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Archive for the ‘Endangered Species’ Category

Efforts to Preserve Snake River Basin Redband Trout

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Trying to Save Redband Trout While Agency Discretion Runs Amok

by Deb Hiller

Redband trout © www.fisheyeguyphotography.com

Snake River Basin (SRB) redband trout are native to the high desert country of southern Idaho, northern Nevada, and eastern Oregon. This species is uniquely adapted to survive the harsh temperature extremes and reduced water flows of the high desert which are lethal to most other trout. SRB redband are an important element of the high desert ecosystem. They are the only native salmonid left in these drainages, and are a significant part of the food chain. Redband eat insects and other fish. They in turn are a food source for dippers, king fishers, mink, otters, and great blue herons.

SRB redband trout are also an evolutionary unique genetic resource which could be important to the survival of Snake River steelhead, as well as isolated resident redband populations now also imperiled. Historically SRB redband interbred with the recently listed anadromous Snake River steelhead and produced anadromous fors of SRB redband trout. However, the construction of the Hells Canyon dam complex in the 1960s blocked anadromous fish passage. Consequently Snake River steelhead continue to migrate to and from the ocean, while SRB redband trout reside their entire life inland in the Bruneau, Owhyee, Boise, and other Snake river tributaries. Whereas much of the native anadromous Snake River steelhead, gene pool has been lost to interbreeding with hatchery fish, the native gene pool of the SRB redband trout is still intact. Thus, where native gene pools of SRB redband trout have the ability to produce anadromous forms (were it not for the Hells Canyon Dam complex), SRB redband trout have the potential to provide the genetic diversity necessary for anadromous Snake River steelhead species survival.

Redband, like other species of trout, are found mainly in streams with riparian vegetation and in-stream cover, including undercut banks, large woody debris, and overhanging vegetation. Streamside vegetation should shade at least 75% of the stream surface during the hours of 11:00am to 4:00pm from June to September. Such vegetation provides both shade that maintains the lover water temperatures required by trout during hot, dry summer months, and habitat for insects which redband feed upon. Redband also occupy lower gradient streams and should have access to pools which provide rearing habitat, resting places, overwintering areas, and refuges from floods, drought, and extreme temperatures. (more…)

Posted in ESA, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Fish, politicized science | No Comments »

WWP Spotlight: Ironwood Forest National Monument

Friday, June 25th, 2010

Ironwood trees are lovely in bloom. Does this look like good grazing land to you?

This 129,000 acre gem is located northwest of Tucson, Arizona and provides an important patch of unfragmented habitat for Sonoran desert tortoise, desert bighorn sheep, cactus ferruginous pygmy owls, and the Tucson shovel-nosed snake. It is one of the only places where Nichols Turk’s Head cactus grows on public lands.

Sounds pretty special, right?

We think so too, and we’ve been urging the BLM to protect this place from the adverse affects of livestock grazing. We’ve been protesting proposed decisions to renew grazing permits on the Ironwood Forest National Monument because the BLM needs to complete a Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the monument before reissuing ten-year permits. (more…)

Posted in Bighorn Sheep, Desert Tortoise, Endangered Species, Environment, Fire, Grazing, Livestock, Over-grazing, Public Lands, Weeds | No Comments »

¡Que vivan los lobos!

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

by Greta Anderson, WWP

Mexican wolf - photo: USFWS

The Mexican gray wolf has had a tough time in the southwest. By 1970, it was extirpated from the U.S. during a systemic “predator control” campaign carried out at the behest of the livestock industry. Now, it seems like history might be repeating itself.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Mexican gray wolf under the Endangered Species Act in 1976 and eventually set about recovering the species through captive breeding. In 1998, the agency began reintroducing wolves in portions of their former range in Arizona and New Mexico. The program set a goal of 102 wolves in the wild by 2006, including 18 breeding pairs. However, as of January 2008, only 52 wolves remain and only three of those are breeding pairs, a decline from the previous year and part of an ongoing trend of failed restoration.

This last year’s decline in the wolf numbers reflects a serious threat to maintaining viable wolf populations on the southwestern landscape. Each wolf is important genetically to the diversity and health of the subspecies, and the loss of a single individual or pack represents a serious loss for the long-term health of the entire population. Given this significance, it is important to look at one major reason for the population decline: the demands of the public lands’ livestock industry. (more…)

Posted in ESA, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Grazing, Livestock, Mexican Gray Wolf, Wildlife, wolves | 1 Comment »

Climate Change and Cattle: The One-Two Punch for Cutthroat

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Westslope Cutthroat Trout, photo: copyright Pat Clayton

by Larry Zuckerman, WWP

When Captain Meriwether Lewis spoke of “speckled trout” in his 1805
journal entry at Great Falls, Montana and then again in 1806, at Fort Clatsop near Astoria,
Oregon, he was unaware that he was first to write about these distinctive Western trout, which now bear the species name “clarki”, in honor of expedition partner, Captain William Clark. He also didn’t know he was describing two different subspecies: Westslope cutthroat trout in the Upper Missouri River and coastal cutthroat trout, an anadromous form, from the Columbia River. In fact, “Lewis and Clark’s trout” or Westslope cutthroat trout, the state fish for Idaho and Montana, bears Latinized versions of the brazen explorers’ names – Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi.

There are 14 subspecies of cutthroat trout in the West as described by eminent ichthyologist, Dr. Robert Behnke of Colorado State University. While two are extinct, the remaining 11 Interior subspecies have suffered catastrophic declines. Examining most of the 19th Century accounts of the Interior cutthroat trout, one would find only non-natives like brown trout, brook trout, and rainbow trout at historic sites like the Green River, Rio Grande, and Lake Tahoe. (more…)

Posted in Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Fish, Global Warming, Grazing, Livestock, water | 2 Comments »

Disregard of environment is immoral

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Disregard of environment is immoral

Recent news that sage grouse would not be listed under the Endangered Species Act, while celebrated by industry, was for some of us a moment of great sadness. Not because it was unexpected; it wasn’t. But because it confirms again that nothing really matters to us but human comfort and material prosperity. We continue to believe that only humans are necessary and important.

Sage grouse are a sagebrush-dependent species, which for us laypersons can be understood simply as a species whose health directly mirrors the health of the habitat it occupies. If sage grouse are becoming extinct, the habitat is also so fragmented and degraded it can no longer support them. There were once hundreds of millions of sage grouse, along with vast numbers of bison, bears, mountain sheep, elk, deer, wolves, lions and billions of smaller animals, birds and fish occupying the sage-steppe ecosystem. We have ruthlessly and in many cases systematically exterminated them and their habitat for our own benefit and continue to do so to this day.

(more…)

Posted in Endangered Species, Environment, General Conservation, Wildlife, Wildlife Habitat | 1 Comment »

WWP Arizona Director’s Interview with a Tucson TV Station on Desert Tortoise

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

Western Watersheds Project’s Arizona Director, Greta Anderson, comments on Desert Tortoise following the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s decision to consider the tortoise for Endangered Species Act protections :

Watch WWP’s Arizona Director, Greta Anderson, comment concerning Desert Tortoise on Tucson TV

Posted in Desert Tortoise, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Grazing, Livestock | 1 Comment »

FWS Calls for Public Comment for Big Lost River Whitefish Status Review

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

Back in March, Idaho Federal District Court Judge Edward Lodge ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct a full Status Review of the Big Lost River Whitefish in response to a WWP lawsuit.

Today, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it intends to comply with the judge’s order and conduct the Status Review, a process whereby the federal government determines whether a species qualifies for Endangered Species Act protection.

The Western Watersheds Project first petitioned the Service to list the Big Lost River mountain whitefish in 2006. After reviewing the petition in 2007, the Service determined it did not present substantial information to indicate that listing was warranted. The Western Watersheds Project then filed a complaint in 2008 challenging the Service’s finding. In response to that lawsuit, the United States District Court in Boise, Idaho, directed the Service to conduct a status review of mountain whitefish in the Big Lost River and, within one year, issue a finding on whether the population should be protected as a threatened or endangered species. The court ordered the Service to make a final listing determination by March 31, 2010.

Posted in ESA, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Fish, Idaho | 1 Comment »

Federal Protection Sought for Rapidly Declining Sonoran Desert Tortoises

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

Arizona, 10/09/08: Today, Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians filed a petition requesting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) list the Sonoran desert tortoise population under the Endangered Species Act and designate critical habitat to protect the animal. The petition provides substantial scientific data showing that monitored Sonoran desert tortoise populations have declined by 51% since 1987 throughout their range in Arizona.

Sonoran desert tortoises show marked genetic and behavioral differences from tortoises found in the Mojave Desert. The Mojave Desert population was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1990. When the Mojave population of desert tortoises was listed, the USFWS declined to list desert tortoises east of the Colorado River on the grounds that they were less imperiled than their Mojave cousins. The dramatic declines seen in Sonoran Desert tortoise populations since then now require swift action by the federal government.

The petition catalogs many threats that contribute to tortoise declines including disease, livestock grazing, mining, urban sprawl, use of off-road vehicles, border patrol activities, and a lack of adequate legal protections. Extended drought caused by climate change is an additional threat. Biologists fear that human activities combined with environmental stress may be increasing susceptibility to two diseases that are now becoming increasingly common among Sonoran desert tortoise populations. A disease epidemic led to emergency federal protection for tortoises in the Mojave Desert in 1989. The combined assault of threats such as disease, cattle grazing, and development are pushing Sonoran desert tortoises closer and closer to extinction.

Click the links to read the Listing Petition and WWP Press Release

Posted in Desert Tortoise, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Global Warming, Grazing, Livestock | No Comments »

Southwesterners Want Wolves!

Monday, June 16th, 2008

Western Watersheds Project co-sponsored a poll released Monday, June 16, in which it was revealed that voters in Arizona and New Mexico overwhelmingly support the recovery of the Mexican gray wolf in the southwest.

You can see the poll results for Arizona and New Mexico on Research and Polling’s website, but in summary:

In Arizona, 77 percent of voters support wolf recovery;
In New Mexico, 69 percent of voters support wolf recovery

More generally,

The majority of respondents Support stronger protections under the Endangered Species Act;
Understand the wolf to be a benefit to the West; and
Believe that the US Fish and Wildlife Service should manage wolves to ensure against extinction.

WWP hopes that this broad support helps the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service come back on board with recovering this important species, instead of watching the numbers decline precipitously towards the second extinction. See our webpage for more information.

Posted in Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Livestock, Mexican Gray Wolf, Public Lands, Uncategorized, politicized science, wolves | 12 Comments »

WWP Wins Court Order Overturning Bush Administration Decision Not To List Slickspot Peppergrass

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

WWP Online Messenger #139

Slickspot Peppergrass

Federal Magistrate Judge Mikel Williams Grants Western Watersheds Projectâ€™s Motion For Summary Judgment And Overturns the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serviceâ€™s Decision Not To Protect Slickspot Peppergrass Under the Endangered Species Act.

May 6, 2008

Contacts:
Todd Tucci :208-724-2142
Katie Fite: 208-429-1679

Western Watersheds Project has won another round of federal court litigation over protection of the Slickspot peppergrass (Lepidium papilliferum).

Slickspot peppergrass is a rare annual or biennial Idaho endemic flower that grows in the sagebrush country of the Snake River Plain and portions of Owyhee County in the Jarbidge region.
Direct threats to slickspot peppergrass are cheatgrass invasion and fire. Cattle trampling and other disturbance to the fragile smooth desert â€œslickspotâ€ soils in the sagebrush areas where this plant grows promote cheatgrass and weed invasion. For a complete photo essay on Slickspot peppergrass please visit WWPâ€™s Slickspot peppergrass web page:

Slickspot Peppergrass and Cows