, mining and drilling companies and 19 counties in Colorado, Montana, Nevada and Utah.
Feds, Wyo. establish first sage grouse conservation bank. E&E News (sub req’d). The Obama administration and the state of Wyoming today announced the establishment of the nation’s first conservation bank for the greater sage grouse, a move that is designed both to encourage responsible development activity and help ward off the need to list the bird for federal protection. The conservation bank on a 235,000-acre ranch in central Wyoming will allow for oil and gas, mining, and other industries to buy credits within a sensitive state-designated “core sage grouse area” that could then be used to mitigate impacts elsewhere.
Cruz adds water, species provisions to energy bill. E&E News (sub req’d). Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a potential presidential candidate in 2016, yesterday reintroduced an energy bill with new provisions to block a key water rule and require congressional approval for endangered species listings. The “American Energy Renaissance Act” would block U.S. EPA’s proposed “Waters of the United States” rule, which would bring new streams and wetlands under the Clean Water Act, and another would require Congress to approve Endangered Species Act listing decisions.
Green groups seek injunction blocking Tongass old-growth logging. E&E News (sub req’d). Several environmental groups have asked a federal judge to pre-emptively block the Forest Service from allowing logging of centuries-old trees in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. The lawsuits filed several months ago claim Big Thorne would fail to protect old-growth stands important to deer, which are a key food source for the Alexander Archipelago wolf, a species the Fish and Wildlife Service is evaluating for possible Endangered Species Act protections.
The congressmen afraid of the big bad wolf. The Hill, Op-Ed. Earlier this month, Alaska Rep. Don Young (R) left a room of fellow congressmen and administration officials picking their jaws off the floor when he criticized his congressional colleagues who support continued protection for wolves under the Endangered Species Act. “I’d like to introduce
FLORIDA
Attorney calls Lower Keys sewer environmental impact statement a ‘fake,’ threatens lawsuit. Florida Keys Keynoter. Federal government staff this week expressed concerns about the possible environmental effects of a shallow-water injection well at Monroe County’s wastewater treatment plant in the Lower Keys. Clear “and imminent violations” of the Endangered Species Act and federal environmental law “have occurred and will continue to occur with regards to Monroe County and the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority’s testing and operation of the four shallow sewage injection wells located at the Cudjoe Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant,” wrote Caron Balkany, attorney for plaintiff Mike Laudiciana.
MICHIGAN
Faced with do-over on wolf issue, state policy makers follow reckless path. Oakland Press, Op-Ed. Michigan politicians and bureaucrats are following a familiar path of reckless behavior with their effort to restore trophy hunting of the now-endangered animals. But, there is a pathway forward and a middle-ground on this controversial issue. The Humane Society of the United States and 21 other animal protection and conservation groups, including the Detroit Zoo and Detroit Audubon Society, have petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to “downlist” gray wolves from endangered to threatened. This would retain federal protections for wolves, but also provide more flexible management so wildlife officials could kill or remove the occasional problem wolf.
MINNESOTA
Feds, Minnesota will pay for wolf trapping. Duluth News Tribune. The federal government and state of Minnesota will split the $220,000 cost of a renewed wolf-trapping program for 2015. The program was in limbo as the issue of wolf management remains unsettled. A federal court order in December has put wolf management back under federal control, ending state hunting and trapping seasons and restoring wolf protections under the Endangered Species Act. The order, however, didn’t address the issue of government wolf trapping. NOTE: Grand Forks Herald also reports.
MONTANA
Revised forest plan gets first public airing. Daily Inter Lake. Long a controversial issue in Northwest Montana, grizzly bear protections could be headed for significant changes in the future, with the species’ protected status considered for a possible delisting under the Endangered Species Act. The proposed action includes a sizable grizzly bear management strategy that would adjust current grizzly protections while providing forest managers with more flexibility. Amendments to four other Montana national forest plans would mirror those directives.
NEVADA
Local ranchers find flaws in state’s sage grouse plan. Elko Free Daily Press. Despite praise from the governor’s office for a sage grouse plan based on “cutting-edge science,” a couple prominent Elko County residents are taking aim at the state’s efforts. Former assemblyman John Carpenter and rancher Cliff Gardner say the state embraced too many regulations, imposed costly mitigation and failed to prioritize grazing and predator control.
NEW JERSEY
Experimental oyster reefs planned off south Reeds Beach. Shore News Today. A $60,000 project to build two experimental oyster reefs off the shores of Reeds Beach is set to get underway next month. The unique design of the reef is expected to protect beaches and the community, as well as allow horseshoe crabs access to the area’s shores. The crabs’ access is critical to the red knot, a migratory shorebird listed as threatened by the federal government under the Endangered Species Act, and listed as endangered by the state.
NEW YORK
Constitution Pipeline can access properties, judge orders. Times-Tribune. Constitution Pipeline Co. can access properties in Susquehanna County the company seeks to condemn to build its new natural gas pipeline to New York, a federal judge ordered Tuesday. To avoid harming the northern long-eared bat, the small-footed bat, silver-haired bat and little brown bat, it must apply special precautions between April 1 and Oct. 31.
OREGON
Oregon faces timeline on limiting hatchery salmon in river. Associated Press. Oregon wildlife officials can release hatchery salmon in the upper reaches of the McKenzie River for now but have three months to set a deadline for scaling down the number of fish competing and breeding with threatened wild salmon, a federal judge has ruled. The upper McKenzie in the Cascade Range outside Springfield is one of Oregon’s last strongholds for wild chinook salmon. Two sport fishing groups sued the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, arguing it is violating the Endangered Species Act by not doing enough to prevent hatchery fish from cross-breeding with threatened wild chinook, which diminishes their ability to survive.
UTAH
Utah sends $500K more to unexplained wolf delisting efforts. Salt Lake Tribune. Lawmakers didn’t discuss wolves’ status as a protected species during the 2015 Legislature — not until the very end. Two hours before the final gavel dropped, Spanish Fork Republican Rep. Mike McKell rose to defend giving activists $500,000 to pressure federal officials to return wolf management to the states. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service first proposed delisting the gray wolf nationwide from the Endangered Species Act in 2013. Removing the wolf from the protected list would pass management of the predators on to the states, neatly aligning with Utah leaders’ policy goals.
Birds on the divide: Sage-grouse ruffles resort plans. Standard Examiner. Morgan County continues to be the state’s most visible breeding ground for the controversy about how to adequately protect sage grouse without hindering development on private property. This week, the county council stalled development once again, denying landowners’ request for an amendment to the Master Planned Development area that would at least get the ball rolling on eventual rezoning for the resort.
WASHINGTON
Environmental changes stress West Coast sea lions. Chinook Observer. Counts around Astoria rose from a few hundred in January to nearly 2,000 in February, exceeding numbers in previous years at the same time. The count includes some animals from the eastern stock of Steller sea lions, removed from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in 2013. The California sea lions also feed on spring Chinook salmon and steelhead. Some of the Chinook and steelhead stocks are listed under the Endangered Species Act and NOAA Fisheries is working with state officials to address sea lion predation.
WYOMING
Wyoming proposes 2015 sage grouse hunting season. Associated Press. Hunting of greater sage grouse could continue in eight states even if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were to determine in the months ahead that the ground-dwelling birds deserve protection as a threatened or endangered species, an agency spokesman said. The reason: The birds are set to remain under state control because Congress voted in December to withhold any funding to list the birds as threatened or endangered.
Conservation bank appears unlikely to spare the sage grouse from court. Casper Star-Tribune. Wednesday’s announcement of a sage grouse conservation bank in central Wyoming comes amid a pair of growing controversy’s over the bird’s status as a potential endangered species. One concerns the discovery of a large wintering ground in the middle of a planned 2,000 well natural gas field in western Wyoming. The other involves a lawsuit filed Wednesday by a coalition of western counties and energy and agriculture interests. The groups claim the government’s sage grouse science is faulty.