Trump administration weakens enforcement of Endangered Species Act
The action, which expands the administration’s rewrite of U.S. environmental laws, is the latest that targets protections, including for water, air and public lands.
Endangered Species Act
Oregon wildlife commissioners adopt wolf management plan
Under the old plan, a wolf that attacked livestock twice or more over any period of time was deemed a “chronic depredator” and could be killed in the eastern third of the state, where wolves are managed by the state. The new plan will allow the state to kill wolves after two confirmed attacks during a nine-month period.
Brainerd playing host to USFWS public hearing on proposed wolf delisting
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is hosting a public hearing to take comments on the agency’s proposal to remove the gray wolf from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife on June 25 in Brainerd, Minn. And as more than a million public comments have already come in, the 480-seat Franklin Arts Center auditorium in Brainerd, in north-central Minnesota, is expected…
U.S. agency reconsidering status of bistate sage grouse
Announces it will reopen the public comment period and reconsider whether to protect the grouse under the Endangered Species Act.
Summit Metro Parks letter spot-on about endangered species protection
Northeast Ohio organization takes on USFWS policies.
Officials: Efforts failing to save sagebrush land in West
BOISE, Idaho — Public lands managers are losing a battle against a devastating combination of invasive plant species and wildfires in the vast sagebrush habitats in the U.S. West that support cattle ranching and recreation and are home to an imperiled bird, officials said. The Western Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies in a 58-page report released this month says…
Mulling Montana mustangs: In what would be a first, federal protections sought for wild horses
(Bureau of Land Management)BILLINGS, Mont. — Animal rights advocates announced a lawsuit against the federal government on Wednesday in a bid to make a Montana mustang population the first group of wild horses to be protected under the Endangered Species Act. A prior attempt to secure protections for wild horses across the western U.S. as imperiled wildlife failed. But supporters…
No Yellowstone grizzly hunt for Montana this year
State wants to avoid complicating legal battles over federal protections for the animals.
Lawsuits say Mexican gray wolf recovery plan is flawed
A subspecies of the gray wolf, Mexican wolves nearly disappeared in the 1970s. The federal government added them to the endangered species list in 1976. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo)ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — U.S. wildlife managers failed to adopt a recovery plan for the endangered Mexican gray wolf that would protect against illegal killings and the consequences of inbreeding, according…
Lawsuit: Water diversions in Utah’s Sawtooth Valley harming salmon
Says U.S. Forest Service is violating environmental laws by failing to do mandatory consulting on the 23 projects with other federal agencies and instead is continuing to authorize the irrigation diversions in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Canada lynx in position to be delisted
(Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)DENVER – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced earlier this week that a scientific review of the Canada lynx in the contiguous United States concludes that the animal may no longer warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and should be considered for delisting due to recovery. The recommendation is the…
River herring, hurt by dams and climate, might be endangered
The fish live in rivers from Maine to Florida, and conservationists have long made the case that their declining populations pose a major problem for the health of ecosystems along the East Coast.
Judge: Grizzlies near U.S.-Canada border merit endangered status
Order reverses 2014 re-classification by U.S. wildlife officials for 40-50 bears of the Cabinet-Yaak bear population under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Government urged to avoid salmon protection rules
The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association wants the government to convene a Cabinet-level committee with the power to allow exemptions to the Endangered Species Act. Known as the “God squad” because its decisions can lead to extinctions of threatened wildlife, it has only gathered three times – the last 25 years ago during a controversy over spotted owl habitat in the Northwest.
GOP targets Endangered Species Act as protections lifted
The bills come as a federal court lifted federal protections for gray wolves in Wyoming and the Trump administration moved to lift protections for grizzly bears in and near Yellowstone National Park. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke also is reviewing federal efforts to conserve the imperiled sage grouse in 11 Western states.
State wildlife officials review feds’ plan for Mexican wolf recovery
Since conservation of the Mexican gray wolf began in the 1980s, the Arizona agency has spent more than $7 million on recovery efforts.
Native Americans say grizzly bear decision violates religion
The plaintiffs are 17 tribes, clans and individuals from Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico and Canada, with two more tribes from Nebraska and South Dakota being added.
Feds release long-awaited recovery plan for Mexican wolves
Document calls for focusing recovery of wolves in core areas of predators’ historic range.
DNA from Ohio zoo’s polar bears used in fight against poaching
Scientists are trying to perfect a new, more accurate DNA test for bears and benefited from the Columbus Zoo’s controlled samples from a known family of animals. The reference data illustrate how genetic patterns change in a population over time. It could someday pin down criminals who harm polar bears, which are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act, on which the bears are listed as threatened.
Feds release endangered wolf pups in New Mexico
Cross-fostering project aimed at boosting genetic diversity among wolves in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona.
Grizzly bear delisting makes way through fed bureaucracy
Timeline for publishing final rule for delisting the grizzly reportedly unclear, in part because of the transition of presidential administrations and reviews at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Scientists predict expansion of U.S. grizzly bear range, habitat
Since coming under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, grizzlies have steadily expanded their habitat outward from the population’s core in Yellowstone National Park.
Lawmakers again target wolf protections
Meanwhile, both sides in the debate are waiting for a federal appeals court to decide whether to uphold lower court rulings that put wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Wyoming back on the list or to let the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service return management of the species to the states.
Growth of gray wolves continues in Southwest
Efforts continue to bolster struggling population in region.
States argue in court for more say over endangered species
It’s the latest skirmish in the federal government’s long and troubled effort to restore the rare Mexican gray wolf to part of their original range under the Endangered Species Act
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