Archive for the ‘ESA’ Category

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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

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 »

Wolf Recovery Coordinator Recalls the Call of the Wild

Thursday, July 1st, 2010
Judith, Phantom Hill wolf © Lynne Stone 2009

"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

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 »

Can Sage Grouse Save the American West?

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
Current Sage grouse distribution

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 »

LDS Apostle Orson Hyde speaks in 1865 on the impact of Grazing on Rangeland

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
LDS Apostle, Orson Hyde

LDS Apostle, Orson Hyde

Oct. 7, 1865 when Apostle Orson Hyde, one of the 13 leaders of the Mormon Church, speaking at General Conference in Salt Lake City to the assembled members of the church, had this to say about how the church wanted Mormons to live their lives:

“There is a good deal of ambition among our people to cultivate a great quantity of ground, the result of which is, that we cultivate our lands poorly in comparison to what we would if we were contented with a smaller area, and would confine our labors to it. We have found some difficulty with regard to water, and complaints have been made about a scarcity of water in many places, when, indeed, I suppose the Lord has apportioned the water to the amount of land He intended should be cultivated. I do not think that these things are passed over unnoticed by Him … He understands perfectly well what the elements are capable of producing, and how many of His people may be established here or there with profit and with advantage.” (more…)

Posted in Court, ESA, Environment, Grazing, Livestock | 5 Comments »

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 preserves wilderness values on BLM lands in Southwest Montana

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Western Watersheds Project’s Montana Office recently won Summary Judgment from the Interior Department’s Office of Hearings and Appeals remanding the Bureau of Land Management’s attempt to build fencing for livestock grazing within a Wilderness Study Area on public lands in Southwest Montana.


View Bell Canyon in a larger map

The fencing would have altered the wilderness characteristics of the landscape for many reasons, but the Administrative Law Judge specifically cited BLM’s failure to consider the impact that the fencing would have on the view of the public landscape.
(more…)

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Posted in Activism, Court, ESA, Environment, Grazing, Livestock, Public Lands | 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

jon

Will "Change" benefit America's wildlife heritage ?

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…)

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Posted in ESA, Endangered Species Act, Environment, General Conservation, Grazing, Interior, Livestock, Public Lands, Wildlife Habitat | 1 Comment »

Kempthorne Hearts Reid

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

I just came in half way through Kempthorne’s Idaho Public Television Dialogue taped TV interview, on a screen image chock full of belching smokestacks polluting the air. Yes, this is the same Bush admin fellow that is becoming part of the Idaho bathroom scandal du jour club.

It seems to be another part of the Public Relations effort by Dirk to emerge squeaky clean from his association with Bush. Unlike other Dialogue TV programs, no live callers with questions were allowed. He wouldn’t want to sully himself by interaction with riffraff.

In the interview on Idaho Public Television’s program Dialogue with Marcia Franklin, Kempthorne lauds Harry Reid as part of the “bipartisan support” for Kempthorne’s efforts in gutting the ESA.

(more…)

Posted in ESA, Endangered Species Act, Washington, regulation, water | 1 Comment »

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