Sierra Club Challenges Lynx Habitat Designation

In a precedent setting challenge, four conservation groups have filed a legal challenge in Federal District Court in Missoula against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) regarding its designation of lynx habitat.  The Sierra Club, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Native Ecosystems Council, and the Center for Native Ecosystems make the case that the land area the FWS intends to designate as critical habitat for the Canada lynx does not take into account habitat it will need as the climate warms.  This is the first such challenge to rely on concerns over the impact of global warming on habitat.

Photo: Colorado Division of Wildlife

In Februrary 2009 the FWS revised its designation of critical habitat for the lynx to approximately 39,000 square miles in Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Washington.  While this is a significant piece of protected habitat, the designation does not include the land that will become essential to the lynx as the climate changes, especially high-altitude snowy areas.  Additionally, the FWS afforded no protections to the Southern Rockies of Colorado, despite the presence of a breeding lynx population.  This habitat is likely to become extremely important for lynx survival in the future due to its higher elevation.  We hope to see this designation altered such that it will protect habitat for the lynx both now and in the future.  Planning for climate change and managing lands as such must be the model for wildlife and land managers if we are to protect our heritage for future generations.

Read the Sierra Club press release. 

Sierra Club Gears Up for Next Round of Wilderness Bills

With the passage of the Omnibus Lands Bill now two months behind us, the time is ripe to begin building support for another set of wilderness bills.  HR. 146, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, protected hundreds of miles of rivers and gave wilderness protections to over 2 million acres.  The passage of that bill took years and was an enormous accomplishment.  We now have the momentum to pass legislation that will protect even more lands as wilderness, reduce stressors on wildlife, and focus on managing ecosystems to adapt to a climate changing world.  Three of the Sierra Club's top priorities are below:

Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act - HR 980

This bill was introduced in the House on February 11 and focuses on protecting and restoring more than 24 million acres of public land in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, eastern Oregon, and eastern Washington.  This includes wilderness designations but it also establishes biological corridors to connect core habitat and isolated blocks of existing wildlands.  The bill also establishes a pilot system of nine National Wildland Recovery Areas to restore vital ecosystem components damaged by roads, clear cuts, overgrazing, and mining activities.

America's Red Rock Wilderness Act - HR. 1925, S. 799

This bill was simultaneously introduced in the House and Senate on April 2nd and would designate over 9 million acres of BLM public lands as wilderness.  This includes the spectacular red rock canyonlands of the Colorado Plateau and basin as well as the range areas in the west desert.

Alpine Lakes Wilderness Expansion - HR. 1769, S. 721

This bill, introduced in both the House and Senate on March 30th, would designate certain land in the Mount-Baker Snoqualmie National Forest in the state of Washington as wilderness, becoming part of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.  The Act would also designate the Middle Fork Snoqualmie and Pratt Rivers in Washington as wild and/or scenic rivers.

Waxman-Markey Climate Bill Reported Out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee

Last week, the House Energy & Commerce Committee favorably reported out of committee a comprehensive clean energy and climate plan, the American Clean Energy & Security Act.  The final committee vote count was 33 (aye) - 25 (nay).  Nearly all of the Democrats on the committee voted aye with the exception of: Mike Ross (AR-4); Jim Matheson (UT-2); Charlie Melancon (LA-3); and John Barrow (GA-12).  All of the Republicans on the committee voted nay with the exception of Mary Bono Mack (CA-45).

Several other committees, notably Ways & Means and Natural Resources, may seek an opportunity to weigh in on the bill before it comes to the House floor later this summer.

Included in the final bill was a Natural Resources Adaptation title.  This title directs a progressively increasing amount of the total revenue, generated by a carbon cap-and-trade system, to states and federal land management agencies for mitigation and other activities associated with climate change impacts on natural resources.  Before any of the money can be spent, the title requires states and federal agencies to work together to develop strategy plans for dealing with climate change impacts.  While we were not able to get the full 5% of revenue we were asking for, the inclusions of this provision in the larger bill is a significant step forward.

Also included in the Waxman/Markey bill is a provision directing land management agencies to inventory, identify, and develop plans for protecting migratory wildlife corridors.  Again, while this provision does not go quite as far as we had hoped, the recognition of the importance of migratory corridors is a huge step forward in preserving the ability of wildlife to adapt and move in response to global warming.

The bill will now be reviewed by several other House committees, including the House Committee on Natural Resources.  Following committee consideration, the bill will move to the House floor sometime this summer.  Throughout this process we will work with our champs to fend off any further attempts to water down or remove the adaptation title and wildlife corridors provisions.

Lawsuit Fails to Halt Borderwall Construction

This past Monday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. threw out a lawsuit that would have halted the construction of portions of the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.  The suit was filed by a coalition of border mayors, community leaders, and business leaders called the Texas Border Coalition against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  The U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton defended his decision to throw out the case by claiming that the coalition's members were not the affected property owners.

This is an unfortunate decision that brings the government one step closer towards completing the planned 670 miles of barriers along the southwest border.  Approximately 625 miles have been completed to date and the rest will likely be finished this year.  Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano has already indicated that DHS will continue with the project as planned.  Of course, the effects of the border wall are not limited to those people that physically own property along the border.  The wall has torn apart families and communities, caused extensive flooding, and fragmented sensitive wildlife corridors and wilderness areas.  In the process, border wall construction has squandered billions of dollars of taxpayer money on an effort that has been cynically described by border patrol agents as a "speed bump in the desert."

Even if the 670 miles of wall are finished, critical issues related to the border wall will remain.  For example, how will we fully mitigate the damage done to wildlife habitat and water quality?  What about the impacts to communities on both sides of the border?   And what will we do about the unprecedented authority that has been granted the Secretary of Homeland Security--and unelected official, mind you--to waive any local, state, or federal law in the name of expediting construction of infrastructure along our borders?  Former Homeland Security Michael Chertoff exercised this authority four times, most notoriously on April Fools Day in 2008.  As a result, over 470 miles of border walls were constructed without consideration of landmark laws like the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and other laws designed to protect cultural values and religious freedom.

Despite her stated intentions to finish constructing the border wall, there is still a lot that Secretary  Napolitano can do to reinstate the rule of law and help restore the cultural and natural resource values along the borderlands.  You can send a message to Secretary Napolitano here.

Click here to be connected to your representative and urge them to co-sponsor Representative Grijalva's Border Security and Responsibility Act of 2009.

Deputy Secretary of the Interior Blocked By Senate

The Department of the Interior is still unable to fully staff up and fulfill its mission thanks to virtually every Senate Republican.  Yesterday the GOP, with the exception of Senators Kyl and Snowe, blocked the nomination of David Hayes to be deputy Interior secretary, a position that is second only to Secretary Salazar.  This counterproductive and frivolous effort is being led by Senator Bennett from Utah.  He has been threatening this pettiness for quite some time and it seems that he's rallied most of his party behind him.  The vote is one out of pure spite towards the Secretary for canceling 77 illegitimate lease sales in Utah that had been pushed through in December by the Bush administration.  

It's painful to see a political party embarrass themselves like this.  As the Secretary himself said in a statement, "This was a tired vote of bitter obstructionism.  It may be uncomfortable for some to watch us have to clean up mess after mess--from corruption to lawbreaking--that is the previous administration's legacy at Interior, but to cast a vote against such a qualified and fine person is the height of cynicism."  What's more painful, however, is that four months after the Obama administration came to power we are still left without the second most important person at an agency in charge of managing 20% of our nation's lands.  Bennett's bitterness seriously hinders the ability of Interior to do its job and in doing so puts our lands and wildlife at risk.

Budget Proposal Reflects the Realities of Climate Change on Public Lands

Last week, President Obama proposed his budget for 2010.  That budget included $12 billion for the Department of the Interior, giving the agency an extra nudge to manage our nation's lands for climate change while also putting them to work combating it.  The budget includes robust investments in both renewable energy as well as money targeted toward making habitats and public lands more resilient to climate change.

Beginning with our most iconic and treasured landscapes, the budget allocates $100 million to the National Park Service for restoration and protection.  With the realization, however, that conservation in a warming world can no longer just be about protecting beautiful and beloved parks, the budget allocates $183 million for increases in clean energy production and climate mitigation efforts.  $50 million of that would go towards spurring responsible and environmentally sensitive development of renewable energy on public lands and $133 million would go towards assessment and adaptation efforts to specifically manage for climate change.  Additonally, $95 million would go to the Land and Water Conservation Fund to protect critical landscapes and endangered species habitat.

These chunks of money represent the committment that the agency has to moving towards responsible energy development and adapting conservation and management techniques to the realities of climate change.

See the full budget here.

Interior Department Keeps Bush Polar Bear Rule

This past Friday, Interior Secretary Salazar announced that the new administration would not withdraw a special rule that limits protection for the polar bears.  The rule was issued in the waning days of the Bush administration, just six months after the polar bear was declared a threatened species due to its melting habitat.  It was specifically designed to prohibit the Fish and Wildlife Service from addressing the threat of global warming, even though global warming has been identified as the reason polar bears are in danger.

It was a mistake for the Obama administration to pass on offering full protection to the polar bear.  Salazar did, however, hold open the possibility of increasing habitat protections for the bear at a later time.  The Sierra Club will remain committed to working closely with the administration to increase these protections.  However, as a poster child for global warming, if the polar bear disappears by mid-century, which scientists say will happen without bold and decisive action, it will only be an early casualty in the battle between our nation's wildlife and climate change.

Read the Sierra Club press release.

Department of the Interior Plans for Climate Change

This past Monday, Sierra Club staff met with a science advisor at the Department of the Interior to discuss the agency's plans for mitigating the effects of climate change on its lands.  It appears that the department is prepared to take a leadership role in the government's adaptation response to a warming world.  This will be crucial as they are the agency that manages 20% of the land mass in our country as well being responsible for millions of acres of private lands in regards to the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.  Just as important, however, is that the agency has expertise in the very issues that are central to creating resilient habitats: climate change, adaptive management, ecosystem services, and biological carbon sequestration.

On March 11, 2009 the department created the Energy and Climate Task Force by Secretarial Order.  That task force is currently working to develop a national climate strategy to track environmental changes caused by global warming, translate that science into adpatation management strategies, and study and implement greenhouse gas reduction strategies through biological carbon sequestration.  To conserve and protect lands and wildlife in the reality of a warmer world, it is absolutely critical to have the nation's largest land management agency on board and all indications point to that being the case.

U.S. Forest Service Proposes Expanded Conservation of Key Grizzly Bear Habitat

The U.S. Forest Service has proposed expanded grizzly bear habitat conservation efforts on the Idaho Panhandle as well as Kootenai and Lolo National Forests in Montana and Idaho.  A draft agency plan, released in late April, covers 4,560 square miles of the Cabinet and Selkirk Mountains and proposes two possible management strategies to safeguard the kind of remote habitat grizzly bears require for their survival.  The approach favored by conservation groups would barricade up to 1,800 miles of Forest Service roads, gating another 490 miles of roads and eliminating motorized use on 57 miles of trails.  The agency's preferred alternative would close approximately 325 miles of roads, while closing another 30 miles of trails to use by ATVs.

According to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, of which the U.S. Forest Service is a member, "Human caused grizzly bear mortalities are the primary factor inhibiting grizzly bear recovery in the Western United States.  The risk of these mortalities increases significantly near motorized routes."

An estimated 86 grizzly bears are believed to survive in the area that would be impacted by the plan.  "With less than 100 grizzlies in the area, this proposal greatly increases the chance of survival for these animals," said Monica Fella of Sierra Club's Grizzly Bear Project.

Public comments are being accepted until June 22.

Rocky Mountain Wolves Lose Federal Protections

This past Monday, wolves throughout much of the northern Rockies lost their protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  Although the gray wolf has rebounded from virtual extinction in the region a mere twenty years ago, wolf populations in the northern Rockies are not yet stable enough to lose these critical protections.  The management of the animals now falls to individual states to implement as they see fit, including hunting and aggressive agency management.  Yet Wyoming was left out of the mix and its wolves remain under federal protection.  The Interior Department recognized that Wyoming's plan, which includes a shoot-on-sight zone in 87 percent of the state and aggressive management techniques elsewhere, is not adequate to ensure that there are at least seven breeding pairs outside of the Yellowstone area.

Photo courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Unfortunately, the wolves roaming Montana and Idaho no longer have this protection.  The delisting upholds a flawed Bush administration decision made in its last days in office, removing gray wolves in the western Great Lakes and the northern Rocky Mountains from the endangered species list.  A March decision by Secretary of the Interior Salazar upheld this ruling.  Protections for wolves were removed last year and a court found significant problems with the plans to manage wolves in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.  Virtually nothing has changed since then and wolf populations could still be slashed by more than half.

The population of gray wolves in the northern Rockies consists of three relatively isolated sub-populations, rather than one genetically connected group.  There are approximately 1,600 individuals and 100 breeding pairs in the region.  Many scientists maintain that this number is not high enough to ensure long-term population viability.  Instead, to have a sustainable population, wolves need to number between 2,000 and 5,000 individuals in the northern Rockies.  The state management plans tend to slide backwards, rather than allowing wolf populations to grow naturally.  Idaho, for example, plans to allow the number to be reduced to around 100 individuals, down from approximately 900.

The Sierra Club plans to challenge the northern Rocky wolf de listing in court with a coalition of environmental groups led by Earthjustice. 

Polluters Pay to Protect Species from Climate Change? Great Idea!

On April 30, Congressmen Grijalva and Rahall made history by introducing legislation that would create a national strategy to protect our wildlife and their habitats from the worst consequences of global warming.  The awkwardly named Climate Change Safeguards for Natural Resource Protection Act (H.R. 2192) would establish an interagency adaptation panel.  That panel would be charged with creating the comprehensive strategy for how the various agencies that manage our natural resources should be working to combat climate change and to mitigate its effects on our lands, water, and wildlife.

This bill acts as a complement to the current energy and climate legislation proposed by Waxman and Markey.  If that bill includes a component for dedicated adaptation funding (which would guarantee money to fund projects that help habitats adapt to climate change), this bill would create a framework and a structure for that money to be spent in a useful way.  The concept is simple really, and has a certain balance and conceptual beauty.  Big carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas polluters have been warming our planet for decades, and getting rich doing so.  So now they should be paying for all that gas that, in the process of warming up our planet, is degrading crucial ecosystems and threatening countless species with extinction.  The money that they pay can and should go toward repairing the damage they've done and giving our wildlife the help and space they need to adapt to a changing world.  This bill sets up the best framework that we've seen yet to put in place the local, state, and federal policies to ensure that happens.

Read our press release.