Issues

IPAA Submits Request to FWS Regarding Listing Petition Transparency. This week, IPAA submitted a letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe, requesting additional transparency surrounding the listing petition process under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

As IPAA highlights in its letter, petitions to list a species as threatened or endangered under the ESA are currently only disclosed once the Service determines a petition presents substantial information to move forward with a 90-day finding in the Federal Register. IPAA is urging the Service to publish species names immediately following the receipt of a petition, an action the Service could complete within its current authority under the ESA.  Read IPAA’s full letter to Director Ashe HERE.

Spending Bill Would Block Protection Efforts for At Risk Bird.  Late yesterday, the House of Representatives passed a $1.1 trillion appropriations package that funds most of the government through September 2015.  The omnibus spending bill also contains language prohibiting the Secretary of the Interior from spending any funds to write or issue proposed listing rules under the Endangered Species Act for the Greater sage-grouse, as well as the distinct population segment of the species in the Columbia basin.  The decision also prevents the Fish and Wildlife Service from moving forward with a final threatened ruling for the Gunnison sage-grouse and the bi-state distinct population segment of the Greater sage-grouse. Like the rest of the bill, unless extended, these provisions expire at the end of September of 2015.

While the package is still awaiting approval in the Senate, the inclusion of the sage-grouses in the appropriation’s package has been widely seen as a key indicator of the importance of this species to the economy and livelihood of the Western United States. As Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) Vice President Dan Naatz discussed in POLITICO this week, a final listing of the Greater sage-grouse could have a wide impact on both energy and economic development in the bird’s habitat range. According to Mr. Naatz:

 “As we’ve seen just this week with the low-yielding BLM lease sale in Nevada, independent producers are concerned that a future federal listing of the sage-grouse would harm existing state-based conservation measures already in place to protect the bird, while simultaneously ignoring the great strides America’s energy industry has taken to reduce surface impacts and enhance conservation of the sage-grouse in the West.”

IPAA recently met with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Director Dan Ash to emphasize IPAA’s opposition to a federal listing of the Greater sage-grouse and the great work of independent producers to conserve the species.

Colorado Leadership Not Convinced. According to reports from E&E News this week, Colorado is still planning on challenging the listing of the Gunnison sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), despite the language in the pending spending bill.

According to John Swartout, a senior Hickenlooper adviser focused on sage grouse issues, the Governor’s office is working to file a 60-day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to overturn the listing of the Gunnison sage-grouse this month. Swartout notes that while there is a rider in the omnibus spending bill preventing listings for various sage grouse species, there is still a need for action on the Gunnison sage-grouse.  From E&E News:

“‘We’ve looked at the language

[in the rider] very carefully, and we understand what was intended. But since they’ve already issued a final rule, it has no impact on preventing [the listing] since it’s already been listed,’ Swartout said today in a brief interview. ‘The Gunnison listing will take full effect on Dec. 22,” he added. “They’ve really done nothing to block that.’”

The Gunnison sage-grouse was listed as threatened on November 12, 2014, a decision impacting roughly 1.4 million acres of designated critical habitat across Colorado and Utah.

Nevada Groups Sue Over Sage Grouse Listing. This week, the Nevada Association of Counties, Nevada Mineral Resources Alliance, the American Exploration & Mining Association, and F.I.M Corp filed a joint lawsuit alleging the federal government violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Administrative Procedure Act, and the U.S. Constitution by not considering a “warranted but precluded” listing for the Greater sage-grouse.

According to the Elko Daily Free Press, the coalition takes issue with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2011 legal agreement with conservation groups that eliminated the sage grouse’s eligibility for a “warranted but precluded” listing. Typically a species under consideration for ESA protection can be added as an endangered or threatened species, not warrant a listing, or be warranted but precluded because other species have priority.

According to American Exploration & Mining Association (AEMA) Executive Director Laura Skaer:

“The candidate species category is at the very heart of the ESA because it acts as a velvet hammer that encourages states, local governments, landowners, and industry to pursue effective conservation measures. Eliminating the candidate species classification undermines a key objective of the ESA – to incentivize species protection and habitat conservation and turns the velvet hammer into a sledgehammer. Listing a species as threatened or endangered should be an act of last resort and not a foregone conclusion to satisfy an illegal settlement.”

Theo Stein, Fish & Wildlife spokesperson, said he could not address the lawsuit, per the agency’s policy not to comment on ongoing litigation.

In the News

Gunnison sage-grouse gets a measure of federal protection. The Hill. Last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Gunnison sage-grouse as a “threatened” species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), after more than a decade of consideration and false starts. It was a decision that satisfied few. Conservationists are displeased because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had proposed “endangered” species status, the most protective designation, but then backtracked to the lesser threatened species status. A threatened listing leaves the door open for loopholes in protection, as is the case for another imperiled grouse, the lesser prairie chicken.

Feds want to save sage grouse with conditions, Interior secretary says. Las Vegas Review-Journal. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told a meeting of Western governors Saturday in Las Vegas that the U.S. government’s goal is to find a way to save the sage grouse without having to list it as an endangered species. Jewell was meeting with Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and other state leaders who object to listing the sage grouse, arguing it would lock up hundreds of thousands of acres and harm the mining, ranching and cattle industries while changing the way of life in the Silver State. “We want to create an environment where a listing is not warranted,” Jewell said. “So we’re all working with that common objective. … It truly is epic collaboration. It’s not just the sage grouse that’s at stake. It’s the Western way of life that’s at stake.”

Feds to grant protections for 5 sawfish. E&E News (sub req’d). The National Marine Fisheries Service will list five species of sawfish as endangered, citing habitat loss and fishing as threats facing the sharklike rays. NMFS will list the narrow sawfish, dwarf sawfish, largetooth sawfish, green sawfish and a non-U.S. population of smalltooth sawfish under the Endangered Species Act. The fish — which sports a snout that resembles a saw — was once common throughout a large range in the Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific but is now becoming rare.

US names red knot bird a threatened species. Associated Press. A rust-colored shorebird known for a nearly 20,000-mile migration will now receive federal protection, setting the stage for states to coordinate preservation plans for the dwindling species. After a 14-month review, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the rufa subspecies of the red knot as threatened on Tuesday. Under the Endangered Species Act, the ruling prohibits killing, shooting, hunting or otherwise harming the bird. “We’ve been — my wife and I — have been working hard to protect the animal with a group of people for 15 years now,” said Larry Niles, a wildlife biologist and red knot expert with Conserve Wildlife N.J. “This status will give it a structural protection we’ve been seeking for a long time.”

Teamwork, conservation will save the great sage grouse — not more lawsuits. Denver Post, Op-Ed. The decision to do a “listing light” for the Gunnison sage grouse has unleashed the expected backlash. Gov. John Hickenlooper has threatened to sue. Instead of suing, Gov. Hickenlooper should put some teeth into statewide conservation plans for both birds. Some have described those plans as aspirational, a laudable set of goals lacking a regulatory framework that could increase chances of success. need leadership instead of lawsuits and handwringing. We need renewed collaboration leading to a quick withdrawal of the listing for the Gunnison sage grouse and conservation — not listing — of the greater sage grouse. The next steps should be on the ground, not in the courts.

Sage grouse scares of BLM oil, gas bidders in Nevada. Associated Press. Concerns about potential future protection of the sage grouse scared off bidders for all but one of 97 oil and gas leases the U.S. Bureau of Land Management offered at auction Tuesday for energy exploration across about 300 square miles of northeast Nevada. Two dozen anti-fracking protesters rallied outside BLM headquarters in Reno against the drilling that likely would utilize underground hydraulic fracturing that critics say threatens fish, wildlife and Nevada’s limited supply of groundwater.

Dozens of scientists urge federal protections for northern bats. E&E News (sub req’d). More than 80 scientists today asked the Fish and Wildlife Service to “act without further delay” to give the northern long-eared bat endangered status. The bat’s population has drastically dropped due partly to a fungal disease called white-nose syndrome. But FWS has repeatedly reopened public comment on its proposal to list the species as endangered, and earlier this year it postponed a final decision until April 2015.