Issues
Congress Questions Interior’s Proposed Listing & Science on Greater Sage Grouse. This week, 18 members of Congress sent a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell regarding their concerns with the Department’s science and transparency on the proposed future listing of the Greater Sage Grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). According to the letter:
“With less than a year to go before the Department’s self-imposed September 2015 settlement deadline to determine whether to list the Greater Sage Grouse under the ESA, it appears that the Department is blatantly ignoring or downplaying significant flaws and gaps in its own sage grouse data and science, and failing to incorporate recent data that suggests sage grouse populations are stable and not declining. This undermines the Obama Administration’s pledge to ‘ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration.”
The members also expressed doubt surrounding the Interior’s upcoming science workshop in Colorado on the grouse, noting that the meeting is excluding scientists with expertise on the species and its population. The letter calls for “an independent scientific review of all best available science” on the grouse to ensure the credibility of Interior’s work and to increase transparency and confidence for the public.
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04), Public Lands and Environmental Regulation Subcommittee Chairman Rob Bishop (UT-01), and 16 additional members of Congress signed the letter. Read the full letter HERE.
Interior Secretary Tours Sage Grouse Areas in Wyoming and Idaho. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell made visits to Wyoming and Idaho this week to tour Sage Grouse habitat and visit with local landowners, taking note of various conservation efforts already underway to protect the bird in the region.
In Wyoming, Secretary Jewell was joined by Governor Matt Mead, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe, and various local officials and landowners to discuss plans in place to conserve sage grouse habitat. A ceremony was also held to highlight the conservation efforts, notably by Wyoming’s ranching community, to promote the conservation efforts already underway in the region. According to Secretary Jewell, “successful conservation of sagebrush habitat depends on a spirit of collaborative partnership among states, tribes, federal partners, private landowners and other stakeholders – and this is especially true for the greater sage-grouse, which inhabits both public and private lands across the West.”
Nine landowners were congratulated at the ceremony for being the first Wyoming ranches to enroll in Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances (CCAA) for the grouse, covering more than 39,000 acres across the state. The agreements ensure the ranchers continue to improve and maintain their sagebrush habitats in exchange for assurances they will not be required to take additional actions if federal listing of the bird moves forward.
Earlier in the week, Secretary Jewell also visited sage grouse habitat in Idaho. The Secretary was joined by Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Deputy Director Steve Ellis, U.S. Senators Mike Crapo and James Risch, and local stakeholders and ranchers, to tour sagebrush habitat and to see the conservation efforts in place. BLM Deputy Director Steve Ellis said “our goal is to work with natural resource managers across boundaries to ensure the success of this critical work. Ultimately, we want healthy, functioning sagebrush plant communities that support all sagebrush wildlife species. Areas affected by wildfire, like what we see here, are of key importance.”
Comment Period for Yellow-Billed Cuckoo Reopened. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has announced the re-opening of the comment period for the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo. Comments on the proposed critical habitat rule were originally due by October 14, 2014, and have now been extended by 60 days.
The decision follows an October 6th letter sent to FWS Director Dan Ashe from 17 members of Congress. The letter urged FWS to extend the comment period for the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo’s proposed critical habitat designation, highlighting the negative impact the proposed critical habitat designation could have on 546,335 acres across Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) applauded the extension, stating “listing would have devastating negative impacts on farmers, ranchers, forest management, small businesses, and American energy production … It is only common sense that the
In the News
O&G industry sees overreach in ESA critical habitat proposals. Oil & Gas Journal. Federal proposals to amend portions of the Endangered Species Act would significantly reshape and further complicate the law’s critical habitat process, and unjustifiably expand two federal services’ authority to make such designations, the American Petroleum Institute and five other oil and gas industry associations said. “Land would be designated as critical habitat even if that land is ‘unoccupied’ by the species, and contains none of the ‘physical or biological features’ required by the species,” the group said in comments submitted Oct. 9 about the US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service’s May 12 proposals.
Environmentalists eye Idaho sage grouse ruling as leverage for similar lawsuits elsewhere. Associated Press. A small portion of a federal judge’s ruling in Idaho against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management concerning grazing permits in sage grouse habitat is being eyed as a potential lever by environmental groups considering similar lawsuits in other states. Most of U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill’s 21-page decision late last month involved his ruling that the agency violated environmental laws in issuing permits on four grazing allotments in south-central Idaho, considered test cases for about 600 other permits.
Sage-grouse conservation won’t harm energy output: study. Energy Guardian (sub req’d). Most of the western federal lands in seven western states where the greater sage-grouse faces the loss of habitat have low oil, gas, and renewable energy potential, according to a report released Thursday by a conservation group. The report for the Western Values Project found that most federal lands in the states with sizable energy resources are outside the bird’s key habitat areas. NOTE: Read Western Values Project’s press release HERE and the full report HERE.
US lists 20 corals as threatened; activists want more. Baltimore Sun. The U.S. government pared back the number of reef-building coral species it was considering to label as threatened from 66 to 20 this week, prompting criticism from conservationists. Environmentalists urged the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday to extend the protection to all threatened marine species. “We are concerned with NOAA’s unwillingness to acknowledge the widespread threats to the coral species not receiving protections,” said Bethany Cotton, wildlife program director for environmental advocacy group WildEarth Guardians.
Greens sue to protect wolverines. The Hill. A coalition of environmental and wildlife groups sued the federal government to force it to protect the wolverine under the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit, filed Monday, comes after the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) decided in August that, despite scientists’ concerns that climate change would dramatically reduce the wolverine’s habitat, it did not merit protection as an endangered or threatened species.
Has the Obama administration hobbled the Endangered Species Act? High Country News. On June 27, the two federal agencies that list endangered species — the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Services — published a 140-page policy document about the five-word phrase “significant portion of its range.” It purports to be the final word in a long battle over that phrase, a fight that has kept lawyers on both sides gainfully employed while giving conservationists migraines. It has the potential to upend U.S. policy on endangered and threatened species, leaving dozens of species unprotected by law in broad swaths of their historic ranges.
