Biodiversity: Congress steps into wolf conservation fray

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Letter asks U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to keep protection in place

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A congressional faction is pushing back against wolf de-listing. Photo courtesy USFWS.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Two leading congressional Democrats are leading an effort to maintain protection for wolves across the United States.

Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), along with 52 House members this week sent a letter to the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service urging an about-face on the agency’s anticipated proposal to remove federal protections for wolves across most of the lower 48 United States.

Wolf populations have recovered in places like the northern Rockies, but those areas only cover about 5 percent of the species’ original range. Before they were exterminated by humans, an estimated 2 million wolves roamed across most of the U.S. (more…)

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Biodiversity: Southwestern willow flycatcher gets critical habitat designation — finally

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
USFWS finalizes southwestern willow flycatcher critical habitat. Photo courtesy USFWS/Jim Rorabaugh.

USFWS finalizes southwestern willow flycatcher critical habitat. Photo courtesy USFWS/Jim Rorabaugh.

Several streams and rivers in southern Colorado included

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — After losing more than 90 percent of its habitat to water development and urban sprawl, southwestern willow flycatchers will get some measure of protection, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized a critical habitat designation for the endangered birds. Read the agency’s official notification here.

The designation covers about 208,000 acres of riparian habitat along 1,227 miles of rivers and streams in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Nevada. Some of the critical habitat is along the banks of well-known rivers, including the Rio Grande, Gila, Virgin, Santa Ana and San Diego.

The flycatcher is a small, neotropical, migrant bird that breeds in streamside forests. It was first listed as endangered in 1995 in response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity. (more…)

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Court to determine whether U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must mitigate impacts of genetically modified crops

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Environmental groups hail latest opinion as victory in fight against GM crops on protected lands

Migrating waterfowl rely on stopovers at wildlife refuges, where the use of genetically modified feed crops has been controversial. Bob Berwyn photo.

By Bob Berwyn

FRISCO — A Federal court this week set the stage for resolving a long-running conflict over the use of genetically engineered crops of 44,000 acres of land in the national wildlife refuge system administered by the Southeast Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg said that, even though the region has already agreed to stop planting GM crops, there may be ongoing effects. The judge set a hearing date of Nov. 5 to determine an appropriate remedy and urged the parties to meet before then to try and reach at least partial agreement.

At issue is the fact that the USFWS started using GM crops without doing an in-depth environmental study Instead, the agency relied on environmental studies done by a U.S. Department of Agriculture agency, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, according to Tom MacKenzie, spokesman for the southeast region of the USFWS. (more…)

Filed under: agriculture, biodiversity, Environment, public lands | Tagged: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Drought means triage for endangered Colorado River fish

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Low flows increase predation by non-native game fish; recovery effort could see temporary setback

U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service biological technician Rick Smaniotto captured this endangered Colorado pikeminnow in a fish passage at the Redlands Water and Power Company Diversion Dam on the Gunnison River near Grand Junction, Colo., on July 3, 2002. The fish weighed 16.8 pounds and measured 37 inches. After collecting research data, the fish was tagged and returned to the river. PHOTO COURTESY USFWS.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Ben Schleicher holds an endangered bonytail captured in the Gunnison River in western Colorado in 2011. Bonytail are being raised in hatcheries and stocked in Upper Colorado River Basin rivers in an effort to establish self-sustaining populations. PHOTO COURTESY  UPPER COLORADO RIVER ENDANGERED FISH RECOVERY PROGRAM.

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — With 2012 shaping up to be at least a near-record drought year in the high country, some of the Colorado River’s endangered native fish could be facing a battle for survival, especially in key tributaries like the Yampa, in northwestern Colorado.

As flows are reduced to a trickle, the Colorado pikeminnow, razorback sucker, and especiallly the humpback chub and bonytail chub, will face serious threats from competing non-native species.

But they’ll get a little help from Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program biologists, who will be doing their best to remove remove smallmouth bass, northern pike, and in some areas, white sucker, walleye and burbot. (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, Colorado, Drought, endangered species, Environment, rivers, water | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Obama slammed for weak polar bear conservation plan

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Polar bears won’t get much help from a new protection plan proposed by the Obama administration. PHOTO COURTESY USFWS/SCOTT SCHLIEBE.

Conservation groups say administration abdicating responsibility for dealing head-on with global warming, the main threat to the endangered Arctic predators

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — A proposed rule aimed at protecting endangered polar bears doesn’t even mention how the federal government will address global warming, which is seen as the primary threat to the Arctic predators.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will publish the proposed rule and a draft environmental study in the Federal Register on April 19, starting a 60-day public comment period. The proposed new rule would replace a 2008 version issued under the Bush administration that was voided by a federal court in 2011.

Conservation groups immediately blasted the proposed new rule as a gift to oil companies, because it basically results in business as usual. The only change is the addition of an underlying environmental study.

“As such, the Service’s management and conservation efforts for the polar bear will not change if this proposed special rule is finalized,” the agency wrote in a press release announcing the proposed rule. (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, climate and weather, endangered species, Environment, global warming | Tagged: , , , , | 10 Comments »

Endangered species short-shrifted in federal budget

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Whitebark pines, one of the many species that qualify for protection under the Endangered Species Act but hasn't been listed because of a shortage of funds. PHOTO COURTESY USFS/RICHARD SNIEZKO

Entire endangered species program gets less money than the cost of a single F-14

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY— These are tough times for the federal budget, with all sorts of competing demands for scarce funds, but endangered species will suffer disproportionately under President Barack Obama’s proposed budget. Obama has proposed a $1.5 million cap on what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can spend on responding to citizen listing petitions. By comparison, a single F-14 fighter jet costs $38 million.

Since the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, 24 at least 24 species have gone extinct while awaiting protection, and this proposed budget could push a few more plants and animals into oblivion.

Overall, the budget would boost funding for the Fish and Wildlife Service slightly, to about $1.3 billion, with $22 million for the endangered species program, about the same as last year. (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, endangered species, Environment, Summit County news | Tagged: , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Feds unveil new desert tortoise recovery plan

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

A desert tortoise near Barstow, California.

Conservation group says the new version still falls short of giving adequate protection to the endangered species

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — A new plan to protect and recover the endangered Mojave desert tortoise focuses less on mitigation and more on keeping pace with environmental changes that affect tortoise movement corridors and habitat connectivity.

Federal biologists say their new adaptive management approach will enable land managers to evaluate impacts of renewable energy projects, which, along with grazing, is deemed as one of the major threats to the species. (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, endangered species, Environment, global warming, Summit County news | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Colorado: Citizen science project to monitor pikas

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

A great close-up view of a pika in the mountains near Aspen, Colorado. PHOTO COURTESY KIM FENSKE.

Long-term citizen science effort aimed at measuring climate change impacts in the Colorado high country

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — The climate of the mountain West is changing, and some biologists have already raised alarm about the American pika, a small mammal that lives in some of the most rugged nooks and crannies of the region, hiding out among giant boulders. As the world heats up, habitat for pikas is shrinking, and they may not last through the century in parts of their range.

Federal biologists studied the pika to determine whether it could benefit from the protection of the Endangered Species Act. They concluded that, while the animals may be affected by climate change, enough habitat will remain to ensure the existence of the species. Visit  the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pika website to learn more.

Other scientists aren’t so sure. They think pikas might be “canaries in the coal mine” for global warming. Conservation biologists say that having a few remnant populations survive in isolated areas isn’t the same thing as ensuring long-term survival for the species as a whole. To gain a better understanding of what’s happening with pikas, Colorado-based conservation groups want some citizen help to gather better data on these cute and charismatic high country residents. They’ve started the Front Range Pika Project, a citizen science initiative that aims to engage the public in a long-term conservation study that, at the same time, could help raise public awareness about climate change impacts in the Colorado Rockies. (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, climate and weather, Colorado, endangered species, Environment, global warming, wildlife | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Feds say eastern cougar is extinct

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Despite numerous sightings, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has declared the eastern cougar to be extinct. CREATIVE COMMONS PHOTO VIA FLICKR.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will remove the subspecies from the Endangered Species List

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Federal scientists said last week they consider the the eastern cougar  to be extinct, and will remove the subspecies from the Endangered Species List.

The decision won’t affect the endangered status of the Florida panther, another subspecies that survives only in an isolated breeding population of about 120 to 160 animals in southwest Florida.

“We recognize that many people have seen cougars in the wild within the historical range of the eastern cougar,” said Martin Miller, northeast region chief of endangered species. “However, we believe those cougars are not the eastern cougar subspecies. We found no information to support the existence of the eastern cougar.” Click here to visit the agency’s eastern cougar web page. (more…)

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Wildlife agencies still mum on Peak 6 lynx impacts

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Release of draft environmental study will elicit formal comments and consultations among state, federal agencies; Breckenridge Town Council to get Peak 6 update this week

A Canada lynx in Colorado. Photo by Colorado Division of Wildlife biologist Tanya Shenk.

SUMMIT COUNTY — Even though concerns about threatened lynx have played a large part in determining the latest version of a plan to expand lift-served skiing at Breckenridge, state and federal wildlife agencies so far have officially been mum on the proposal.

The last formal comment filed by the Colorado Division of Wildlife was in response to the initial scoping notice in 2008, when state wildlife officials encouraged the U.S. Forest Service to complete a full-scale environmental impact statement, the most rigorous level of analysis prescribed under federal environmental laws. The EIS will include several options, including the so-called “no-action” alternative, and disclose the comparative impacts of each choice. (more…)

Filed under: Breckenridge Peak 6 expansion, Breckenridge Ski Resort, Colorado, Colorado Division of Wildlife, Environment, Summit County Colorado, Summit County news, wildlife | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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