Issues
CBD threatens massive lawsuit over status of 417 species. On Tuesday, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to act on petitions to protect more than 417 animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). According to the notice, the petitions have been filed by the CBD and others over the last eight years. The group hopes to spur the stalled ESA status reviews and reach another major settlement.
When petitioned to protect a species under the ESA, the agency has 90 days to decide whether action is warranted and 12 additional months to determine whether to list the species as threatened or endangered. Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at CBD, hopes the notice of intent will pressure the agency to move faster in deciding which species will be protected saying, “Delayed protection can be deadly for species already on the brink of extinction. The longer we wait, the more difficult — and expensive — it becomes to save them.”
The lawsuit comes on the heels of a Daily Caller New Foundation investigation that found federal agencies have paid $30 million to lawyers for 237 lawsuits under the ESA since 2009 – the most of any environmental law. House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) has been a vocal critic of these “sue and settle” tactics, noting “The American people are stuck with the bill and economic consequences while receiving no real conservation benefit.”
FWS and Congress hit back at lawsuit threat. In the wake of CBD’s announcement, both the Obama administration and the Congressional Western Caucus issued pointed criticism of the conservation group.
“We are disappointed that CBD has again elected to pursue litigation – apparently the only tool in its toolbox – rather than work collaboratively with us on our forthcoming work plan to address pending petition findings and species on the Candidate List,” said FWS spokesperson Gavin Shire in E&E News. The agency has recently revamped its evaluation process following its controversial 2011 settlement with CBD over another 757 species.
The 54-member Congressional Western Caucus also commented on Wednesday, issuing a press release condemning the CBD’s latest action. “The CBD has mastered its bullying tactics to the point where it now has full control over the federal endangered species policy,” the Caucus wrote. “The playbook is clear — flood the agency with petitions to list as many species as can be found under every rock and in every crevice, and then sue when the FWS is unable to meet rigid, artificial deadlines under the Endangered Species Act for reviewing those petitions.”
Storms and illegal logging pose threat to monarchs’ winter habitat. The World Wildlife Fund announced this week that more than 20,000 trees in Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, where the migrating population of North America’s monarch butterflies spends the winter, were uprooted by extreme weather last year. The storms damaged 135 acres of the 34,000-acre reserve, representing the largest impact since 2009-2010 when 250 acres were marred by severe weather.
Meanwhile, the group also reported that illegal logging inside the reserve declined by 40 percent from the 2014-2015 season. The group attributed 16.4 percent of the damage to the reserve this year to illegal logging, while 74.6 percent was attributed to the extreme weather events. Mexico announced earlier this year it was creating a new police force dedicated to protecting the country’s protected habitats, including the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary where tens of millions of monarchs spend the winter.
In the News
Interior’s ESA sage talks bugs, bosses, mustaches. E&E News (sub req’d). “I’m proud of the fact that we’ve been able to recover and delist a great many species.
Gunnison grouse plan comes up short, groups say. Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. Conservation groups are contending a draft federal plan would do too little to protect the Gunnison sage-grouse, while others including the oil and gas industry and Mesa County are continuing to analyze the proposal. The Bureau of Land Management released a draft environmental impact statement earlier this month. The agency is seeking to amend up to 11 resource management plans in western Colorado and eastern Utah to protect the bird, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided to list as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. David Ludlam, executive director of the West Slope Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said his group is still reviewing the draft plan, but he thinks many conservation groups aren’t necessarily interested in protecting species. “It’s more about stopping development,” he said of their motives.
Group maps Atlantic populations threatened by seismic tests. E&E News (sub req’d). Environmental group Oceana today released two animated maps that show dolphin and whale populations that could be threatened by seismic air gun testing in the Atlantic Ocean. Using 23 years of data from Duke University’s Marine Geospatial Ecology Laboratory, the maps detail the density of bottlenose dolphins and endangered fin, humpback and sperm whales over the course of a year, overlaid with the areas where oil and gas companies have applied to perform seismic tests in the Atlantic.
The world got together to try to save the monarch butterfly, and then climate change ruined the plan. Quartz. In the winter months of 2015-2016, monarch butterflies had their best migration in years, arriving in record numbers to the Central Mexico forests where they hibernate. Unfortunately, those forests had a really bad year. Severe storms toppled many of the oyamel fir trees where millions of the iconic orange-winged insects rest after their long trip from Canada. More than 70 hectares of forest were damaged, the biggest loss since the 2009-2010 winter, according to data released Tuesday (Aug. 23) by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). In more bad news, experts expect the butterflies’ overwintering grounds to get hit by this sort of extreme weather more frequently in the future due to climate change.
Obama expands protected waters of Hawaii, creating world’s largest reserve. USA Today. President Obama will use his power to designate national monuments on Friday to create the world’s largest protected marine area off the coast of Hawaii, the White House said. Obama will more than quadruple the size of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, to 582,578 square miles — more than 50 times larger than the land area of the Hawaiian Islands themselves. Friday’s action will permanently protect coral reefs and underwater habitats home to more than 7,000 species, including rare whales and sea turtles listed under the Endangered Species Act. Commercial fishing and drilling are prohibited, and the designation also has implications for navigation, with voluntary restrictions on travel through certain areas and a requirement that ships notify the U.S. Coast Guard when they enter or exit the area.
Monarch moonshot: Officials hope to make Linn County center of butterfly production and habitat. Cedar Rapids Gazette. The launchpad is prepared for a pair of projects aimed at making Linn County the epicenter of both monarch butterfly production and the habitat they and other pollinators need to sustain themselves. McLeod said moonshot one, the Monarch Zones program, entails the raising and releasing of monarchs using protected natural rearing protocols and biotents. The program’s 63 monarch zones have released thousands of butterflies — the exact number continues to grow and has yet to be tabulated — which themselves have reproduced in natural unprotected habitat, dramatically increasing the generation of monarchs that are to migrate to Mexico in September.
Lawyers win millions suing gov’t under environmental laws, then give it to Democrats. Daily Caller. Earthjustice, an environmental law firm that grew out of the Sierra Club, has sued federal agencies at least 39 times since 2009. Using three environmental laws, Earthjustice has raked in nearly $4 million, according to a DCNF analysis of the Department of Treasury’s Judgment Fund, which tracks court ordered federal payments. Certain Earthjustice staff have donated $2.4 million to Democrats, TheDCNF found. Federal agencies paid out more than $49 million for 512 lawsuits filed under the Clean Air Act (CAA), Clean Water Act (CWA) or Endangered Species Act (ESA), but government officials concealed the plaintiffs’ names. The lawyers getting tax dollars were hidden in more than half the cases.
