NATIONAL

Interior, world’s largest gold miner team up to save Nev. grouse habitat. E&E News (sub req’d). The Interior Department today announced a major new agreement with the world’s largest gold mining company to set up the nation’s largest greater sage grouse conservation bank system in Nevada, a move designed to allow economically important mining activity to continue without harming habitat for the imperiled bird. The agreement announced today establishes a conservation bank that allows Barrick Gold of North America to earn credits for mitigation projects it funds that enhance sage grouse habitat on several private Nevada ranches covering more than 500,000 acres the company owns, as well as on federal lands where the company owns grazing allotments covering hundreds of thousands of acres. NOTE: Associated Press and NPR also report.

GOP tees up bids to empower states, block federal bat protection. E&E News (sub req’d). Republican efforts to overhaul or alter the Endangered Species Act are heating up on both sides of the Capitol. Eight senators are supporting similar but separate measures that would give states more control over the protection of rare plants and animals. And in the House, Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) introduced a bill earlier this week to prevent the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from listing the long-eared bat as an endangered species.

In the Senate, a Day of Votes That Don’t Count. New York Times. Senator Dean Heller, Republican of Nevada, would allow open season on the sage grouse or, more specifically, development on the bird’s habitat, while Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, would like federal protection for the beleaguered northern long-eared bat. The “vote-orama” has begun, and with night falling Thursday, there is no end in sight. NOTE: E&E News (sub req’d) also reports.

Conifer Forum Arms Bi-state Sage-Grouse Supporters with Tools to Tackle Encroachment. US Department of Agriculture, Press Release. Bi-state sage-grouse, a geographically distinct population of small game bird that lives along the border of Nevada and California, rely on a healthy sagebrush ecosystem. One of the largest habitat threats to the sage-grouse is the encroachment of pinyon and juniper trees.

Wood bison make it to Alaska village; April release planned. Washington Post. A hundred wood bison that will be the foundation for the first wild herd on U.S. soil in more than a century have been safely delivered to a rural Alaska village, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Wood bison from Canada were imported to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in 2008 but restoration of the threatened species was delayed. Landowners didn’t want their property listed as critical habitat with additional federal oversight. The state and federal governments agreed to consider the Alaska wood bison as “experimental” without the usual Endangered Species Act requirements.

El Lobo’s Uncertain Future. Huffington Post, Blog. Lobo Week, March 23-30, 2015, marks the 17th anniversary of the Mexican gray wolf’s return to the wild. However, this wolf subspecies’ tortuous recovery journey actually began over 40 years ago, when the 1973 Endangered Species Act inspired Americans to build an ark. One of the first creatures we welcomed onto our ark was the gray wolf. But arks and best-laid plans sometimes don’t work as intended.

FWS approves black rhino imports, rejects Zimbabwe elephant proposal. E&E News (sub req’d). The Fish and Wildlife Service agreed today to let two American hunters bring home black rhinoceros trophies from Namibia, but it rejected the proposed import of elephant trophies from Zimbabwe. At issue in the decisions was the agency’s assessment of the two nation’s respective wildlife conservation regimes. The Endangered Species Act allows imports of sport-hunted trophies from protected animals only if hunting is well-regulated and doesn’t imperil the survival of a species.

COLORADO

Conservation groups sue to protect Colorado wildflowers endangered by mining, drilling. Denver Business Journal. Conservation groups on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the name of protecting two wildflowers whose habitat coincides with oil shale formations in Colorado and Utah. The agency last August denied Endangered Species Act protection to the two wildflowers — White River beardtongue and Graham beardtongue — one year after it proposed protecting the plants and nearly 76,000 acres of their habitat.

FLORIDA

Higher manatee count means more to protect. Florida Today, Op-Ed. Florida’s manatees are at a crossroads. Well, actually, the agencies that protect manatees are at a crossroads, and manatees themselves are in the crosshairs. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is busy working behind closed doors deciding whether to downlist manatees from endangered to threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

GEORGIA

Rare Alligator Snapping Turtles Slow To Make A Comeback. WABE. Alligator snapping turtles have been protected in Georgia since 1992, but a recent survey shows their numbers still haven’t bounced back. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now considering listing the turtles under the Endangered Species Act, which is more stringent than the state’s protection.

NEVADA

Green strips won’t save sage grouse from fires. Reno Gazette-Journal, Op-Ed. The federal government recently announced that a new initiative focused on reducing and preventing range fires will be a cornerstone of its sage grouse conservation strategy. It is true that large-scale fires have caused widespread conversion of sage grouse habitat to cheatgrass and medusahead. Cheatgrass and medusahead are quite flammable, and burn at an unnaturally high frequency. Unfortunately, fire reduction efforts are akin to treating a symptom while ignoring the disease.

Feds dump Nevada wild horse roundup, for now. Associated Press. The federal government has abandoned plans — at least for now — to round up more than 300 wild horses in northern Nevada after a U.S. judge temporarily blocked the effort last month for fear of harm to the mustangs. The Bureau of Land Management maintains there are nearly twice as many horse in the Pine Nut Range as the high desert habitat can support without causing ecological damage, some of which could hurt the imperiled sage grouse.

WASHINGTON

New lawsuit calls Woodland Park elephant move illegal. KING 5. A federal lawsuit filed Monday claims a plan by the Woodland Park Zoo to move a pair of Asian elephants to Oklahoma City violates the Endangered Species Act. A spokesperson with the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, which would issue the permit, said Thursday he “doesn’t believe the Endangered Species Act applies in this case.” NOTE: Courthouse News Service also reports.

WISCONSIN

USFWS Approaches Decision on Northern Long-Eared Bat. WXPR. A decision over whether to list the northern long-eared bat as endangered is no more than a week away. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed the listing because bat populations face devastation from the deadly white-nose syndrome. But some farmers and loggers have argued the bat is still too numerous to warrant an endangered listing.