Tag Archives: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Judge tells feds to get moving on wolverine protection

Environmental Issues, News, ,
Wolverine (Gulo gulo, female, born 1996) at the Helsinki Zoo
Wolverine (Gulo gulo)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service got dragged into court over their wolverine policy and got chewed out by the judge . . .

The Obama administration brushed over the threat that climate change poses to the snow-loving wolverine when it denied protections for the elusive predator also known as the “mountain devil,” a federal judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen ordered wildlife officials to act as quickly as possible to protect the species as it becomes vulnerable to a warming planet. Wolverines need deep mountain snows to den, and scientists warn that such habitat will shrink as the planet heats up.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the views of many of its own scientists in 2014 when it said the effects of climate change on wolverines remained ambiguous.

Read more . . .

Wolf advocates warn U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service they’re in for a lawsuit

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Gray Wolf
Gray Wolf

The USFWS is about to get sued to make them keep a tight eye on the wolf population for another five years . . .

A coalition of wolf advocates has warned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that they plan to sue if the agency doesn’t extend its supervision of wolf populations in Montana and Idaho another five years.

“When the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is offering five tags to every wolf hunter and Idaho Fish and Game is putting sharpshooters in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness and funding aerial gunning in the Lolo Zone, we feel renewing another five years of federal monitoring is warranted,” said Matthew Koehler of Missoula-based Wild West Institute, one of five groups putting FWS on notice. “Given the situation on the ground and the ways state policy is changing, we think the prudent thing to do is keep monitoring wolf populations so they’re not hunted and trapped back to the brink of extinction.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project, Friends of the Clearwater and Cascadia Wildlands joined Wild West Institute in the notice. By law, groups objecting to a federal agency must give it 60 days advance warning to offer time to craft a solution before going to court.

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Fish & Wildlife Service may transfer National Bison Range to tribes

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Bison grazing
Bison grazing

It should be interesting to watch this story unfold . . .

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has begun negotiating a possible transfer of the National Bison Range to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

In an email sent to agency employees Friday, Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Director Noreen Walsh announced the opening round of discussions but provided few specifics.

“Given that we are today in a much better place regarding the future of bison … and that we want to strengthen our partnership with the CSKT, we believe that now is the right time to investigate the possibility of transferring the refuge, which was long ago carved out of tribal lands, into trust for the benefit of the CSKT,” Walsh wrote.

Her email also noted such a transfer would require an act of Congress.

Read more . . .

Conservation groups want USFWS to continue wolf monitoring

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Gray Wolf

Several conservation groups want the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to continue keeping an eye on things in areas where the gray wolf has been delisted . . .

Five conservation groups on Tuesday asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to extend its oversight of wolves in Montana and Idaho that is set to expire in May.

The agency removed the two states’ gray wolf populations from the Endangered Species List in 2011 after finding they were sufficiently recovered. The delisting order required the Fish and Wildlife Service to continue monitoring the population for five years as the states’ wildlife agencies assume management of the species.

Read more . . .

Notice to sue filed over bull trout recovery plan

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Bull Trout

As mentioned last week, the recent federal bull trout recovery plan is not universally admired, making a lawsuit almost inevitable . . .

A pair of environmental groups announced Wednesday they will sue the federal government unless a recovery plan for threatened bull trout is amended to address violations of the Endangered Species Act.

The groups, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Friends of the Wild Swan, filed the 60-day notice to sue a little more than a week after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife released its final Bull Trout Recovery Plan on Sept. 28.

A 60-day notice to sue under the ESA is required in order to provide enough information to the FWS so that it has the opportunity to identify and address alleged violations in order to make the plan sufficient.

Read more . . .

Bull trout recovery plan gets mixed reception

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Bull Trout

The long-delayed federal bull trout recovery plan was released this week . . .

More than 15 years in the making, the final recovery plan for bull trout was released Monday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, although some environmentalists and biologists in Montana say it still falls short of providing an avenue to recover the threatened species.

Listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1999, bull trout populations in the continental U.S. have struggled throughout the past century, under pressure from invasive species, habitat degradation and warmer waters.

The warming effects from climate change are also expected to create further problems for the fish, which require clean, cold water to survive. Steve Duke, a senior biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said some current bull trout habitats will no longer be habitable if water temperatures continue to rise as projected. That’s one reason the plan language that allows up to 25 percent of the individual populations to disappear within four of the six geographically defined recovery units.

Read more . . .

Fed sage grouse decision could come next week

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Sage Grouse

Lots of folks on both sides of the issue are waiting with bated breath for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision on the status of the sage grouse . . .

A decision by the U.S. government on whether to propose protections for the greater sage grouse in 11 Western states could come next week, the chairman of a committee overseeing Montana’s conservation plan said Friday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has until the end of the month to decide whether to propose designating the ground-dwelling bird as a threatened or endangered species. Congress has prohibited the agency from acting on that decision through at least September 2016.

The agency could decide that federal protections aren’t warranted, or that the measures are warranted but precluded by higher priorities.

Read more . . .

See also: Sage grouse is at center of national, state debates (Missoulian)

Feds to rule on western glacier stonefly endangerment within a year

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Western Glacier Stonefly (Zapada glacier) - Joe Giersch, USGS
Western Glacier Stonefly (Zapada glacier) – Joe Giersch, USGS

From today’s Flathead Beacon . . .

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to decide whether a rare aquatic insect that’s found only in Glacier National Park should be protected under the Endangered Species Act within the year.

The Missoulian reports that in a settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity, the federal agency agreed to make a decision by Sept. 30, 2016. The western glacier stonefly is one of 10 species of birds, fish and invertebrates the agency has agreed to rule on.

The stoneflies live in streams fed by cold water from glaciers in northwest Montana. Those glaciers are predicted to disappear by 2030, in part due to climate change. Researchers say the stoneflies also could disappear.

Read more . . .

Federal bull trout recovery plan released for public comment

Environmental Issues, News, , ,
Bull Trout
Bull Trout

The feds released a draft version of their plan for bull trout recovery yesterday, starting the clock on a 45-day recovery period . . .

The draft master plan for removing bull trout from Endangered Species Act protection was released at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, after 16 years of work and protracted legal battles.

“What we’ve tried to do with this approach over previous approaches is focus on what we believe are the highest priority conservation actions that need to occur,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bull trout recovery planning coordinator Steve Duke. “It won’t make the best life possible for bull trout, but where we know something will have an impact, we’ll react to that.”

The FWS plan is out for 45 days of public comment. It must meet a court-ordered settlement deadline for acceptance by Sept. 30. Two previous plans developed in 2002 and 2004 were deemed inadequate.

Read more . . .

Additional reading: Draft Bull Trout Recovery Planning Documents

Review of Canada lynx status delayed

Environmental Issues, News,

The feds are doing their required Canada lynx threat assessment, but they are a bit behind schedule . . .

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is applying a new threat assessment for federally protected Canada lynx from Maine to Washington State, delaying completion of the first five-year review.

The structured threat assessment will involve several other agencies, at least 15 states and more than 20 Native American tribes. The resulting assessment will serve as the basis of a streamlined five-year review, and a recovery plan if one is necessary, said Jim Zelenak of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Montana.

The delayed five-year review is the first since Canada lynx were declared threatened in 2000. Designations of critical habitat have been made in parts of Maine, Wyoming, Washington, Montana, Idaho and Minnesota.

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