Tag Archives: endangered species

Ninety-eight percent of cave-hibernating bats have died in Pennsylvania, say biologists

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Natural News 4/15/2013
Excerpt:      “(NaturalNews) They serve a critical role in pollinating crops, killing insects, and fertilizing soil, but their presence throughout the state of Pennsylvania is in a disastrously serious decline. According to a new report by PhillyBurbs.com, 99.99 percent of bats living in Pennsylvania’s second largest bat habitat were recently discovered to be dead, and a cohort of biologists currently studying the issue estimates that a shocking 98 percent of bats living throughout the entire state of Pennsylvania are now dead as well. …..”
Read entire article at http://www.naturalnews.com/039916_bats_white-nose_syndrome_die-off.html

USFWS to consider endangered species listing for woodpeckers that rely on post-fire habitat

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Summit County Voice 4/9/2013
Excerpt:        “SUMMIT COUNTY — U.S. Forest Service programs touted as forest health work be the the primary threats to two populations of black-backed woodpeckers.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week said it will consider those threats to the rare birds in California, Oregon and the Black Hills of South Dakota as it makes a review to determine whether to protect the birds under the Endangered Species Act.

Some of the primary threats to the populations that were included in the petition include post-disturbance salvage logging, active fire suppression that limits the acreage and severity of fires each year, and forest thinning programs.  ….”
See entire article and link to proposed listing at http://summitcountyvoice.com/2013/04/09/usfws-to-consider-endangered-species-listing-for-woodpeckers-that-rely-on-post-fire-habitat/

Judge tells feds to study owls before selling timber

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Capital Press 4/5/2013
Excerpt:      “The U.S. Forest Service must study competition between threatened spotted owls and barred owls before proceeding with a timber project in an Oregon national forest.
A federal judge has blocked logging on more than 2,000 acres in the Willamette National Forest, including about 450 acres of spotted owl habitat that would have been removed or downgraded.   Two environmental groups — Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild — filed a legal complaint against the “Goose Project” last year.   …”
Read entire article at http://www.capitalpress.com/content/mp-owl-logging-ruling-040513

Biodiversity: Forest Service adopting a regional policy to address bat-killing fungal disease

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Summit County Voice 3/29/2013
Excerpt:      “SUMMIT COUNTY — The U.S. Forest Service is adopting a regional policy aimed at managing caves in the face of White-Nose Syndrome, a bat-killing disease that is sweeping across the country.   The fungal infection has wiped out millions of bats in the Northeast, spreading southward, and west as far as Oklahoma, but hasn’t yet reached the Rocky Mountains, but the Forest Service recognizes the threat:

“If (the disease) is introduced to cave or (abondoned mine) habitats anywhere in the five states in Region 2, it will likely spread rapidly via bat-to-bat transmission and could quickly contaminate cave and (abandoned mine) habitats,” the agency concluded in the study. …”
Read entire article at http://summitcountyvoice.com/2013/03/29/biodiversity-forest-service-adopting-a-regional-policy-to-address-bat-killing-fungal-disease/

US Forest Service Reopens Caves Despite Risk to Bats

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Environmental News Network 3/28/2013
Excerpt:       “Despite the unabated threat of a devastating fungal disease that has already killed nearly 7 million hibernating bats, U.S. Forest Service officials released a plan today to rescind their three-year-old precautionary cave closure policy in the Rocky Mountain Region, including in Colorado and much of Wyoming and South Dakota. The new policy, described in an environmental assessment posted to the Forest Service website, reopens all caves in the region to recreational activities, nullifying an aggressive approach to containing white-nose syndrome unique among western federal land agencies.  ….”
Read entire article at http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/45779

Supreme Court agrees to hear Sierra Nevada forest case

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McClatchy Newspapers 3/18/2013
Excerpt:     “WASHINGTON — A long-running Sierra Nevada forest planning dispute will now be settled by the Supreme Court in what could shape up as a crucial public lands case.

On Monday, the court agreed to referee the dispute pitting environmentalists with the Portland, Ore.-based Pacific Rivers Council against the U.S. Forest Service over decision-making that dates back to the second Bush administration. While the specific case involves 11 Sierra Nevada forests, the eventual outcome could shape everything from who gets to file lawsuits to the scope of future environmental studies.   …”
Read entire article at http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/18/186211/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-sierra.html

Dust settles on legislative session but Utah land war continues

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Deseret news 3/17/2013
Excerpt:      “SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s conservative lawmakers this session continued to engineer their own version of a coup d’etat against the federal government over its land management policies, passing a flurry of resolutions and new laws that assert and reiterate dominion over the state’s destiny.

They urged the federal government to butt out of Utah prairie dog management in Iron County and leave it to the locals, and told them to drop San Juan County populations of the Gunnison sage grouse from consideration of being named to the Endangered Species list.  …”
Read entire article at http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865576052/Dust-settles-on-legislative-session-but-Utah-land-war-continues.html?pg=all

Crater Lake logging plan opposed

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Statesman Journal 3/17/2013
Excerpt:        “Democracy is not the driver when it comes to making the final decision on the proposed Bybee management project in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.  “This is not about how many votes’ we receive,” stressed forest supervisor Rob MacWhorter. “I’m not looking at sheer numbers but at substantive, thoughtful comments about the document we put out there.

“Simply saying, I don’t like this’ doesn’t give me a lot of space to try to figure out how to resolve that particular issue,” he added. “But we will respond to substantive comments and may incorporate some of them into whatever decision we do make.”  ….”
Read entire article at http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20130317/GREEN/303170057/Crater-Lake-logging-plan-opposed?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|News|p

Delay in recovery plan for imperiled Canada lynx spurs federal lawsuit

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Washington Post 3/14/2013
Excerpt:      “BILLINGS, Mont. — Thirteen years after the government listed Canada lynx as a threatened species, wildlife advocates on Thursday asked a federal judge to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to finish its long-awaited recovery plan for the snow-loving wild cats.

Four groups represented by the Western Environmental Law Center allege the long delay on the part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violates federal law.  …”
Read entire article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/energy-environment/delay-in-recovery-plan-for-imperiled-canada-lynx-recovery-plan-spurs-federal-lawsuit/2013/03/14/692d1232-8cfa-11e2-adca-74ab31da3399_story.html

Lawyers, environmentalists continue court fight over trout

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Elko Daily Free Press 3/11/2013
Excerpt:      “RENO (AP) — The U.S. government says environmentalists are back in court on nothing more than a “fishing expedition” in a decade-old attempt to again close 1.5 miles of a gravel road along a threatened trout stream near the Nevada-Idaho line leading to some of the most remote, federally protected wilderness in the nation.

The conservationists insist they’re trying to save the fish — a job they say has fallen to them because the U.S. Forest Service has shirked its responsibility to enforce locally unpopular laws.  ….”
Read entire article at http://elkodaily.com/news/lawyers-environmentalists-continue-court-fight-over-trout/article_7139e06c-89ea-11e2-9275-001a4bcf887a.html