NATIONAL

Bat species common to Pennsylvania threatened by disease. Associated Press. The Independent Petroleum Association of American has commented on the bat’s threatened designation, but it may not file comments on the accompanying environmental rules, spokesman Neal Kirby said. He said that’s because the bat’s habitat isn’t affected as much by drilling as it is by the fungus, and other industries, like timbering.

NMFS to assess threats to small population of Gulf whales. E&E News (sub req’d). A small population of whales in the Gulf of Mexico could get protection under the Endangered Species Act, after the National Marine Fisheries Service announced today that it would launch a thorough review into their status. The Bryde’s whale is a baleen whale that is found in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The Natural Resources Defense Council asked NMFS in 2014 to list a population of fewer than 50 that live off Florida’s Panhandle. NOTE: Reuters also reports.

Green groups sue to halt incidental grizzly kills in Grand Teton. E&E News (sub req’d). A coalition of conservation groups is suing the Obama administration for authorizing the incidental killing of grizzly bears in Grand Teton National Park as part of a program designed to thin elk populations inside the northwest Wyoming park. The lawsuit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, says the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service violated federal law by allowing the killing, or “taking,” of up to four grizzly bears at the park over the next seven years without fully analyzing how this decision might affect the overall health of bears across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. NOTE: Reuters, Associated Press, and Al Jazeera America also report.

Federal agency decides against Endangered Species Act protection for coastal Pacific marten. Associated Press. Federal biologists have decided that no Endangered Species Act protections are warranted for coastal populations of the Pacific marten, a forest predator that is a relative of the weasel. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday that it looked at the harmful effects of wildfire, climate change, logging, development, trapping and exposure to rat poisons at marijuana plantations, and none of those rose to the level individually, or cumulatively, of warranting a listing. NOTE: Eureka Times-Standard also reports.

FWS proposes listing for crayfish in Appalachian coal country. E&E News (sub req’d). The Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing that two rare species of Appalachian crayfish be added to the federal list of endangered species — a move that could hinder mountaintop-removal coal mining in the region. Set to be published in tomorrow’s Federal Register, the proposal was welcomed by the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group that has been pushing FWS since 2010 to protect the Big Sandy crayfish and closely related Guyandotte River crayfish. NOTE: Courier-Journal also reports.

Mountaintop removal mining is a crime against Appalachia. Al Jazeera America, Op-Ed. On Monday, in response to a lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to protect two species of crayfish from Appalachia under the Endangered Species Act. And the White House has announced it will soon release long-awaited revisions to the controversial “stream buffer zone” on mining discharges, which regulates the proximity of operations near waterways.

NMFS mulls listing removal for Canadian shortnose sturgeon. E&E News (sub req’d). The National Marine Fisheries Service today said it would consider removing a Canadian population of the shortnose sturgeon from listing under the Endangered Species Act. The entire species of sturgeon has been listed as endangered since 1967 after fishing and habitat destruction shrank its numbers. But two Canadian biologists and the owner of a sturgeon caviar company want NMFS to delist the sturgeon that live in the St. John River in New Brunswick, Canada.

KANSAS

Lesser prairie chicken seminar set May 7 in Hays. Hutchinson News. With the recent listing of the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, Balius Compliance Services Inc. and the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies are offering a free seminar to address the impact this change may have on the oil and gas community. Speakers Sean Kyle of the Western Association and Ryan Davis and Joe Schremmer of BCS also will answer questions regarding options to avoid penalties for violating these new federal rules.

States adopt plans as sage grouse listing decision approaches. Capital Press. If greater sage grouse are listed as threatened or endangered later this year, it won’t be for lack of expensive conservation efforts in the 11 Western states where the bird lives. Since 2010, the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service alone has spent nearly $300 million and worked with private landowners to conserve sage grouse habitat on 4.4 million acres. A total of 1,129 ranches have signed on through the NRCS’s Sage Grouse Initiative.

SOUTH DAKOTA

Delegation concerned with ESA’s approach to northern long-eared bats. Ripon Advance. A delegation comprised of U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and Mike Rounds (R-SD), as well as Rep. Krist Noem (R-SD), have expressed their concern about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) approach to the declining population of long-eared bats. “This is another example of federal overreach by this administration,” Rounds said. “I applaud Sen. Thune and Rep. Noem for being leaders on this issue and will continue to work with them to rectify this misguided decision.” The FWS has chosen to include the long-eared bats with the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

WEST VIRGINIA

Groups sue Patriot over W.Va. coal operations. E&E News (sub req’d). Environmental groups sued Patriot Coal Corp. in federal court today, accusing the company of releasing what they called “widespread water pollution” from operations in West Virginia. The groups — the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Sierra Club and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy — are pointing to Patriot’s Hobet 21 mine in the southern part of the state, part of the company’s 6,000-acre Hobet mining complex. They say pollution dumps from Hobet have caused the Mud River watershed to become biologically impaired, with widespread harm to aquatic life.