Issues
ICYMI. ESA Watch has published a Special Report reflecting on IPAA’s work on the Endangered Species Act (ESA) over the past year and looking ahead at the key issues to follow in 2016. The report summarizes last year’s developments on the greater sage-grouse, northern long-eared bat, lesser prairie chicken, ESA reform, and more. The report also highlights what to watch for in the coming months as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grapples with listing petitions for pollinators and a split in the courts over the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Check out the full report HERE.
House passes bill to tackle ‘sue and settle’ tactics. The U.S. House Thursday passed the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act by a vote of 244 to 173. The bill goes after the “sue and settle” tactics frequently used by environmental groups to prompt the government to take action on endangered species listings via lawsuit. The bill requires agencies to take public comment on proposed settlements and creates a database of consent decree terms and attorneys’ fees. The White House has threatened to veto the bill, saying it would unnecessarily slow down the regulatory process and addresses a “nonexistent problem that is already prohibited by Federal regulations.”
Conservation groups threaten lawsuit over monarch butterfly protections. The Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Food Safety have threatened to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in hopes of forcing a decision on listing the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act after the agency missed an earlier decision deadline. The Service concluded in late 2014 that a listing may be warranted, but the Centers argue the Service has exceeded its legally required 12-month scientific review period without announcing a decision.
Estimates note that the monarch butterfly population has declined from roughly 1 billion in the mid-1990’s to only 56.5 million last year. IPAA submitted joint comments on the butterfly last March, highlighting the negligible impact oil and gas operations have on the species. In its comments, IPAA and the American Petroleum Institute note that researchers have linked the decline in the monarch population to a loss of milkweed, deforestation in Mexico, and widespread use of certain pesticides and herbicides, none of which are associated with oil and gas production.
Montana seeks input from private landowners on sage grouse. This week, the Montana Sage Grouse Oversight Team held public hearings with private landowners to gather their input on how best to manage sage grouse habitat in the state. The challenge of striking the right balance between conservation and development is particularly pressing in Montana, where roughly 60 percent of sage grouse habitat is on private land.
Montana’s sage grouse management plan allows for mining and oil and gas development while minimizing impacts to sage grouse habitat. The state legislature last year approved a $10 million mitigation program to help landowners offset the impacts of development within the sage grouse habitat. According to the plan, if a proposed project disturbs sage grouse habitat by more than 5 percent, the developer will need to purchase mitigation credits.
In the News
BLM approves Nevada project critics claimed doomed by grouse. Associated Press. Federal land managers have approved the right of way a rural Nevada county needs to replace an aging water tank that critics had argued was a prime example of development doomed by new U.S. protections of the greater sage grouse. The move comes a week after Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval announced Interior Secretary Sally Jewell had agreed to address a number of concerns about the land use restrictions, including the water tank White Pine County officials say is desperately needed near the Utah line.
Idaho to host workshop on Endangered Species Act reform. Boise State Public Radio. Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter is leading a meeting with the Western Governors’ Association in Boise. According to a press release, the nonpartisan group wants states to share ideas about species management. The association is also looking at ways to “improve efficiency of the Endangered Species Act.” Idaho filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after the sage grouse decision in September. The suit claims federal leaders were deceptive in creating the land use plans that were approved the same day as the decision.
A game-changing approach to conservation in the West. The Hill (Op-Ed). Last month’s decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that greater sage-grouse are “not warranted” for listing under the Endangered Species Act is not only a win for the bird, but also for my herd and for thousands of livestock producers in the West. It shows that with hard work and collaboration, we can successfully tackle complex issues affecting our public and private lands in the West, and nationwide. Unfortunately, the final decision to not list the greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act will undoubtedly be challenged. The key is to ensure that the conservation actions of federal and state agencies, ranchers and other private landowners do not come to a grinding halt.
Environmental groups sue Oregon for taking gray wolf off endangered list. Reuters. Environmental groups have sued Oregon wildlife officials for removing gray wolves from a list of state-protected endangered species, officials said on Thursday. Three environmental groups led by the Center for Biological Diversity filed a brief petition for judicial review with the Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday. “It’s not rocket science that roughly 80 wolves in 12 percent of suitable habitat in Oregon does not equal a recovered population,” Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the Diversity group, said in a statement announcing the legal challenge. The petition, which Greenwald said is the first step in a lawsuit, comes a month after the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to remove the wolves from the list. The state said the wolves had recovered in sufficiently healthy numbers and no longer faced the threat of extinction.
Next goal: Reclaim unused well pads. Grand Junction Sentinel. When falling prices caused natural gas development to start dropping off in places like western Colorado after peaking in 2008, in some cases it ended up in companies doing little or no drilling on well pads they’d already built. How to ensure such pads are reclaimed through reseeding and other measures is part of a stepped-up focus by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Pads can be converted back to cropland, or can provide browse and habitat for wildlife ranging from deer and elk to imperiled species such as the greater sage-grouse.
Environmental lawsuits spiked in 2015. Capital Press. The number of federal lawsuits filed over environmental issues increased more than 60 percent, to 862, across the U.S. in 2015 compared to the previous year. While the environmental caseload in federal courts can swing wildly from year to year, that figure is also roughly 8 percent above the average number of complaints filed annually over the past decade. However, Budd-Falen noticed a distinct increase in cases filed by environmentalist groups that commonly litigate in the West since the Obama administration came into office. This finding may seem counterintuitive, given the environmentalist antagonism toward the Bush administration, but Budd-Falen said the upswing was caused by a reduced willingness to put up a fight by the Obama administration.
NPS urged to take ‘hard look’ at Big Cypress oil proposal. E&E News (sub req’d). Seven conservation groups say the National Park Service has failed to properly analyze a Texas company’s proposed search for oil across a 110-square-mile swatch of South Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve. The groups also question whether the Park Service adequately analyzed “the effectiveness of the proposed mitigation measures” designed to protect the preserve, which sits in a region that contains some of the nation’s most biologically diverse wildlife, including Florida panthers, wood storks and dozens of other federally listed species under the Endangered Species Act.
Florida manatees in line to lose ‘endangered’ species tag; feds say move is a sign of recovery. Miami Herald. In a news conference at the Miami Seaquarium on Thursday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that a population estimated at just over 6,000 should be reclassified as simply “threatened” despite a record number of deaths in recent years. They called the down-listing a positive move signaling a recovery and stressed that the change would not reduce protections already in place. “Based on the best available scientific information, we believe the manatee is no longer in danger of extinction,” said Mike Oetker, the agency’s deputy regional director.
