Issues
IPAA Holds ESA Panel at Conference. This week, IPAA held an event for its members in Florida titled the Strategic Planning Conference on Land Access and Environmental Issues. As a part of the event, IPAA’s Samantha McDonald moderated a panel on the Endangered Species Act (ESA), examining how the act has evolved and why related litigation is likely to increase in subsequent years. IPAA was also joined by two panelists to share their expertise on ESA issues. Mary K. Martin, Energy, Clean Air & Natural Resources Policy, Counsel at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, spoke specifically to the use of “sue and settle” tactics to promote ESA listings, as well as the broadening impacts of ESA on the business community. Wayne D’Angelo, Partner with Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, also discussed some of the recent ESA listings of concern to industry, as well as strategies for impacted industries to fight ESA overreach and the next “sue and settle” effort. For additional information on the panel please reach out to Samantha McDonald at SMcDonald@ipaa.org.
Obama Administration Proposes Spending on Endangered Species Efforts in 2016. This week, the federal government released its fiscal 2016 budget, which includes increased funding for endangered species protection activities for both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
According to the budget, the administration requests FWS receive $1.6 billion in total funding, an increase of $135.7 million over its current spending levels. As E&E News (sub req’d) reported, the budget requests an allocation of $258.2 million specifically for the FWS to “conserve, protect and enhance wildlife that is listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as well as its habitats,” an increase of $32.3 million from 2015. Specific efforts to protect the sagebrush steppe ecosystem, home to ESA listing candidates such as the Greater sage-grouse, will receive $4 million of those funds.
The White House budget proposal also includes provisions specifically for marine species. According to E&E News (sub req’d), the Office of Protected Resources within NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) would get $13.2 million to help NMFS “speed up its review of development projects that could affect marine species protected under the Endangered Species Act.” An additional $17 million will go towards species recovery plans that are provided to states and tribes to monitor and conserve listed species.
Stakeholders Prepare for Northern Long-Eared Bat Decision. The Northern long-eared bat (NLEB), a species that resides in 37 states across the country, is currently under consideration for a federal listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). While FWS has determined that a disease called white-nose syndrome is the primary threat to the bat, the potential listing of the NLEB in April 2015 is already impacting local energy and infrastructure projects in multiple states.
In Minnesota, for example, the proposed Sandpiper oil pipeline could have to change its route if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) declares the NLEB endangered this spring. The pipeline project, which would carry crude oil to Wisconsin from North Dakota, has responded to the potential listing by financing a $5 million preemptive research study to locate the trees where the NLEB lives in an effort to limit disruption of the bat’s habitat. The pending decision on the bat has also impacted a bridge project in Michigan, where plans to build a new bridge in Traverse City have been derailed by Michigan Department of Transportation’s restrictions on cutting trees in NLEB habitat.
While many stakeholders await a final decision on the NLEB, in the event the species is listed as threatened FWS has published a special 4(d) rule for the bat that could provide some relief for public projects and private developers. According to Director Dan Ashe, the FWS is looking to tailor the restrictions of a listing to ensure “we’re providing adequate protection but also recognizing that many of these activities are not the proximate cause of the species’ decline.”
As IPAA highlighted in recent joint comments with the American Petroleum Institute, “No evidence has been put forward that oil and gas exploration and production operations jeopardize the future existence of this species.” U.S. Senators John Thune (R-S.D.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) have also sent a bipartisan letter with 11 of their Senate colleagues to Director Dan Ashe, highlighting their continued concerns about the potential listing of the Northern long-eared bat, while emphasizing the advantages to issuing a 4(d) rule to “reduce harm to bat populations, while at the same time allowing certain typical forest and land management activities to continue.”
Greater Sage-grouse habitat conservation remains a major concern. The economic impact of efforts to protect Greater Sage-grouse habitat continues to be a topic of contention in states where the bird resides.
In Colorado’s Craig Daily Press, Eric Deering of Routt County recently wrote that a federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing for the Greater Sage-grouse “would adversely impact the economies of the 11 western states that make up the bird’s habitat, including Colorado and more specifically here in Northwest Colorado.” A federal listing, Deering adds, would specifically impact energy development in the region, “just when we are seeing true signs of economic recovery.”
Center for Rural Affairs media director John Crabtree agrees, highlighting this week that a federal listing for the bird could harm local economies. As he recently wrote in Oregon’s Argus Observer, an ESA listing “could be disruptive to ranchers, farmers and recreation, as well as tourists who visit these landscapes.” Crabtree adds that “
Tim Mauck in Colorado also echoed Crabtree’s call for voluntary conservation measures. Mr. Mauck, a Clear Creek County commissioner, wrote in the Denver Post that “visitors to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sagebrush landscapes spent an estimated $1 billion last year across the Intermountain West.” Conservation is good for rural economies, but the ESA can be “disruptive to the people who live in the area.”
As IPAA President Barry Russell recently highlighted in the Casper Star Tribune, “listing of the Greater sage-grouse would impact existing state-based conservation measures for the bird, while simultaneously ignoring the great strides America’s energy industry has taken to reduce surface impacts.” The federal government is due to make a decision on whether to list the grouse under the ESA by September 30, 2015.
In the News
WAFWA funds prairie chicken aid. Lamar Ledger. The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) announced plans to allocate $445,000 to the Lesser Prairie Chicken Initiative partnership to expand habitat conservation efforts for the federally listed lesser prairie-chicken. Once abundant across the Southern Great Plains, lesser prairie-chicken populations have declined sharply, largely due to habitat loss and fragmentation. The species was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in May, 2014.
Bill would close sage grouse hunting. Independent Record. Calling the science “subjective” and the state Fish and Wildlife Commission a “very politically motivated group,” Sen. John Brenden, R-Scobey, urged passage of his bill to ban sage grouse hunting in the state for six years. Proponents of Brenden’s bill were mainly representatives of the state’s resource and energy development sector along with livestock groups. Calling himself a “gonzo bird hunter,” Cary Hegreberg of the Montana Contractors’ Association said in supporting the bill that, “No matter how good the habitat is, it’s not going to lay eggs next spring. “If we’re going to conserve this bird, we sure as heck should not be shooting them,” he added.
Enviros sue Interior to protect rare Mont. trout population. E&E News (sub req’d). A coalition of environmental groups and two Montana residents today filed a federal lawsuit aimed at forcing the Fish and Wildlife Service to grant federal protection to a rare population of river-dwelling Arctic grayling in the upper Missouri River Basin. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana in Butte, challenges Fish and Wildlife’s August 2014 decision denying Endangered Species Act protection for the species of trout, found primarily in Montana’s Big Hole River.
Legislators Want Congress to Help Solve Wild Horse Problem. KCWY. Legislators are calling on Congress, the President, and state and local leaders to come up with a plan for wild horses in the state. BLM staff say rangelands aren’t able to handle the impacts from these overpopulated herds, which include erosion and damage to sage grouse habitat.
Judge greenlights case over conductivity impacts on fish. E&E News (sub req’d). A Tennessee federal judge this week ruled in favor of allowing environmental groups to pursue a case accusing the Obama administration of failing to protect imperiled species from mining-related pollution. In 2013, several groups — including the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife — accused the Fish and Wildlife Service and the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement of failing to protect the endangered Cumberland darter and the threatened blackside dace.
