Weekly Newsletter | April 19, 2019

Issues

FWS backtracks on sage-grouse ESA listing. The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is reopening the formal rulemaking process to consider whether a distinct population of greater sage-grouse along the California-Nevada border should be listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The agency announced last Thursday it will reopen the public comment period and reconsider whether to protect the bistate sage-grouse under the ESA.

FWS originally published a proposal in October 2013 to list the bistate grouse as a distinct population segment of the greater sage-grouse that was threatened with extinction in California and Nevada. But in April 2015, the agency withdrew that decision after concluding that threats to the bistate grouse were “no longer as significant as believed” and “conservation plans were ameliorating threats” to the bird.

The agency is now “initiating a new status review of the Bi-State grouse population, to determine whether it meets the definition of an endangered or threatened species under the Act,” FWS said in the notice.

The listing proposal has been reopened for a 60-day public comment period running through June 11.

Wyoming and North Dakota to collaborate on sage-grouse recovery plan. A new report finds North and South Dakota are two of only 11 western states with suitable habitat for the sage grouse. Should the situation worsen and the bird is listed, experts say that Wyoming — which has both the most habitat and the largest population of sage grouse in the world — has the most to lose.

To help prevent such a situation, Wyoming and North Dakota have entered into a trade: Wyoming is sending as many as 100 male and 100 female sage grouse (including 50 females with their broods) over multiple years, while North Dakota is providing up to 200 wild pheasants; the pheasants will add some genetic diversity to the breeding stock at the Wyoming game bird farm in Sheridan.

According to wildlife specialists, not only will this plan help rebound sage-grouse populations, it will also teach wildlife managers the best ways to move sage grouse from one place to another.

With Bernhardt confirmed, DOI faces ESA lawsuit. Approved by the Senate last week on a 56-41 vote, David Bernhardt and the Fish and Wildlife Service are now facing a lawsuit for failing to address a “growing backlog” of plant and animal species waiting to be protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity argues that Bernhardt’s agency has slow-walked the listing of 24 species as endangered or threatened after proposing to do so, saying the Trump administration has listed the lowest number of species since Ronald Reagan was president.

A FWS spokeswoman said the service cannot comment publicly on pending or ongoing litigation.

FWS has made a concerted effort in recent years to address the backlog of hundreds of species that have been petitioned for ESA protection. Meanwhile, FWS and NOAA Fisheries last year proposed revisions to the ESA that, among other things, could streamline requirements and, consequently, the listing process.

In the News

Feds agree to expand habitat protections for Northwest orcas. E&E News, Sub req’d. The federal government says that by October it will propose expanded habitat protections off Washington, Oregon and California for Pacific Northwest orcas. The announcement comes in response to a lawsuit filed by the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity, which sued in 2018 to make officials move more quickly to protect the endangered orcas. The whales spend their summers in the waters between Washington state and Canada, but about two-thirds of the year they migrate and forage for salmon off the West Coast. The conservation group said NOAA Fisheries had been dragging its feet in designating “critical habitat” for the whales in those foraging and migration areas. Under the Endangered Species Act, federal agencies must ensure that activities they pay for, permit or carry out do not harm such habitat.

State court upends future for Montana silver, copper sites. E&E News, Sub req’d. A state judge has revoked a key permit for one of two major silver and copper mines bordering a northwestern Montana wilderness. Montana 1st Judicial District Court Judge Kathy Seeley reversed the approval of a water-use permit last week for the Rock Creek mine near Libby, Mont., sending it back to the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (MDNRC) for additional environmental analysis. The ruling is the speed bump in Hecla Mining Co.’s plans to mine outside the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. Meanwhile, Montana regulators already proposed banning the Idaho-based company from the state until its CEO repays taxpayers for cleaning up mines abandoned by his former company. Rock Creek is one of a number of long-running proposals for new development in the historic mining region spanning the Idaho-Montana border.

Wildlife Officials Try To Boost Lesser Prairie Chicken Numbers In Colorado. CBS. Colorado Parks and Wildlife is working to bring back the lesser prairie chicken. The grouse has been the focus of an ongoing legal battle over whether it warrants federal protection. Biologists recently traveled to Kansas to capture some of the birds and relocate them to southeastern Colorado. Colorado used to have hundreds of thousands of the lesser prairie chickens but habitat loss and climate brought its numbers down to the single digits. Before re-releasing the birds to the grasslands of Colorado, CPW puts radio transmitters on them so they can be tracked.