CONFIRMED: Groups secure federal agreement to assess Southern Rockies for lynx critical habitat
For release: Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Contact:
John Mellgren, Western Environmental Law Center, 541-359-0990, [email protected]
Lindsay Larris, Guardian of WildEarth, 310-923-1465, [email protected]
Peter Hart, Wild Workshop, 303-475-4915, [email protected]“Style =” color: blue”>[email protected]
Wildlife conservation groups secure federal agreement to assess Southern Rockies for critical lynx habitat
Late yesterday, the Montana District Court approved one legal agreement Wildlife conservation groups have assured the United States Fish and Wildlife Service that the agency will be forced to revise its Canada lynx critical habitat rule to assess territory in the southern Rocky Mountains. of the wild cat needed for its recovery. Groups sued in 2020 over agency failure to comply Court order 2016 about the problem. The service has now agreed to evaluate the southern Rockies for inclusion in critical habitat in a proposed revision to the Canadian lynx critical habitat rule by November 21, 2024. The Service will then provide the public with the opportunity to comment and submit data on the previous proposal finalizing the rule by 2025.
John Mellgren, general counsel at the Western Center for Environmental Law, said: “We hope today’s agreement will combine with other victories by our other Canadian lynx to bring back the cat. This snow-dependent greatness has a fighting chance for survival in the face of a warming climate,” said John Mellgren, general counsel at the Western Center for Environmental Law. “We have had to push the Fish and Wildlife Service to make every step forward in the Canadian lynx recovery effort and hope the agency is starting a new chapter of benevolent restoration efforts. even for this iconic and ecologically significant wild cat.”
Critical habitat is an area designated by the federal government as essential for the survival and recovery of a species protected by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Once designated, federal agencies must make special efforts to protect critical habitat from damage or destruction. In 2014, the Service designated approximately 38,000 acres as critical habitat for the threatened lynx, but chose to exclude the entire southern Rocky Mountains of the lynx, from the southern center. Wyoming, throughout Colorado and into central northern New Mexico. These areas are critical to the survival and recovery of the iconic feline of the western United States, where lynx now live in small and sometimes isolated populations.
“The Lynx was virtually eliminated from Colorado in the 1970s as a result of trapping, poisoning and development,” said Lindsay Larris, wildlife program manager at WildEarth Guardians, based in Denver. cruel. “This settlement is the first step in a long road to genuine restoration for the lynx, but we are cautiously optimistic that it will lead to thousands of acres of protected habitat.” return this majestic wild cat to its home in the Southern Rockies. ”
“The high country of Colorado is an important place for lynx, especially in light of climate change, and lynx is an important part of the landscape in the Southern Rockies. The lynx habitat needs to be protected here to ensure the species continues to recover,” said Peter Hart, legal director at Wilderness Workshop. “This settlement is an important step in that direction.”
Confusingly, the Service’s latest designation reduction protections now have 2,593 square miles more than planned in 2013. In doing so, the Service eliminated much of the last and currently occupied feline habitat south of the Rockies. and other areas from protection. In it 2016 orderThe court found that the Service had failed to follow the science showing that lynx were breeding successfully in Colorado, and thus excluding Colorado from the cat critical habitat designation “runs against prior evidence agency and defeat the purpose of the ESA.”
Today’s legal agreement sets a hard, legally binding deadline of November 21, 2024 for Publishing Services to propose a critical lynx habitat rule, along with regular progress reports. , which is also legally binding, given the agency’s long record of negligence and delay on the subject of Canada’s lynx rehabilitation actions.
Canadian lynx background:
Canadian lynx, medium-sized members of the feline family, are experts in habitat and prey. Highly dependent on hares, lynxes tend to be limited in both population and distribution in areas where hares are abundant. Like their favorite prey, lynxes are specially adapted to live in mature forests with dense mantle and deep snow and ice. Species and their habitats are threatened by climate change, logging, development, mechanized access and trapping, which disturbs and disrupts the landscape, increasing risks to lynx and their prey.
The Service first listed the lynx on the ESA’s threatened list in 2000. However, at the time, the Service failed to protect any lynx’s habitat, hindering its survival. species survival and recovery. Lynx habitat was not protected until 2006 and the initial critical habitat designation did not meet the needs of the rare feline and ESA standards. After two additional lawsuits brought by conservationists challenging the Service’s critical habitat designations that culminated in 2008 and 2010, a district court in Montana left the protection agency intact. the lynx’s habitat while turning it over to the Service for improvement. This resulted in the habitat designation being revised for improvement again in 2016.
In 2014, the U.S. District Court of Montana also ruled that the Service violated the ESA by failing to prepare a rehabilitation plan for the lynx after more than 12 years of delay. The court ordered the Service to complete a lynx rehabilitation plan or determine that such a plan would not promote lynx conservation by January 15, 2018. In the end, the Service determined that the plan Restoration will not promote lynx conservation. The groups in today’s announcement and others have sued and secured a contract The service abandoned its plan to remove endangered species protections for lynx as well as completed a draft restoration plan by the expected December 1, 2024 deadline.
Services Assessment of species status in 2017 analyzes the “long-term viability” of lynx population centers — their ability to survive until 2100 — according to its current regulatory framework as follows (map):
Unit 1: Northern Maine – 50%
Unit 2: NE Minnesota – 35%
Unit 3: NW Montana / SE Idaho – 78%
Unit 4: Washington – 38%
Unit 5: Greater Yellowstone – 15%
Unit 6: Western Colorado – 50%
The lynx status assessment paints a bleak picture for the lynx, noting only one geographic unit (Unit 3 – MT and ID) that “has a high probability (78%) to support lynx habitation.” in 2100″ and notes that the remaining geographical units “are considered to have a 50 percent chance or higher of discontinuing function… by the end of the century” [SSA at 6].
Studies show that species with ESA-designated critical habitats are more than twice as likely to increase populations than those without. Likewise, species with adequately protected habitat are less likely to decline in populations and are more likely to stabilize. The ESA allows for the assignment of both occupied and uninhabited habitat keys for the restoration of listed species and provides an extra special layer of protection for animals such as the closely related lynx. tied to a particular type of landscape.
Canadian lynx Photo for media usage (credit: USFWS/Dash Feierabend)
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