NATIONAL

Judge sets deadline for decision on butterfly. Wallowa County Chieftain.  A federal judge has given the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has until the end of June 2015 to decide whether to extend Endangered Species Act protection to the Leona’s little blue butterfly, a rare species found only in Oregon.

Success Story: Wood Storks no longer endangered Thirty-year recovery effort has brought bird back from brink of extinction. Kings Tree News. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell recently announced that the US Fish and Wildlife Service is down-listing the wood stork from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), reflecting a highly successful conservation and recovery effort spanning three decades.

Penstemon agreement not enough protection. Salt Lake Tribune (LTE). The conservation agreement highlighted in your recent op-ed (“Penstemon Agreement Saves More Flowers than Endangered Species Act Would,” July 11) is the latest, last-minute effort by individuals wanting to derail all Endangered Species Act listing proposals. No plants have been listed in the Uinta Basin since 1992; only one Utah plant species has been listed since 2001.

Kansas Pushes Back Against Federal Prairie Chicken Restrictions. Heartland. Although nearly 18,000 free-roaming lesser prairie chickens remain in the five states, the Fish & Wildlife Services took the opportunity to use the Endangered Species Act to propose land-use restrictions in the states. The FWS blames farmers and ranchers for declining prairie chicken numbers, saying the conversion of prairies to farms and grazing lands has dramatically reduced the prairie chicken’s natural habitat.

Legal Challenges on Home Turf Threaten US Ex-Im Bank Funding for Foreign Mining Projects. Mondaq. In 2012, several environmental NGOs challenged Ex-Im Bank’s decision to provide approximately US$4.8 billion in financing for two liquefied-natural-gas projects in Australia, claiming that the agency did not adequately consider the effect of the projects on endangered species or the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, and alleged that it had therefore violated the ESA and the NHPA.

BLM pursuing restoration work across Lane County. Register-Guard. To improve fish habitat, the agency also is ­replacing two culverts in the Coast Range that carry ­waterways underneath roadways. The work aims to make it easier for coho salmon, a species listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, to migrate up streams for spawning.

Critical habitat established for loggerheads. Fort Myers Beach Talk. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service and the Department of Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced two final rules to designate critical habitat involving marine areas and nesting beaches for loggerheads at 88 nesting beaches in coastal counties located in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. The rules go into effect on Aug. 9.

Still at Risk, Manatees in Danger of Losing Protection. One Green Planet. In response to a lawsuit by the Pacific Legal Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has decided downlisting manatees–from endangered to threatened–under the federal Endangered Species Act may be warranted. The agency is now embarking on a 5-year status review as part of the review process.

Building on Success. Huffington Post.Headed to the full House of Representatives for a vote as early as this month, it includes troubling provisions that would: Undermine the authority of other proven, keystone federal environmental laws such as the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act — laws that involve the public in decision-making and have helped restore, conserve, and manage natural resources for decades.

House passes Interior appropriations bill out of committee. Feed Stuffs.Van Liew added that due to a closed-door settlement between United States Fish and Wildlife Service and radical environmental groups, arbitrary deadlines have been set for making hundreds of decisions on species in all fifty states to be listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Fifth Circuit Limits the Reach of ESA “Take Liability” for State Regulatory Agencies Based on “Proximate Causation” Principles. JD Supra Business Advisor (Press Release). In a major decision interpreting the reach and scope of Endangered Species Act (ESA) “take” liability for state regulatory actions, the Fifth Circuit in The Aransas Project v. Shaw (TAP) held that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) did not cause the deaths of Whooping Cranes when issuing water withdrawal permits under state law.

Supreme Court to Obama Administration: Congress writes laws, you don’t! Daily Times (Op-Ed). Justice Scalia’s opinion invites Congress to “speak clearly” on agency authority. It is now up to our elected representatives to rise to the occasion and pass legislation that leaves “decisions of vast ‘economic and political significance'” in its hands alone. Such action could rein in many agency abuses including the heavy-handed application of the Endangered Species Act and public lands management.

Up-To-the-Minute Energy. National Journal. The bill passed 29-19, with Democrats saying the bill’s funding level was too low and contained too many poison pill provisions. Among those: language that would block the EPA’s rules limiting emissions from power plants, blocking the EPA’s proposal to redefine its Clean Water Act jurisdiction and delay an Endangered Species Act listing of the sage grouse.

Feline Conservation Federation: Committee Should Axe the Big Cats and Public Safety Act. Digital Journal (Press Release). “The key to long-term survival of a species is large effective population size and high genetic diversity. Passing this bill would significantly reduce both. It would have an unavoidable negative impact on the future of the captive tiger population as well as other endangered feline species maintained in captivity.”

District Court Denies Motion to Enjoin Delta Water Transfers. JD Supra Business Advisor.  The Bureau prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) and issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) pursuant to NEPA in April 2014, concluding that the transfer project was covered by the 2008 delta smelt biological opinion issued under the Endangered Species Act and that the timing of the transfers (July-September) was such that delta smelt would not be present in the Delta, and therefore would not be adversely impacted.

Oregon inmates tend seedlings for sage grouse. Register Guard. Typically, sagebrush seeds would survive a brush fire, and the plant would be able to regrow naturally in an area that had burned. However, the fire conditions created by the onset of species such as cheatgrass are much hotter than ones the sagebrush seeds can survive. That’s a huge problem for sage grouse, which are entirely dependent on sagebrush at every step of their life cycles, Moore said. Sage grouse use sagebrush for nesting, cover and food.

House panel clears bill targeting EPA. Politico. The Environmental Protection Agency was the chief target, together with its proposed rule to cut greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. But the list stretched to include trade in African ivory, the future of the Western sage grouse and even a minor EPA rule seeking to garnish the wages of 14 individuals said to owe the government an estimated $228,000.

CALIFORNIA

California Red-Legged Frog is Now Official State Amphibian. KFBK News. The Golden State now has a new state amphibian. The Californian Red-Legged Frog is listed as threatened under the Federal Endangered species Act.

GEORGIA

Turn lights out for sea turtles or risk $25,000 fine. Bluffton News. Natural resources officials are urging coastal visitors and residents to turn off outdoor lights. Otherwise, baby loggerheads can become confused and end up traveling away from the ocean, which can kill them. Federal and state laws protect loggerheads, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

IDAHO

Idaho adopts wolverine management plan. Spokesman Review(Blog). Wolverines in the lower 48 states are currently proposed for listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, in part because of projected loss of snow habitat from climate change.  Idaho Fish and Game Commissioners approved the plan as U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials deliberate a final listing decision on wolverines, anticipated in early August.

Wind Energy Project Will Not be Pursued. Magic Valley. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management had deferred a decision on the project in March 2012, “pending the completion of the Idaho and Southwestern Montana subregional Greater Sage-Grouse Land Use Plan Amendment and Environmental Impact Statement,” said BLM spokeswoman Heather Tiel-Nelson. “That document is expected to hit the street this fall.”

MICHIGAN

Michigan League of Conservation Voters give local legislators high marks. Ann Arbor Journal. “Michigan’s land, air and water are essential to our way of life and they are drivers of our economy. Conservation issues are common ground amongst Michiganders who count on the health of our natural resources for their livelihoods and to enjoy the amazing outdoor opportunities our state has to offer. They should be common ground amongst our representatives in office as well.”

MONTANA

FWS director defends decisions on wolverines, wolves. Missoulian. The federal agency’s field scientists had recommended in May that wolverines be given “threatened” status under the Endangered Species Act because climate change was taking away the widespread, long-lasting snowpacks the high-altitude carnivore uses for denning and reproduction. But Walsh’s memo ordered a withdrawal of the recommendation.

Protecting Flathead, other borderlands ‘twice as much work’. Missoulian. U.S. law allows border security to trump the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, along with many other measures intended to protect natural features. But Pulliam has found that projects to fix some of the damaged waterways in his part of New Mexico have improved economies on both sides of the border.

Writer says FWP sage-grouse management a joke. Montana Standard (LTE).FWP has been furiously spinning the sage-grouse hunting season closure in most of the state so the agency doesn’t appear irrelevant to any possible hope of recovery. Sage-hen “management” has been exposed as an oxymoron in Montana. Recently, FWP has contended: FWP can manage sage grouse better than any outsiders.

NEW MEXICO

New Mexico’s mouse war escalates. Town Hall. Ranchers whose permits allow their cattle to graze in the Santa Fe National Forest object to a proposal to erect fencing covering 120 acres in a meadow where the mouse lives. They’re heading to Capitol Hill to plead their case to a House subcommittee. At the same time, an environmental group instrumental in getting the mouse listed under the federal government’s Endangered Species Act filed paperwork last week to start the process of suing the U.S. Forest Service to protect the mouse’s habitat.

OREGON

SE Oregon range wildfires burn nearly 90,000 acres. KTVZ News. The Buzzard Complex of range fires in southeast Oregon approached 90,000 acres by late Tuesday, with significant burning activity throughout the day and well into the evening, officials said. Livestock, private property, several ranches, outbuildings, sage grouse habitat and agriculture lands were threatened throughout the day.

TEXAS

Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge. Impact News. The primary purpose of the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge is to protect and conserve the specialized nesting habitat of the black-capped vireo and golden-cheeked warbler, two highly endangered migratory songbirds, Refuge Manager Deborah Holle said.

UTAH

Scientists document first sighting of this endangered species in Utah. Fox 13. Biologists said they are thrilled about a recent endangered species find here in Utah. Fewer than 400 are left and scientists said they got the first glimpse of a baby in our state at Zion National Park. A California condor chick just hatched in a rock cavity there.