Issues
Northern Long-eared Bat Listing Worries Kansas Officials. Kansas officials are concerned that the potential federal listing of the Northern long-eared bat as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) could affect local construction projects. If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) moves forward with a listing, 66 of the state’s eastern counties could see project delays.
As IPAA’s ESA Watch team highlighted last week, many stakeholders across the bat’s 37 state range have expressed concerns with the potential federal listing. As IPAA previously highlighted in joint comments with the American Petroleum Institute, the NLEB “does not meet the standard of the best scientific and commercial data available and the species therefore does not merit listing as threatened or endangered at this time.” IPAA will be submitting additional comments to FWS regarding its concerns with the proposed special rule preceding the federal listing of the NLEB on March 17, in advance of the April 2, 2015 listing deadline.
Fish and Wildlife and Department of Agriculture Encourage Greater Sage-grouse Protection. This week, federal agencies pushed for increased conservation efforts to improve the habitat region of the Greater sage-grouse. As a part of this work, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) advised agencies to protect the bird’s “strongholds,” while the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will allocate over $200 million to sage-grouse protection projects. FWS’s plan calls for protecting 16.5 million acres of sage-grouse habitat in high-density areas that include the Great Basin, western Wyoming and north-central Montana.
“Strong, durable, and meaningful protection of federally administered lands in these areas will provide additional certainty and help obtain confidence for long-term sage-grouse persistence,” FWS Director Dan Ashe wrote in an October 2014 internal memo. The USDA’s $200 million conservation pledge will reinforce the $300 million already spent on mostly private land projects across 11 Western states.
“The effort you’re seeing here is unprecedented on private land,” said Undersecretary for Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Bonnie. “Thanks to the interest from ranchers and support of our conservation partners, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is working to secure this species’ future while maintaining our vibrant western economies,” he added in The Oregonian.
In December, Congress passed a $1.1 trillion appropriations package containing language limiting the Secretary of the Interior from spending any funds to write or issue proposed ESA listing rules for the Greater sage-grouse. FWS must decide whether to list the bird by September 30th, 2015.
Utah Governor Issues Executive Order to Protect Greater Sage-grouse. In another effort to conserve the Greater sage-grouse and keep the bird off the federal endangered species, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed an executive order Tuesday directing state agencies to make sage-grouse conservation a priority. A federal listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), according to Herbert, would require Utah to place restrictions on ranchers, farmers, and energy and natural resource developers that could have a “significantly devastating impact” on the state’s economy.
“Utah is committed to good environmental stewardship,” Herbert said in a statement. “Signing the executive order has to be done in a serious and thoughtful way, addressing the bird’s habitat, as well as the needs of society, private landowners and the economy.”
Herbert’s order specifically calls for implementing the state’s 2013 sage grouse conservation plan, which aims to protect the bird in 11 areas covering 7.5 million acres. As E&E News reports, the plan includes maintaining a 10-year average population of 4,100 male sage-grouse on monitored leks, or breading grounds, as well as conserving sage-grouse habitat through various voluntary, incentive-based programs.
Colorado Challenges Federal Gunnison Sage-grouse Listing Decision. This week, Colorado sued the federal government over its decision to list the Gunnison sage-grouse as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), highlighting concerns about the negative impact of a listing on agriculture and energy development in the state.
In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, state attorney general Cynthia Coffman argued that the listing was unwarranted because the bird’s population has actually increased due to state-based conservation efforts. In addition, according to the lawsuit “the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to rely on the best available science, consider conservation efforts by landowners and state and local governments and study the economic effects of the designation.”
In November, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper threatened to sue FWS over its decision to list the bird as threatened. “We made a commitment, if ranchers, farmers and the oil and gas industry put in the work, and we see the success and benefits of that work, if the federal government is going to come in and overstep that work — we will oppose it,” Hickenlooper stated.
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Western Watersheds Project have also sued the agency, alleging that the bird should be considered as endangered under the ESA.
In the News
Endangered Species Act needs reform. Iron County Today, Op-Ed. Sen. Mike Lee writes: Far too long the threat of frivolous environmentalist lawsuits has prevented citizens in every county from exercising their God-given right to enjoy, protect, manage, and use their own land. Activist organizations will sue the Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act with the sole intention of reaching a closed-door settlement that requires bureaucrats in Washington to grant “protected status” to a particular species. But for the environmentalists, this is often just a ploy to reach their real objective: preventing the people of Utah from using and managing their own land.
Bikers, baritones among those weighing in on ESA. E&E News (sub req’d). Endangered species issues attracted a lot of attention from K Street in 2014, some of it for clients who aren’t often focused on the fate of imperiled plants and animals. Last year, more than 130 entities — including trade groups for motorcyclists, opera singers and public-sector workers — paid lobbyists to contact lawmakers or regulators about endangered species, according to a Greenwire analysis of quarterly lobbying disclosure filings, the last of which were due near the end of January. That is an increase from 2013, when around 100 clients hired lobbyists to work on Endangered Species Act issues.
Enviros sue USDA to force review of predator control program. E&E News (sub req’d). A coalition of environmental groups is suing the Agriculture Department’s predator control program in an effort to halt wildlife trapping and killing in Idaho until the agency conducts a thorough environmental review of the program’s impacts on protected species statewide. The lawsuit also names the Fish and Wildlife Service as a defendant, saying it has failed to “thoroughly assess direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts of Wildlife Services’ Idaho wildlife damage management activities” to species protected by the Endangered Species Act, “including bull trout, Canada lynx, and grizzly bear.”
Western voters support federal protections, oppose state transfers – poll. E&E News (sub req’d). Voters across the West view protecting natural areas as a top priority and, regardless of party affiliation, do not support selling off federal lands to reduce the deficit, according to a new poll. The nonpartisan poll — which surveyed a total of 2,400 voters in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — is generally viewed by elected leaders and other policymakers as a credible gauge on voters’ attitudes about conservation issues and federal management of public lands. And voters surveyed in the poll say they support federal efforts to protect the imperiled greater sage grouse and its dwindling sagebrush steppe habitat.
