Issues
USFS opens comment period for draft sage-grouse protection plan. Late last week, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) unveiled proposed changes to Obama-era greater sage-grouse conservation plans in five Western states.
On Friday, the agency released draft plans altering rules put in place in 2015 by the Obama administration, generally viewed as keeping the bird from being listed for federal protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The new plans cover 8,000 square miles of greater sage-grouse habitat in Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming and Utah. The draft environmental impact statement (EIS), which proposes amending land-use management plans governing national forests and grasslands, keeps sage grouse protection measures in place in most of the areas covered by the original federal blueprint.
Overall, the Forest Service’s draft EIS proposes changes in how the agency looks at a “desired condition” to describe “specific social, economic and/or ecological characteristics of the plan area or a portion of the plan area toward which management of the land and resources should be directed,” states the draft EIS’s executive summary.
According to Bridger-Teton National Forest spokeswoman Mary Cernicek, “The purpose of the proposed changes is to improve the clarity, efficiency and implementation of the current greater sage-grouse plans, including promoting landscape-scale alignment with state efforts.”
The draft EIS was published in the Federal Register on Oct. 4, opening a 90-day public comment period will end near Jan 3. In the meantime, the Forest Service has scheduled public comment open houses for each state.
Limbo of lizard’s legal status threatens industry. In August, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar proposed a complete overhaul of sagebrush lizard conservation, in an effort to strike a balance between protecting the tiny reptile and maintaining economic prosperity in the state.
Hegar’s proposal is the latest attempt in this ongoing battle to protect the dunes sagebrush lizard amid a threat of federal action. It eliminates scientifically unsupported conservation options and defines ways for companies to avoid lizard habitat, enacts fees from some companies operating in the lizard habitat to support conservation efforts to offset habitat disturbances and includes incentives to focus industrial activities in degraded or nonhabitat areas.
Recently, former Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Chairman Kathleen Hartnett White spoke out in support of the proposal in hopes that it moves forward, citing the prior ineffectiveness of the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) when enforcing the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
“The Endangered Species Act was written so as to grant government near-absolute power to dictate how landowners can use property (…) FWS has not had a stellar history as far as accuracy in defining habitat or even in determining whether a particular species is actually threatened or endangered,” said Hartnett White.
According to Robert Gulley, Director of Economic Growth and Endangered Species in Texas, the federal government could make a decision on the revamped plan by spring of next year.
In the News
‘Cryptic’ little mussel needs ESA listing, feds say. E&E News, Sub req’d. The vulnerable Atlantic pigtoe freshwater mussel requires protection as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, the Fish and Wildlife Service said today. Capping years of litigation and study, the federal agency agreed with environmentalists that the mussel faces serious risks stemming from the loss and degradation of habitat. Land-use changes and a warming climate contribute to the underlying problem. “The Atlantic pigtoe faces a variety of threats from declines in water quality, loss of stream flow, riparian and instream fragmentation and deterioration of instream habitats,” the agency noted, adding that “these threats … are expected to be exacerbated by continued urbanization and the effects of climate change.” As part of the ESA proposal, the agency identified 542 river miles in Virginia and North Carolina as critical habitat. Some of the designated habitat is also home to other species listed under the ESA, which effectively reduces the impact of the new designation. “The incremental costs of designating critical habitat for the Atlantic pigtoe are likely to be relatively low, less than $230,000 per year, given the estimated number of future consultations,” the 16-page economic analysis states. And while private property owners often fear critical habitat designations, the economic analysis notes that there do not appear to be significant development pressures in the area. “In fact, more than half of the river miles proposed for critical habitat are located in counties that experienced population declines between 2012 and 2016,” the analysis reports.
Bill sparked by Calif. blaze would curtail some enviro reviews. E&E News, Sub req’d. Some timber thinning and other efforts to cut wildfire risk near roads would be exempt from standard environmental rules under a new message-sending bill introduced by a Northern California lawmaker. Planted in the final weeks of the 115th Congress, the measure authored by Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) essentially stakes out a position for future debate purposes. Its long-term prospects likely depend on whether LaMalfa’s fellow Republicans retain control of the House. “While we certainly recognize it’s far from a finished product, Congressman LaMalfa knows something must be done to address recent wildfires and believes this bill is a good way to get that conversation seriously started,” LaMalfa’s spokesman Parker Williams said yesterday. The legislation introduced Friday, H.R. 7042, would cover wildfire mitigation efforts undertaken within 500 feet of any permanent or temporary road. The activities, including forest thinning, hazardous fuel reduction, prescribed burning and vegetation management, would be exempt from National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act requirements. Dubbed the “Combustion Avoidance along Rural Roads (CARR) Act,” the far-reaching, three-page bill is a response to the Carr Fire, which burned more than 299,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,000 residences in Northern California before it was contained Aug. 31.
Conservatives stake claim on new Supreme Court. E&E News, Sub req’d. Conservative lawyers are mapping out the next environmental battles they want to wage before the newly constituted Supreme Court. With Brett Kavanaugh sworn in Saturday for a lifetime appointment, many groups are eager to cash in on the court’s distinct swing to the right. On environmental issues, that means a potential uptick in cases involving property rights, agency power and cornerstone environmental laws including the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act. Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute said the first order of business will be defending the Trump administration’s deregulatory actions before the high court. “I was confident that most of them would be eventually upheld, but I’m more confident today with Kavanaugh joining the court,” he said. Jonathan Wood, an attorney with the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, said the fight over the Obama-era Waters of the U.S. rule, or WOTUS, is likely to find its way back to the Supreme Court, too. Now-retired Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the 2006 Supreme Court opinion relied upon for years to guide the federal government’s jurisdiction over various wetlands and waterways. A firmly conservative court may prefer the more limited approach favored by the Trump administration. Another big issue: judicial deference to agencies. Conservatives and libertarians have been gunning for the Chevron doctrine, a long-standing Supreme Court precedent that directs judges to defer to agency judgments in many cases.
FWS floats protections for eastern black rail on rising seas. E&E News, Sub req’d. The Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed protecting the eastern black rail under the Endangered Species Act. Citing dangers that include rising oceans, warmer temperatures and “severe weather events,” the federal agency said the bird deserves ESA listing as a threatened species. Some populations have dropped by as much as 90 percent, officials say. “We have determined that habitat loss and destruction, sea level rise and tidal flooding, incompatible land management, and increasing storm intensity and frequency are the primary threats to this subspecies,” FWS stated. As part of the listing, FWS is also proposing a specially tailored protection plan that would exempt mowing and mechanical treatment of rights of way, fire breaks and utility transmission corridors from the ESA’s usual “take” prohibitions. Described as “shy and reclusive,” the eastern black rail has popped up in as many as three dozen states. One of four subspecies of black rail, the eastern black rail, though rare, is broadly distributed and favors salt, brackish and freshwater marshes. Population estimates vary across different regions, but along the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to Florida there are thought to be somewhere between 355 and 815 breeding pairs. As a result of climate change, FWS noted that the “Northeast Atlantic and western Gulf of Mexico coasts are projected to have amplified relative sea level rise greater than the global average under almost all future sea level rise scenarios.” Such a scenario bodes ill for the eastern black rail’s habitat.
States want lawmakers to watch and learn. E&E News, Sub req’d. State efforts to conserve wildlife earned plaudits on a federal stage yesterday, in a Senate committee hearing largely marked by amicable talk of teamwork and cooperation. But all the while, the edgier and endless Endangered Species Act debate hovered about as the ghost at the banquet. Billed as a session dedicated to considering “Successful State Conservation, Recovery and Management of Wildlife,” the 90-minute Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing put its primary spotlight on state-level expertise. “State fish and wildlife agencies have a long history of success in restoring many species,” John Kennedy, deputy director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, told the Senate panel. Kennedy pointed to the example of the greater sage grouse, whose range spans 43 million acres in Wyoming. The state has focused on habitat areas considered vital to the species and allowed normal use and development elsewhere, Kennedy recounted. The results have helped keep the sage grouse off the ESA list. Mike McCormick, president of the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation, likewise cited the “successful examples of conservation and wildlife recovery achieved through partnerships with private landowners and state and federal agencies.” For instance, McCormick described the Mississippi Honeybee Stewardship Program as a productive result of collaboration among beekeepers, row crop farmers, and the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce, among others. Federal officials lent support but gave locals the lead.
