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Archive for the ‘Endangered Species Act’ 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 »

Solar Rush In the Golden State

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

by Dr. Mike Connor, WWP California

Desert Tortoise, Photo © Dr. Michael J. Connor

The verdict is still out on what the specific impacts of global climate change really will be for our desert wildlands but government responses are definitely posing new challenges to already stressed wildlife on public lands. Climate change does pose a threat to biodiversity and may even threaten entire ecosystems. Meeting these threats requires more protection of sensitive habitats, particularly those providing connectivity for species movements, to preserve ecological flexibility. Unfortunately, so far the response of the agencies has been just the opposite of what is needed. They are allowing many of the public lands that would provide this flexibility to be considered for the industrial scale development of so-called green energy projects by private industry. (more…)

Posted in Bighorn Sheep, California, Desert Tortoise, Endangered Species Act, Environment, Global Warming, Interior, Nevada, Public Lands, Wildlife | No Comments »

Wolf Recovery Coordinator Recalls the Call of the Wild

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

"Judith", Phantom Hill wolf © Lynne Stone 2009

by Roy Heberger

Before my retirement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in July 2000, I directed the wolf recovery program in Idaho. The work was the most rewarding, challenging, frustrating and stressful experience of my 33 years with the FWS. (more…)

Posted in ESA, Endangered Species Act, General Conservation, Wildlife, wolves | 5 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 »

Can Sage Grouse Save the American West?

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Current Sage grouse distribution

On March 5, 2010, in response to a court order from an earlier Western Watersheds Project lawsuit, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced that Greater Sage-Grouse warranted the protection of the Endangered Species Act but that the FWS was precluded from listing the species by higher priorities. At the same time the FWS found that rare and declining subspecies of Sage-Grouse found in the Mono Basin of California and eastern Washington State were warranted for protection but also precluded from listing as threatened or endangered.

(more…)

Posted in Court, ESA, Endangered Species Act, Environment, Sage grouse | 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 »

WWP Current Legal News

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

The litigation docket of Western Watersheds Project is large and varied. All legal actions are taken to bring better management to protect and restore western watersheds and wildlife by ensuring that federal and state land and wildlife management agencies are complying with their legal mandates.

Some of the highlights of current and proposed litigation include WWP’s winning in March 2009 a federal court injunction on 612,000 acres of the Jarbidge Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in southern Idaho. The injunction requires that the BLM change livestock management to ensure the survival of sage grouse and other sage-steppe dependent species.

WWP recently brought two very large cases cases challenging 18 BLM Resource Management Plans in four states (Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming). These Plans were completed at the end of the Bush administration and failed to comply with two major federal statutes the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA). This case affects over twenty-five million acres of public land.

The second large case challenges over 100 recent BLM grazing decisions in Nevada and Idaho that failed to address impacts of livestock grazing on sage grouse
and many other sensitive species of the sage-steppe ecosystem. Both of these cases are being heard in federal district court in Idaho.

These two large cases compliment WWP’s challenge of the denial of protections of the Endangered Species Act to Greater Sage Grouse by the Bush administration. The sage grouse listing case is ensuring that a new decision about whether to protect sage grouse will comply with the law and take into account all available scientific information about the populations and habitat conditions of sage grouse across the west.

(more…)

Posted in Court, ESA, Endangered Species Act, General Conservation, Grazing, Livestock | 1 Comment »

How Will President Obama Protect Western Watersheds And Wildlife ?

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

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Will "Change" benefit America's wildlife heritage ?

The inauguration of Barack Obama on January 20, 2009 started a new era in public land management. Without question the priorities of our new President will be different and, we hope, much better than those of the last eight years of Republican control.

President Obama has committed his administration to science-based decision-making and, as a strong part of that effort, to the assessment of human influence on global warming and all its many negative consequences for life on earth.

Unfortunately, it is much less clear what the new administration’s policies will be for western public lands and the habitat those lands provide for native wildlife and fish.

Much of the uncertainty regarding the future of public lands and wildlife come from the Obama appointments of Ken Salazar as Secretary of the Interior and Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture. Both of these experienced and thoughtful politicians have lengthy backgrounds that suggest they may be entwined very strongly with traditional extractive users of public lands. (more…)

Tags: Department of Agriculture, Interior Department, Salazar, Vilsack
Posted in ESA, Endangered Species Act, Environment, General Conservation, Grazing, Interior, Livestock, Public Lands, Wildlife Habitat | 1 Comment »