bpal
09-02-04, 02:15 PM
This fits in well with his opening the Roadless areas, and Natl forests/old growth for logging....
Thursday, September 2, 2004
Federal agency moves to remove protection of murrelet
By JEFF BARNARD
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GRANTS PASS, Ore.-- Going against a recommendation from its own scientists, the Bush administration took another step toward removing the marbled murrelet from the threatened species list, which could ultimately increase logging in old-growth forests.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided yesterday that marbled murrelets in Washington, Oregon and California, although they continue to decline in population, should not be considered for protection apart from their more abundant cousins in Canada and Alaska.
The marbled murrelet is a robin-sized seabird that spends most of its life at sea, but flies as much as 50 miles inland to lay a single egg in a mossy depression on a large branch of an old-growth conifer. The habitat needs of the murrelet, combined with the northern spotted owl and salmon, resulted in sharp declines in Northwest logging in the past 10 years, particularly on national forests that provide 90 percent of the murrelet's habitat.
Endangered Species Act protection remains in place for the bird on the West Coast, but the Fish and Wildlife Service will review its status across its entire range in the lower 48, British Columbia and Alaska -- a process that could take a year. Depending on what the review finds, the Fish and Wildlife Service could recommend the murrelet be taken off the threatened species list, a process that would take another year.
The decision came from the office of Assistant Secretary of Interior Craig Manson, the Bush administration's point man on the Endangered Species Act. It went against the recommendation from the Northwest regional office of the Fish and Wildlife Service in Portland, which believed the birds in Washington, Oregon and Northern California constitute a distinct population worthy of protection.
The action was prompted by a lawsuit brought by the timber industry demanding a review of the threatened species listings for the marbled murrelet and the northern spotted owl, which prompted sharp cutbacks in logging to protect their old-growth forest habitats.
"The real question from our perspective is a status review now needs to look at not only the California, Oregon, and Washington population, but the population as it goes up the coast into Canada and Alaska," said Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resources Council, which brought the lawsuit.
The Endangered Species Act offers protection to a species as a whole as well as what is called a distinct population segment, but does not define what that is. The Fish and Wildlife Service adopted a policy in 1996 saying a distinct population segment must be discrete and significant to warrant protection apart from the whole.
Environmentalists were outraged that the Interior Department used a different interpretation of the policy to override Fish and Wildlife Service biologists.
"It's ignoring the biology and playing games with the legal standard to say this is no longer a population segment we can list," said Kristin Boyles, a lawyer for Earthjustice, an environmental public interest law firm in Seattle.
Specifically, the Pacific region office found that the Northwest birds were distinct from their cousins in Canada and Alaska. Losing them would wipe out a significant portion of the gene pool, create a gap in 18 percent of their range and threaten the species' long-term viability. Further, it is unclear how Canada's new law protecting the murrelet as a threatened species will work out.
The Interior Department changed those conclusions, saying the Northwest population was not genetically, physically, behaviorally or ecologically different from Canadian birds.
Thursday, September 2, 2004
Federal agency moves to remove protection of murrelet
By JEFF BARNARD
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GRANTS PASS, Ore.-- Going against a recommendation from its own scientists, the Bush administration took another step toward removing the marbled murrelet from the threatened species list, which could ultimately increase logging in old-growth forests.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided yesterday that marbled murrelets in Washington, Oregon and California, although they continue to decline in population, should not be considered for protection apart from their more abundant cousins in Canada and Alaska.
The marbled murrelet is a robin-sized seabird that spends most of its life at sea, but flies as much as 50 miles inland to lay a single egg in a mossy depression on a large branch of an old-growth conifer. The habitat needs of the murrelet, combined with the northern spotted owl and salmon, resulted in sharp declines in Northwest logging in the past 10 years, particularly on national forests that provide 90 percent of the murrelet's habitat.
Endangered Species Act protection remains in place for the bird on the West Coast, but the Fish and Wildlife Service will review its status across its entire range in the lower 48, British Columbia and Alaska -- a process that could take a year. Depending on what the review finds, the Fish and Wildlife Service could recommend the murrelet be taken off the threatened species list, a process that would take another year.
The decision came from the office of Assistant Secretary of Interior Craig Manson, the Bush administration's point man on the Endangered Species Act. It went against the recommendation from the Northwest regional office of the Fish and Wildlife Service in Portland, which believed the birds in Washington, Oregon and Northern California constitute a distinct population worthy of protection.
The action was prompted by a lawsuit brought by the timber industry demanding a review of the threatened species listings for the marbled murrelet and the northern spotted owl, which prompted sharp cutbacks in logging to protect their old-growth forest habitats.
"The real question from our perspective is a status review now needs to look at not only the California, Oregon, and Washington population, but the population as it goes up the coast into Canada and Alaska," said Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resources Council, which brought the lawsuit.
The Endangered Species Act offers protection to a species as a whole as well as what is called a distinct population segment, but does not define what that is. The Fish and Wildlife Service adopted a policy in 1996 saying a distinct population segment must be discrete and significant to warrant protection apart from the whole.
Environmentalists were outraged that the Interior Department used a different interpretation of the policy to override Fish and Wildlife Service biologists.
"It's ignoring the biology and playing games with the legal standard to say this is no longer a population segment we can list," said Kristin Boyles, a lawyer for Earthjustice, an environmental public interest law firm in Seattle.
Specifically, the Pacific region office found that the Northwest birds were distinct from their cousins in Canada and Alaska. Losing them would wipe out a significant portion of the gene pool, create a gap in 18 percent of their range and threaten the species' long-term viability. Further, it is unclear how Canada's new law protecting the murrelet as a threatened species will work out.
The Interior Department changed those conclusions, saying the Northwest population was not genetically, physically, behaviorally or ecologically different from Canadian birds.