Issues
IPAA comments on renewed action aimed at listing Texas lizard. The dunes sagebrush lizard flooded back into conversations about the Endangered Species Act (ESA) this week when the Center for Biological Diversity and the Defenders of Wildlife filed a 73-page petition calling on Fish and Wildlife to list the reptile. A federal listing for the lizard has long been advocated for by activist groups, despite the successful conservation efforts of regulators, non-profit groups, and industry to protect the species.
In reaction to the petition, IPAA’s Director of Government Relations Sam McDonald noted the extensive efforts underway to protect the dunes sagebrush lizard, stating in E&E News “Voluntary conservation efforts, led by the oil and natural gas industry, have evolved in the last decade in a way that emphasizes measurable protections of imperiled species and ecosystems that allows for responsible development to coexist.”
IPAA also highlights how activist efforts to list the species are truly focused on shutting down the oil and natural gas industry, noting “unfortunately, the tactics of environmental groups [remain] the same, attempting to use the Endangered Species Act to advance an anti-hydrocarbon agenda and halt meaningful business development at the expense of American taxpayers.”
In June 2012, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made its final determination that the dunes sagebrush lizard does not warrant endangered status under the Endangered Species Act. The Service will now have close to a year to make a determination based on the new listing petition.
IPAA and NOIA set the record straight on MBTA. The National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) and IPAA were featured in The Hill this week, highlighting the importance of the recent opinion from the Department of the Interior solicitor to bring clarity to the enforcement of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) and debunking claims put forth by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology on the proper role of the act. As the groups state, “the solicitor’s opinion recognized a well-grounded precedent from multiple federal court decisions that MBTA was designed to only address direct take.” More from IPAA and NOIA’s opinion piece:
“The fact is that MBTA is used in an arbitrary and punitive fashion is its own threat to good policy, no matter the frequency. Increasingly, energy companies have had trouble finding financing and project investment due to the real threat of criminal prosecution under MBTA’s strict liability. The MBTA is celebrating its 100th year and is a testament to the American conservation tradition. Thankfully, the Trump administration found common ground with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and made the interpretation of the law clear, MBTA applies to direct take. This common sense approach ensures that lawful industrial activities are not held hostage to unnecessary threats of criminalization allowing industry to focus on protecting birds, building projects and fueling our economy, without facing the threat of arbitrary punitive decisions.”
Read the full piece from NOIA’s Tim Charters and IPAA’s Samantha McDonald in The Hill HERE.
Endangered species rider reintroduced with defense bill in Congress. While debating the annual defense authorization bill, a previously contested bill concerning the management of certain endangered species, including the Greater sage-grouse, was brought up in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) introduced the amendment, which calls for barring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) from listing the sage grouse, the lesser prairie chicken, and the American burying beetle under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for the next ten years.
Chairman Bishop highlights the legislation already limits some defense operations in certain parts of sage-grouse habitat, noting “We are dealing with this issue in a broad sense in our committee, but this amendment specifically goes to the 27 ranges and the 19 training areas that are in the western United States.” Additionally, advocates of the bill argued officials at the state-level, rather than the federal government, are more suited to oversee the bird. “States are better prepared to manage the habitat for these endangered species than the federal government, let’s just be honest,” said Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO).
The amendment passed through the committee in a vote of 33-28. While it cleared the first hurdle, whether Bishop’s rider becomes law is still to be determined. Similar language was included in the final version of the bill two years ago, but was ultimately excluded as it “threatened to derail the entire bill.”
In the News
Endangered species fund lost money from agency inaction – GAO. E&E News (Sub req’d). A fund to protect endangered species missed out on significant money because NOAA has not tracked fines and fees from violations of fish and wildlife conservation laws, a federal watchdog has found. A new Government Accountability Office report said NOAA should develop a mechanism to better track the collections for violations of the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act. While the ESA protects threatened species, the Lacey Act prohibits the transportation and sale of plants, fish and wildlife taken in violation of state or foreign laws. The report released yesterday said the ESA created a fund to provide grants to states for the conservation of endangered and threatened species. Under the law, the Treasury Department is required to make deposits into a special fund when the amount NOAA and the Fish and Wildlife Service collect for violations exceeds $500,000.
Dems warn against potential ESA change for threatened species. E&E News (Sub req’d). Senior Democratic lawmakers are launching a peremptory strike against a potential Fish and Wildlife Service change in how threatened species are protected. The revisions to what insiders know as the “blanket 4(d) rule” are still in draft form and might never formally surface. The very idea, though, spooks some on Capitol Hill, and that, in turn, opens another front in the perpetual Endangered Species Act dust-up (E&E News PM, April 4). “We fear FWS’ intention is actually not to better address the needs of threatened species, but rather to cater exclusively and completely to oil, gas and agricultural industries that must currently avoid harming species and their habitats,” two Democrats wrote to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Friday. Underscoring their broader political message, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) cited the “track records” of acting Assistant Secretary Susan Combs, who the Democrats say is “known to have strong ties to ranching and oil industries,” and Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt, who the Democrats say has “a long record of advocating to weaken the Endangered Species Act.”
New Nev. Acting director faces key challenges. E&E News (Sub req’d). The Bureau of Land Management has appointed an Idaho native as acting director of the high-profile Nevada state office, which regularly contends with growing wild horse herds, fragile greater sage grouse habitat and lingering tensions with ranchers following the Cliven Bundy standoff four years ago. Mike Courtney, who wears a bolo tie and is an avid hunter and angler, comes to Nevada after serving as manager of BLM’s Twin Falls, Idaho, district office, which oversees nearly 4 million acres. He previously served a six-month stint in 2016 as BLM Idaho’s deputy director for resources. Courtney, 50, now takes the helm of a sprawling Nevada office headquartered in Reno on a four-month assignment that could be extended. BLM Nevada manages 48 million surface acres and 59 million subsurface acres of valuable mineral estate. It oversees the agency’s largest mining program, largest wild horse and burro program, and some of the most important sage grouse habitat on federal land.
Federal Documents: Wall likely to adversely impact endangered species. Arizona Public Media. Recently released federal documents show President Donald Trump’s long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would have adverse impacts on endangered species and the Tohono O’odham tribe. A letter written from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to Customs and Border Protection says maintaining current roads, towers and lights, “is likely to adversely affect” the threatened northern Mexican garter snake and the endangered Sonoran pronghorn. “Just maintaining the infrastructure on the border right now raises environmental concerns,” said Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight, a watchdog group based in Washington D.C. “If you then add on to that infrastructure a major wall and then much more pervasive maintenance operations into perpetuity, those concerns are going to be even greater.” Evers received almost 1,000 emails, letters and other documents through a Freedom Of Information Act request that substantiate concerns of communities along the border and environmentalists.
State says wolf recovery plan working, halfway to delisting. Capital Press. Washington Fish and Wildlife officials say the state’s wolf recovery plan is working and halfway to completion. Once population targets are reached, managers can lift protection for the wolves as an endangered species. WDFW wolf policy coordinator Donny Martorello says the state has met the recovery objective in the eastern Washington recovery zone and is halfway there in the central recovery zone. “I do think the second half here is likely going to be a little faster than the first half because Washington’s wolf population is getting larger and larger and larger,” he said. State wildlife managers classify wolves as endangered across Washington under state law. In the western two-thirds of Washington, the wolf is listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act, meaning it is much more stringently protected there.
Enviros can’t halt Idaho logging plan over trout impact. Law360 (Sub req’d). An Idaho federal judge Friday shot down a bid by environmental groups to block two salvage logging projects in the Boise National Forest, affirming the federal government’s assessment that the tree clearing would not have an impact on the threatened bull trout. Although the two projects would leave exposed a great deal of soil prone to erosion that could end up in nearby creeks that are home to the fish protected by the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Forest Service’s plan for buffer zones to prevent such erosion is satisfactory, Chief U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill said in the order denying the motion by the Wildlands Defense, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Native Ecosystems Council for a preliminary injunction. “The Forest Service took extra steps to ensure the accuracy of the [buffer zone] model’s estimates,” the judge said. “The model was overestimating actual sediment movement by a wide margin, giving the Forest Service confidence that its reliance on the conservative estimates of the model would sufficiently protect the riparian areas.”
