Issues
Zinke signs order to improve habitat and conservation of Western species. Last Friday at the Western Conservation and Hunting Expo in Salt Lake City, Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Ryan Zinke signed Secretarial Order 3362, directing “appropriate bureaus within the [DOI] to work in close partnership” with eleven Western states “to enhance and improve the quality of big game winter range and migration corridor habitat on Federal lands.” At its core, the order seeks to improve wildlife management while expanding opportunities for big game hunting.
“My goal is healthy herds for American hunters and wildlife watchers, and this order will help establish better migration corridors for some of North America’s most iconic big game species like elk, mule deer and antelope,” said Secretary Zinke. He continued, “American hunters are the backbone of big game conservation efforts, and now working with state and private landowners, the Department will leverage its land management and scientific expertise to both study the migration habits of wildlife as well as identify ways to improve the habitat.”
Specifically, the order directs the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service to establish habitat management goals, identify how the federal agencies can best work with the states on this issue, assess wildlife migration data early on in the process of developing land use plans, and evaluate and apply site-specific land use plans that conserve or restore habitat. The order went into effect immediately upon signing.
Trump’s budget proposes cuts to Endangered Species Act. The Trump administration published its fiscal 2019 budget on Monday, including several cuts to Department of Interior funding to activities related to the Endangered Species Act (ESA). They include:
- An almost 50 percent cut to the funding allocated to listing activity, down to $10.9 million from the $20.4 million that was devoted to the provision in 2017
- Funding for habitat conversation would decrease from $71 million to $46 million
- The elimination of all $53 million for Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund grants
Despite proposed budget cuts, Interior’s fiscal 2019 budget proposal explicitly cites that officials wish to devote “available resources on the recovery of the more than 1,660 species listed domestically as threatened or endangered, nearly 400 of which were listed between 2010 and 2017.”
“Our focus is on prioritizing species recovery, where we have funding for recovery planning, five-year reviews and down- and delisting packages,” said Gavin Shire, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service‘s (FWS) public affairs chief. “This will help decrease the regulatory burden on the public and our economy and ensure that we are putting public money where it will do the most good.” Overall, the Trump administration’s budget proposal cuts Fish and Wildlife’s funding by $300 million.
Multiple parties call for ban on various pesticides. Two U.S. representatives, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), reintroduced legislation that calls for a hold on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigates their effect on bees. Several U.S. cities – Seattle, Eugene, and Spokane – have already banned the family of pesticides on municipal property.
Activist groups are also raising their concerns about pesticides to government officials. According to E&E News, Defenders of Wildlife has had closed-door meetings with the Trump administration to address an ESA provision that requires the EPA to consult with the FWS and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries when making licensing decisions on pesticides that could harm endangered or threatened species or their habitats.
In the News
Massive Juniper Removal Project Could Help Idaho Sage Grouse. Associated Press. Federal officials have released final plans for one of the largest-ever projects to remove juniper trees to protect habitat for imperiled sage grouse that will also benefit cattle ranchers in southwestern Idaho. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management made public earlier this week the 247-page final Environmental Impact Statement for the Bruneau-Owyhee Sage-Grouse Habitat Project. The agency plans to remove juniper trees from about 1,100 square miles (2,800 square kilometers) within a 2,600-square-mile (4,200-square kilometer) area in Owyhee County over about 15 years. “We feel that with a landscape-scale project like this, it gives us a better chance for success,” said BLM spokesman Michael Williamson. Experts say warmer winters combined with fewer wildfires at higher elevations of sagebrush steppe have allowed junipers to expand into areas once filled with sagebrush and native grasses.
How Texas can protect native species without restricting business growth. Dallas News (Op-ed). Texas is blessed with an incredibly diverse array of fish, wildlife and wide-open spaces. These unique resources are part of our past, present and future, and are so ubiquitous they have become part of our cultural identity. Although some of these fish and wildlife species are thriving thanks to careful, science-based management, many face increasing challenges and are in steep decline. Invasive species, emerging diseases, habitat loss and fragmentation, and extreme weather threaten many fish and wildlife populations at a scale inconceivable just a few decades ago. State fish and wildlife agencies have identified 15,000 species nationwide in need of proactive conservation action, and Texas is home to over 1,300 of these species. What if we had the financial resources to research and implement conservation measures to keep species off the Endangered Species List — without raising or creating new taxes — while giving private industry and landowners more regulatory certainty and reduced risk?
After turbulent 2017, states want control of snapper fishery. E&E News (Sub req’d). A year after the Trump administration likely broke the law by allowing overfishing of red snapper, five Gulf of Mexico states now want special power to manage the species in federal waters in 2018 and 2019. They’re likely to get their way, too. Unlike last year, the new plan would not allow sports anglers in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to exceed federal quotas, but the states would get the authority to call the shots in setting their own fishing seasons in federal waters. Daryl Carpenter, the owner of Reel Screamers Guide Service in Grand Isle, La., and president of the Louisiana Charter Boat Association, can’t wait, saying the federal management system is broken and “has failed to come up with any type of fix.” “It’s too dominated by non-interested groups, by your green groups who want to hug and cherish the fish,” he said. “You can get nothing done in the federal system. … I’m 100 percent in favor. The states need to take control of this and get the federal government out of our damn life.” Critics say that ceding control to the states would be a mistake, arguing that federal officials long have led the way in rebuilding the red snapper population and remain the most qualified to do the job.
Higher temperatures likely to affect sharp-tailed grouse, study finds. Phys.Org. A study by University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers has found that predicted increased temperatures across the Great Plains are likely to influence the survival of the sharp-tailed grouse, a native game bird species, by reducing nesting space. “Our study carried out in the Sandhills rangeland of western Nebraska provides a baseline for understanding sharp-tailed grouse thermal ecology,” said E.J. Raynor, postdoctoral research associate in agronomy and horticulture at Nebraska and lead author of the study. “Our findings suggest sharp-tailed grouse selected nest sites that reduced their exposure to high temperatures during the hottest part of the day.” Those nests experienced 88-degree or higher temperatures for at least an hour less than nearby available sites in the same pasture, Raynor said, noting that 88 degrees is the threshold where sharp-tailed grouse experience heat stress and pant to cool their bodies. Past research found the birds preferred small shrubs and yucca plants as nesting locations.
Trump aims to speed environmental reviews in infrastructure plan. The Hill. The Trump administration is asking Congress to cut “duplicative” environmental review procedures as part of the president’s massive infrastructure plan. The 55-page plan released Monday morning seeks to speed reviews and cut “inefficiencies,” including through what officials are calling a “one agency, one decision” paradigm, for the review process. It answers complaints from President Trump and Republicans that environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) create unnecessary delays and hurdles that are holding back infrastructure projects. The administration’s plan says the proposed changes would “protect the environment while at the same time delivering projects in a less costly and more time effective manner.” It includes changes like setting a 21-month deadline for most reviews, designating a lead federal agency to be in charge of each review and requiring other agencies to sign off on the decisions, reducing their ability to object later.
Citing climate impact, court restores seal protections. E&E News (Sub req’d). A federal appeals court today reinstated protections for Arctic ringed seals, dealing a blow to Alaska oil and gas companies that had argued NOAA Fisheries went beyond its authority in taking into account climate change impacts on the species. At issue is the 2012 decision by NOAA Fisheries to list Arctic ringed seals as threatened under the Endangered Species Act based on projections of future sea ice loss. The agency found that the species would be extinct by 2100. The U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska initially ruled in favor of oil and gas companies challenging the listing and vacated protections for the seals. The court said, among other factors, that a finding that the ringed seal was likely to be in danger of extinction because of long-term climate impacts was “too speculative.” But in its opinion today, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that it was bound by a decision last year in a separate case that raised similar legal issues. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit last year upheld protections for two populations of Arctic bearded seals that were also based on sea ice loss projections.
Suit claims biofuel targets overlooked impact on listings. E&E News (Sub req’d). A new lawsuit claims that U.S. EPA didn’t adequately consider endangered species when it set renewable fuel targets for 2018. The suit filed today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by the Sierra Club and Gulf Restoration Network argues that EPA violated the Endangered Species Act by not consulting with wildlife agencies about the effects of the targets on listed species. The green groups allege that ethanol production spurred by the renewable fuels standard has contributed to land conversion, exacerbating the nutrient problems that lead to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico each summer. “It is unlawful for the EPA to so blatantly disregard its own rules and mandates when it comes to protecting our communities and environment,” Sierra Club staff attorney Devorah Ancel said in a statement.
