Issues

Sage-Grouse debate sparked over Nevada land leases. Late last week, a U.S. Forest Service document revealed a plan to open over 50,000 acres of Nevada’s Ruby Mountains to leasing. Obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, the document details a plan in which the ‘Nevada Swiss Alps’ would be open for oil and gas exploration leases.

Nevada has been coined as an “odd place for an oil and gas fight” given the state’s energy profile, but others argue though that the state’s limited experience with oil and gas development just means that there is an opportunity for further development and tax revenue for the state to fund other public services. Detractors of the plan have voiced concern over leases being waged in sensitive places like sage-grouse habitats. The Monitor Valley, for example, is up for leasing consideration and some parts are designated “priority habitat management areas,” the highest-quality environment for the greater sage grouse.

Ultimately, the decision has yet to be made but if the land is officially proposed for a leasing sale, all stakeholders will be able to submit comments to the Bureau of Land Management for consideration.

New Mexico ponders 4 BLM plans, considers dunes sagebrush lizard. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has published a new draft management plan for southeastern New Mexico that tackles decisions for public land uses. Specifically, the drafted federal plan suggests four alternatives with varying allowances for the energy industry while also ensuring wildlife and environmental protections.

Two of the alternatives, A and B, make note of specific species to minimize impact upon them. Alternative A designates certain habitat areas as “high quality,” meaning that land would be prioritized for minimal disturbance. With this version, habitats of concern are for the sagebrush lizard and the lesser prairie chicken. Alternative B, however only prioritizes habitat space for the sagebrush lizard.

A 90-day public comment period began on Aug. 3 and will conclude on Nov. 1.

In the News

At Interior, we’re ready to bring the Endangered Species Act up to date. The Washington Post. A modern vision of conservation is one that uses federalism, public-private partnerships and market-based solutions to achieve sound stewardship. These approaches, combined with sensible regulations and the best available science, will achieve the greatest good in the longest term. Last month, the Trump administration took this approach to bringing our government’s implementation of the Endangered Species Act into the 21st century. It may surprise most Americans, however, that the highest level of protection is often applied, regardless of the classification, through application of a “blanket rule.” The use of this rule by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service automatically elevates protections for threatened species to the same level as those given to endangered species. But automatically treating the threatened species as endangered places unnecessary regulatory burden on our citizens without additional benefit to the species. The blanket rule reflexively prohibits known habitat management practices, such as selective forest thinning and water management, that might ultimately benefit a threatened species.

ODFW sets sage grouse controlled hunt deadline. KTVZ. August 20 is the deadline to apply for the limited number of permits for controlled sage-grouse hunts in eastern Oregon. Results will be available August 31 for the season which runs September 8 – 16. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said Oregon hosts a very conservative sage-grouse hunting opportunity. While research shows a 10 percent harvest will not change the trajectory of a sage-grouse population, ODFW sets regulations annually to harvest less than five percent with actual harvest rates of about three percent of the population. Mikal Cline, Upland Game Bird Coordinator, is optimistic the Juniper Unit change will not be permanent. “Sagebrush habitat takes time to recover after a fire. We are seeing some positive evidence in the Whitehorse Unit that sage-grouse are bouncing back after the 336,000-acre Holloway Fire which also burned in 2012,” she said. ODFW’s rigorous process to set sage-grouse seasons uses a variety of data sources collected throughout the year to predict fall population sizes in each hunt unit.

Ranchers feel heard by Trump on environmental rules, but some others sound alarms. ABC. Marty Smith’s family has owned a ranch in Florida for more than 150 years, but he said environmental laws restrict what they can do with their own land. While growing up on the cattle ranch, gopher tortoises would frequently wander onto the property, he said. “They would dig holes, but since they’re listed as ‘threatened’ in Florida, we weren’t allowed to plow our own land once they got there,” recalled Smith, who said his family has owned the ranch since 1852. But now Smith, who serves as vice president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, told ABC News that ranchers feel they are being heard by the Trump administration. Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesperson for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, told ABC News that protecting ranchers is important to the country.

A plant rebounds, and ESA takes victory lap. E&E News, (Sub req’d). Add, soon, the Colorado butterfly plant to the closely watched roster of Endangered Species Act success stories. And it’s all happening with a remarkable lack of drama, itself a relief for a law so often enveloped in rancor and controversy. A public comment period that ends today has drawn, as of noon, only 13 opinions about the Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal to delist the Colorado butterfly plant. On this decision, there seems to be little debate. “Years of governmental and non-governmental efforts to manage and conserve this species have led to its recovery,” Wyoming’s Republican governor, Matt Mead, declared in his one-page letter. Dave Berry, owner of the Horse Creek Cattle Co. in Wyoming’s Laramie County, added that FWS “has been monitoring the … plant for the past three years on my ranch and has determined that there is a healthy viable population under no threat with my normal method of operation.” The Center for Biological Diversity, a frequent litigant in ESA battles, likewise lauds the move, and approvingly cited the plant as one of at least 13 species that have been recovered since 2016.

Conservation groups sue over protections for tiny seabird. E&E News, (Sub req’d). The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission is facing a lawsuit over claims that it hasn’t increased protections for a tiny seabird that nests in old-growth forests. Conservation groups including the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit yesterday in Lane County Circuit Court. The marbled murrelet is listed as threatened under the federal and state Endangered Species Act. In 2016, the groups asked for the bird to be reclassified as endangered under Oregon’s law. That would mean the state would need to create a management plan and survival guidelines for the species. The state wildlife commission denied the petition — a turnaround from its earlier recommendation that the petition be granted. Some of the commissioners wanted to wait for a 10-year study on the birds to be completed. It’s currently in the early stages. The commission didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Proposal would maintain grizzly population. E&E News, (Sub req’d). Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has proposed keeping the state’s grizzly population at its current level even though the federal government removed Yellowstone-area grizzlies from Endangered Species Act protection last year. Northwestern Montana has the largest grizzly population in the continental United States, at about 1,000 bears. The proposal, which wildlife commissioners will look at Thursday, would aim for at least 800 grizzlies. And Montana would plan to keep the population closer to 1,000 to provide a buffer, said wildlife agency spokesman Dillon Tabish. A final decision could come in December.

Beach visitors may have killed hundreds of seabird chicks. E&E News, (Sub req’d). Visitors to Mobile Bay in Alabama this summer scared away adult least terns, a federally protected seabird species, and spread eggs across the sand, likely killing hundreds of chicks, according to wildlife experts. The number killed is unknown, but it was “a tragic loss of a colony that size,” said Katie Barnes, biologist at Birmingham Audubon. The beachgoers disrupted a tern breeding ground. Least terns are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and the state’s population has been hit by sea-level rise and habitat loss, as well as human recreation. Meanwhile, the interior population of least terns is considered endangered. The Mobile Bay birds had been doing well. “The population was doing so poorly elsewhere, this was basically one last shot for a large number of adults,” Barnes said. Biologists found 26 eggs arrayed in a circle in the sand and many other nests abandoned by parents scared away. Researchers were alerted to the problem when they saw a volleyball net near the nesting site. “We only confirmed an estimated 85 fledglings out of 1,400 birds,” she said. “I mean, that’s an astronomical loss for reproductive output for the species.”