Endangered Species Act

The unwitting allies of these destructive change agents are the uninformed urban masses who add their political clout to the big bucks of elitist foundations to arm this War against the West. 

There are many species on the endangered list but most of the attention and money goes to just a few of them and  those are either  fish or predators.   This is because fish and predators:

1. excite the public imagination more and are therefore good fundraisers and salescreatures for preservation.
2. can lock up more land because they have large habitat requirements.

The rest of the species on the list are mostly ignored until necessary to use them to stop some specific project.

These pages will document some of those struggles.  Click on the subtitle to learn more about each animal and the ESA 

Bull Trout

USFWS has completed the designation of Critical Habitat but the Draft Recovery Plan is on hold pending completion of a review of the appropriateness of the listing.  Both of these regulatory processes will set rules and standards that will harm our economy and adversely impact our ability to access our forests and streams for public use.

West Slope Cutthroat Trout

On April 14, 2000, the Service determined that the westslope cutthroat trout did not warrant listing as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. That finding, made in response to a petition received by the Service in 1997, was based on extensive information indicating westslope cutthroat trout inhabit more than 23,000 linear miles of habitat in 4,275 tributaries or streams located in 12 major drainages and 62 component watersheds in the Columbia, the Missouri and the Saskatchewan River Basins. 

On October 23, 2000, American Wildlands and four other environmental groups filed a lawsuit arguing that the Service should not have counted westslope cutthroat trout that were less than 100 percent genetically pure when the Service determined the size of the westslope cutthrout trout population. The Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered the Service to reconsider whether to list westslope cutthroat as a threatened subspecies and to more thoroughly take into account the hybridization issue when making that decision. The Court gave the Service until March 31, 2003 to complete its work.

Listing the cutthroat as an endangered species would be the last nail in the coffin for Western Montana and Northern Idaho.  This area would become a zoo-like colony for tourists and wealthy transients.   Eventually Montanans themselves will take their place in the zoo as one of the exhibits like the mountaineers of West Virginia and Tennessee. 

In August 2003 the USFWS again determined that the westslope cutthroat  does not need the protections of the ESA.  

WE FINALLY WON ONE AND IT IS ABOUT TIME.

TOP

Grizzly Bear

The most effective as well as the most often employed tool the greens use on the Flathead Forest is Amendment 19.   This amendment to Flathead N.F. Plan sets road density for grizzly bear recovery areas - open road = 1mi/mi²  and total road = 2mi/mi².  This has forced the closure and decommissioning (road rip) of many forest roads.  Loss of forest road access means loss of forest management, loss of resources,  jobs, economic vitality, recreation and most important ..... freedom of access.  More and more citizens are crowded onto fewer and fewer roads competing for huckleberries, game animals, fishing holes, and solitude.  Every logging sale and every recreation enhancement comes with more road closures, thus guaranteeing less logging and recreation in the future.    

The "science" used to justify Amendment 19 is defective.  South Fork Study (Mace and Manley 1993) and   The Final Report: Grizzly Bear Ecology in the Swan Mountains  (Mace and Waller 1997).  Go HERE to see our analysis of Amendment 19  

The same science along with a new study that recommends more liberal road densities is being used to force a similar amendment to the forest plans of the Kootenai, Lolo and Idaho Panhandle Forests.  MFMU submitted an official comment on the proposal.  NorthWest Montana Gold Prospectors also sent in a comment letter. 

The Record of Decision has been signed and MFMU filed an appeal.  At the same time but for different reasons, environmentalists sued USFS over the grizzly access amendment.  In December, 2006, they won their case and the amendment was annulled by a federal judge.  As of 4/08, this amendment has not been restored so these forests and the bear is managed according to existing unamended forest plans

The grizzly bear has been delisted in the Greater Yellowstone recovery area in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.  As part of the plan to delist the bears, National Forests and state wildlife agencies in this area adopted a protective management plan for grizzly bears.  The bear is still listed in other lower 48 recovery areas including the Selkirks in Washington and Idaho, the Cabinet/Yaak in Idaho and Montana, and the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem In Montana. 

Several scientific studies are underway or have been completed since the The South Fork Study which in spite of its shortcomings is still considered the primary science on grizzly bears and road management.  The new studies afford us some hope because in some instances they are indicating less avoidance of roads than was previously thought and other studies are showing that grizzly bears are thriving.  

The newer studies include the 

1. Northern Rockies Grizzly Bear Project  - a federal research project
2. Grizzly Bear Population Monitoring by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks
3. Middle Fork 
4. Swan Valley Grizzly Bear Study

Wolf

According to a USFWS press release, 

"NORTHERN ROCKY MOUNTAIN WOLVES REMOVED FROM ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST AS OF MARCH 28, 2008

 

Today, Friday, March 28, 2008, the northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf is officially removed from the federal list of endangered species.  The States of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming will assume full management authority for the continued conservation of the gray wolf.  This wolf population has exceeded its recovery goals for the past several years and is now thriving.  Presently, there are more than 1,500 wolves and at least 100 breeding pairs in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.  The Service and States will cooperatively monitor the wolf population for the next five years.

As part of the Service’s delisting action, it designated the northern Rocky Mountain wolf Distinct Population Segment (DPS) as that area that includes all of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, the eastern third of Washington and Oregon, and a small corner of north-central Utah.

This action will not affect the status of any wolves outside of the northern Rocky Mountain wolf DPS.

Once a species is delisted a State or Tribe has sole management responsibility. The Act includes many safeguards to ensure that the wolf population will remain recovered for the foreseeable future.   For example, the Act mandates the Service to monitor the wolf population for at least 5 years after delisting.

Gray wolves were previously listed as endangered in the lower 48 states, except in Minnesota, where they were listed as threatened.  The wolf population in the Midwest was delisted in early 2007.  With removal of the northern Rocky Mountain population of gray wolves delisted, the Service now oversees the only remaining gray wolf recovery program, the southwestern U.S. wolf population"

Canadian Lynx

The Canadian Lynx is the latest contrivance of the greens to take our lands.  They petitioned and sued and sued some more until the U.S.F.W.S. capitulated and listed the lynx even though they aren't really sure if it needs protection.  They listed it just in case. "Until more conclusive information concerning lynx management is developed, retain future options"   LCAS   In other words do nothing in the forests until we get enough data to determine that the lynx is not really endangered - if we ever do.  

Read about the lynx hoax to learn how determined some environmentalist federal employees are to keep you out of the woods.  

Next, the Northern Region of USFS forced forest plan amendments for 18 forests in the Northern Rockies. You will find tons of info on their site at http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/planning/lynx.html.  The Northern Region received about 2000 comments during the 90-day public comment period ending Dec. 10, 2001. You can read our comments on this amendment HERE.  Despite our comments and appeal Region 1 adopted the lynx amendment.  

After adopting a lynx recovery plan which included amending forest plans, USFWS decided that a Critical Habitat Designation was not necessary.  Then they were sued and began the designation process.  The first plan they came up with was so controversial they reversed themselves and adopted a minimal habitat plan.  They lost in court again and are now proposing the most inclusive habitat designation of all. The deadline for comment on this plan is 4/28/08.   

Salmon and Steelhead 

In the Pacific Northwest, USFWS considers each sub-species, seasonal run and river of salmon and steelhead as a separate endangered species unit (ESU).  Thus, Coho salmon may be doing well over most of their range but they will still be listed as endangered if they are struggling in one drainage or seasonal run.  The human users on that river will face restrictions intended to restore a species that is not necessarily in danger.  

Furthermore, USFWS, considers hatchery salmon differently than wild salmon even though dna studies reveal that they are identical.  Therefore, a salmon run may be considered endangered by USFWS because the number of "wild" salmon are down even though there are large numbers of hatchery salmon.  USFWS HAS GONE SO FAR AS TO KILL HATCHERY SALMON RATHER THAN LET THEM BREED AND RAISE THE TOTAL NUMBER OF SALMON.   

Nine federal agencies have produced a plethora of overlapping restoration plans that restrain economic development, sacrifice jobs in farming and agriculture, raise the price of hydrolelectric power for tens of millions of customers, reduce recreational opportunities, and cost billions of taxpayer dollars. 

Learn about how salmon have affected the farmers of Klamath Falls, OR

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The combination of the grizzly, lynx, and salmon should just about do it for the Northwestern US. Read Grizzly and Lynx Join Forces.  While Amendment 19 and similar inflexible regulations are used to close 80% of all roads and every associated activity in grizzly country, the salmon and lynx will be used to close roads, stop logging and thinning, restrict hydro operations, mandate stream regulations, and shut down winter recreation everywhere else.  If the greens continue to get their way they will shut down most activities on private land or convert those lands to public ownership.  That is what the Wildlands Project is all about.   Due to the absence of logging and management access all three of these green icons will contribute to more catastrophic fires.