FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sara Folger, Predator Conservation Alliance, 406-587-3389
March 21, 2000
Lynx Considered A Threatened Species
Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the lynx as a Threatened species across its historic range in the lower 48 States under the Endangered Species Act.
"We are pleased that the Fish and Wildlife Service has finally acknowledged that the lynx is in very serious trouble in the lower 48 states," said Sara Folger, Conservation Director of the Bozeman, Montana-based Predator Conservation Alliance. "We hope this decision means that in decades and generations to come, outdoor enthusiasts from Maine to Washington State will have the chance to catch a glimpse of this beautiful animal, or at least discover its tracks in the deep snow," she added.
However, Predator Conservation Alliance is skeptical of the agency's proposal for recovering the lynx. In making its decision, the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that the threat to the lynx is the 'lack of guidance to conserve the species in current Federal land management plans,' and that a conservation agreement recently signed by the U.S. Forest Service, which would affect all forest management plans within lynx habitat, 'will serve as a blueprint for recovery.'
"What happened to the practice of the Fish and Wildlife Service being responsible for managing the recovery of listed species, including writing its own recovery plan?," asked Tom Skeele, PCA's Executive Director. "From what we've read, it looks as though the Fish and Wildlife Service has delegated primary responsibility for recovering the lynx to the Forest Service, the very agency whose management policies resulted in the lynx's decline in the first place." Both the conservation groups who have fought for the lynx's protection and the Fish and Wildlife Service have said that logging, road building, motorized recreation, and increased human access in the lynx habitat are the main reasons for the species' decline. "To continue to survive in the northern forests across the lower 48 states, the lynx is going to need more than a few amendments to existing forest management plans," Skeele said.
Referring to the six years, three lawsuits, and two agency delays since the petition to protect the species was first filed, and now the proposal to let the U.S. Forest Service take the lead on recovering the lynx, Folger said, "It looks like the Fish and Wildlife Service is taking a new approach to recovery of endangered species – delay, defer and delegate."
Specifically that the protections may only require changes to national forest planning, and ignore many other potential threats to lynx survival.
Yet his and other conservation groups are concerned about two aspects of the decision in particular:
1. The protections may only apply to lynx in the northern Rockies, since the other four lynx populations appear to have been omitted; and
2. Even within the northern Rockies, the protections may only require changes to national forest planning, and ignore many other potential threats to lynx survival.
The decision is a long-awaited outcome of years of deliberation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), in charge of implementing the Endangered Species Act. A petition to list the lynx was filed more than 5 years ago. Conservation groups challenged in court negative listing decisions by FWS twice since then, and FWS was late in meeting an emergency 6-month extension to a previous deadline this summer. The FWS announced that its decision will be published in the U.S. Federal Register sometime next week.
"We still are waiting to see the details of the listing decision," said Jasper Carlton of the Biodiversity Legal Foundation in Louisville, Colorado. He added, "If our fears prove justified, we will pursue all administrative and legal means necessary to ensure the survival and recovery of the imperiled lynx throughout its former range."
lynx | forest
|
