Weekly Newsletter | January 4, 2019
Issues
IPAA, Trade Associations submit comments to USFS on Sage-Grouse LMPAs. This week, in partnership with the American Petroleum Institute (API), Western Energy Alliance (WEA), and Petroleum Association of Wyoming (PAW), the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) officially submitted comments to the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) regarding the agency’s Land Management Plan Amendments (LMPA) for the conservation of the Greater sage-grouse in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, and Utah and draft environmental impact statements (DEI).
The USFS contends the proposed plans will incorporate “new information and new science.” The Interior agency said the added input from comments would improve the “clarity, efficiency and implementation of the greater sage grouse plans, including better alignment with BLM,” which is reviewing the impacts of the habitat plans on public lands.
Comments submitted by IPAA et al. noted the USFS’ endeavor to improve the plans, “heartily endorsing” recognition of new information from the 55,000 comments submitted in 2017 following a notice of intent. The comments also stress the need for flexibility and relying on the best available independent, transparent, and peer-reviewed science to make informed, well-rounded decisions. Moreover, the comments also suggest that the USFS must commit to meet and adhere to standards of applicable federal law and develop processes to use independent data from a variety of sources, such as peer-reviewed journals, agency data, and local information. Doing so will go hand in hand with bolstering transparency.
In addition to the above, IPAA et al. urge the USFS to defer to states and local government in the planning process and incentivize private conservation, which arguably has the most impact in conserving Greater sage-grouse as a species.
Read IPAA, WEA, PAW and API’s comments in full on the Federal Register.
Amid government shutdown, BLM and DOI block online access to protection plan documents. Citing the government shutdown, the Department of the Interior (DOI) temporarily took down documents outlining a proposal to change conservation rules for over 83 million acres of Greater sage-grouse habitat in six states. The proposal is supposed to be open for a 30-day public comment period that ends January 8th. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) also removed webpages describing what states are doing to protect the sage-grouse. To explain the disappearance, both agencies cited the government shutdown. Despite limited access to the documents, the proposal remains open for a 30-day “protest period,” during which anybody previously involved in the planning process can register their objections.
The period ends January 8th.
Sage-Grouse protection plan spurs lawsuit in California, Nevada. Off-road vehicle (OHV) enthusiasts are suing the U.S. Forest Service over the bistate sage-grouse in Nevada and California, arguing that a protection plan enacted this year could increase fire danger across the rangeland habitat of the bird already proposed for threatened status. The California Four Wheel Drive Association and off-road groups in the Sierra and Nevada’s Pine Nut Mountains say the protection measures in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest weren’t included among the alternatives subjected to scientific scrutiny and public comment as required by federal environmental laws.
A formal proposal to list the bird as threatened under the Endangered Species Act was rescinded by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2015, only to be reinstated by a federal judge earlier this year.
The OHV groups say that between the draft stage and final adoption of guidelines regarding off-highway travel, the agency nearly doubled the size of buffer zones around bird breeding grounds, known as leks, and extended the season when motorized traffic is banned. They lawsuit was filed Dec. 18 in U.S. District Court in Reno. A formal proposal to list the bird as threatened under the Endangered Species Act was rescinded by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2015, only to be reinstated by a federal judge earlier this year.
In the News
Greens petition FWS to protect gray wolves. E&E News, Sub req’d. Environmental groups today filed a legal petition asking the Fish and Wildlife Service to keep federal protections for gray wolves and to develop a national plan to help the animals recover in the Lower 48 states. FWS last June announced it is evaluating the status of gray wolves and could propose to remove them as an endangered species by year’s end (Greenwire, June 15). But gray wolves “warrant continued protections under the ESA because, although wolves have made progress toward recovery in some areas, wolves are absent or at risk in numerous significant portions of the range in the lower 48 states, including the northeastern U.S., Southern Rocky Mountains and the West Coast,” according to the 48-page petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Humane Society of the United States. “Numerous threats remain within and outside the areas currently occupied by wolves such as exploitation, inadequate regulatory mechanisms and disease,” adds the petition, addressed to Interior Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt and Margaret Everson, FWS’s principal deputy director.
Trump proposals heighten threats to 10 animals — report. E&E News, Sub req’d. Environmentalists released a report today pointing to 10 species being threatened by Trump administration policies. The Endangered Species Coalition report says the Endangered Species Act works as is, pointing to species with successful recoveries like the American alligator and bald eagle. “We should be celebrating,” the report says. “But many of President Trump’s appointees, including administrators and top staff at the Department of the Interior, have worked for decades to weaken protection for imperiled wildlife.” The coalition calls out Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who will take the Interior Department’s helm when Secretary Ryan Zinke leaves this month, for proposed changes to the species law. The proposed regulatory revisions would make it easier to take a species off the ESA list, streamline consultations with other federal agencies and tighten the definition of “foreseeable future” (Greenwire, July 24). “If these regulations go through, our Endangered Species Act will be on the endangered list, itself,” the report says. Under the proposed regulations, the administration could justify delisting the red wolf. This, the report said, would be a “fatal blow” to the critically endangered species.
Judge appears skeptical of green case against border wall. E&E News, Sub req’d. In the same packed courthouse where former presidential aide Michael Flynn awaited sentencing, green groups argued today that the Trump administration has unlawfully skirted environmental laws when building a 20-mile stretch of the southern border wall in New Mexico. The Center for Biological Diversity and other organizations argued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the Trump administration’s decision to waive dozens of environmental laws amounted to “gross executive overreach.” The litigation is part of a larger trend of immigrant-rights groups and environmentalists joining forces to fight President Trump’s plans to build a steel wall along the southern border. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is not expected to issue a ruling for weeks — but the challenge appears to be an uphill battle for greens. “I think it’s a difficult legal challenge, but it needs to be challenged because Trump is exploiting laws on the books,” said Jean Su, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.
FWS proposes denying 13 listings. E&E News, Sub req’d. The Fish and Wildlife Service is poised to deny Endangered Species Act protections to 13 species, including a freshwater snail that it says has already gone extinct. In a proposed rule set to be published tomorrow in the Federal Register, FWS found the Ozark pyrg to be extinct and therefore unqualified for protections. According to FWS, no Ozark pyrgs were found during surveys from 1915 to 2010 in their historical range through Arkansas and Missouri. Because FWS determined the species to be extinct, “the Ozark pyrg does not meet the statutory definition of either an endangered species or a threatened species and, accordingly, does not warrant listing under the Act,” according to the proposed rule. “We can and should do better,” said Noah Greenwald, the endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The loss of this snail due to the degradation of its freshwater habitat shows how delaying protection has tragic, permanent consequences.” The center previously sued FWS over another species denied protection in the proposed rule: the San Joaquin Valley giant flower-loving fly.
New rules would raise bar for FOIA requests. E&E News, Sub req’d. The Interior Department today proposed rule changes that would make it easier for the agency to reject Freedom of Information Act requests — including those it deems “unreasonably burdensome” or that would require “inspection of a vast quantity of material.” The move is the latest effort by the Trump administration to curb what it describes as an “unprecedented surge in FOIA requests and litigation.” The proposed rule changes issued in today’s Federal Register also include pushing FOIA users to submit inquiries via a new “FOIA Requester Center” giving Interior greater leeway in responding to requests. “The Department is fully committed to an equitable FOIA program that ensures compliance with the statutory requirements of transparency, accountability, and prompt production,” states the proposal, signed by Interior Deputy Solicitor General Daniel Jorjani. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recently issued Secretarial Order 3371 to shift oversight of FOIA requests to the department’s top attorney — currently Jorjani, because President Trump has yet to nominate a solicitor — while also creating a deputy chief FOIA officer.
Trump admin fights to end protection for grizzlies. E&E News, Sub req’d. The Trump administration is asking a federal appeals court to toss the recent revival of protections for Yellowstone-area grizzly bears. The government filed a notice of appeal today challenging a September ruling from a Montana district court that halted a planned grizzly hunt and reinstated Endangered Species Act protections for a population of about 700 bears that live around Yellowstone National Park. The Fish and Wildlife Service rolled back the safeguards last year after determining the group’s numbers had significantly recovered from a low of 136 in 1975. The Montana court ruled, however, that the agency didn’t adequately consider the impact of delisting the Yellowstone bears on the more than 1,000 other grizzlies that live in the Lower 48. The federal government wants the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse that decision. Wyoming and Idaho have also challenged the ruling, as have the National Rifle Association and hunting groups. FWS’s decision to appeal will smooth the process for the other parties, which might have faced procedural difficulties had the government held out (Greenwire, Dec. 6).
Mazda Toyota, green groups reach $6M deal to protect fish. E&E News, Sub req’d. Environmental groups say they’ve reached an agreement with Mazda Toyota Manufacturing to protect an endangered fish near the company’s planned automobile plant in north Alabama. The Center for Biological Diversity and Tennessee Riverkeeper said yesterday the $6 million agreement will protect endangered spring pygmy sunfish that live in waters near the $1.6 billion factory in Limestone County. The groups had threatened to sue under the Endangered Species Act. The Mazda Toyota factory will be built beside Beaverdam Creek west of Huntsville, Ala. The waterway is one of only two places where the spring pygmy sunfish lives. A vice president of the joint manufacturing venture, Mark Brazeal, says in a statement that environmental sustainability and conservation are global priorities for Mazda and Toyota. The car plant will produce about 300,000 vehicles annually.
FWS lists ‘colorful little fish’ found in South. E&E News, Sub req’d. Federal officials are putting a fish whose habitat is threatened by development in Southern states on the endangered species list. The Fish and Wildlife Service is adding the trispot darter to the list. The trispot darter can be found in the Coosa River watershed in northern Alabama, northern Georgia and southeastern Tennessee. It also survives in the Conasauga River watershed, above the confluence with the Coosawattee River in Georgia and Tennessee, according to the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity. Development along the Coosa River in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia threatens the fish’s water quality due to stormwater runoff, Al.com reported. The fish was believed to be extinct in Alabama for more than 50 years until it was discovered in Little Canoe Creek in 2008, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. Being placed on the endangered species list makes it illegal for the freshwater fish to be caught or sold.
Groups: U.S. must consider how salmon fishing hurts orcas. E&E News, Sub req’d. The federal government is violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to consider how salmon fishing off the West Coast is affecting endangered killer whales, two conservation groups said yesterday as they threatened a lawsuit. The Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity and the Washington state-based Wild Fish Conservancy notified the Trump administration that they intend to file a lawsuit within 60 days unless officials re-evaluate whether the fishing further jeopardizes orcas that frequent the inland waters of the Pacific Northwest. “We can’t allow business as usual in the salmon fisheries while Southern Resident killer whales are starving to death,” Julie Teel Simmonds, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a news release. The orcas’ plight has received much attention this year as scientists warn that they’re on the brink of extinction. There are just 74 left, the lowest number since more than 50 were captured for aquarium display in the 1970s, and no calf born in the last three years has survived. One mother whale captured attention around the world this summer when she carried her dead calf on her head for 17 days in an apparent attempt to revive it.
Salamanders to whales: How Trump rule might affect wildlife. E&E News, Sub req’d. The Trump administration’s proposed rule restricting the Clean Water Act’s reach over wetlands and waterways would affect the homes and food delivery for a wide range of animals, according to ecologists who are just starting to assess the plan’s impact. Species that live in wetlands are generally more threatened with extinction than “terrestrial species” in the United States, said Stuart Pimm, a conservation ecologist with Duke University. “They are already important to biodiversity, and if you say certain areas don’t count as wetlands, you put huge areas — and the animals that live in them — in jeopardy from draining, pollution and a variety of factors,” he said. The new “Waters of the U.S.,” or WOTUS, rule would erase federal protections for streams that flow only after rainfall and wetlands without continuous surface water connections to larger waterways. Those account for more than 18 percent of streams and 51 percent of wetlands nationwide. “Those ephemeral wetlands and waterways are hugely important for a whole lot of variety of species,” Pimm said. He says that wetlands can sometimes have a marketing problem, regarded as swamps that are home to only snakes and frogs — “wasted land.” In fact, they service a number of animals — including birds and mammals. And when those species or their homes are affected, it can have ripple effects beyond just the individual wetlands.
No protected status for rare Wyo. Plant. E&E News, Sub req’d. The Fish and Wildlife Service concluded today that a tiny plant found only in a small area of Wyoming does not need special protection under law. The Fremont County rockcress is a high-elevation perennial herb with small white flowers. It grows only in a very small area at the southern end of the Wind River Range. FWS announced today the plant doesn’t merit protection under the Endangered Species Act. Agency officials said there are no immediate threats to the plant largely because the Bureau of Land Management has protected the plant’s habitat, which covers just 160 acres.
Lawsuit urges feds to protect snakes in Ariz., N.M. E&E News, Sub req’d. A conservation group is suing the Trump administration over the protection of critical habitat for garter snakes in Arizona and New Mexico. The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit yesterday in federal court in Tucson, Ariz., accusing the Fish and Wildlife Service of endangering the northern Mexican garter snake and the narrow-headed garter snake. In the filing, the organization says the snakes’ populations are at lower densities in both states. Both became listed as threatened in 2014 under the Endangered Species Act. An attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity says the Trump administration needs to safeguard the rivers the snakes rely on. An FWS spokesman did not immediately reply to a message and email seeking comment.
