On Wednesday, Chief US District Judge Dana Christensen in Missoula, Montana has asked the US Fish and Wildlife Service that it made a mistake in 2014 when it made changes in lynx’ critical habitat designations with nearly negligible expansion beyond the original plan that came up five years back. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen in Montana issued an order Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016, requiring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to consider adding habitat for the wild cats in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
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Bishop said that based on what conservation groups and the agency’s own biologists know, it’s fair to say that portions of Colorado will qualify for critical habitat using the Fish and Wildlife Service’s current metric for determining critical habitat. Instead of analyzing the habitat as required, the agency unlawfully decided that because it did not have verified reports of lynx in those particular National Forests, it would not designate the areas as critical habitat regardless of the quality of the habitat. He noted frustration with USFWS and 16 years of litigation to see lynx listed as threatened, designating critical habitat with an eventual goal of developing a lynx recovery plan.
Fish and Wildlife in 2014 designated 39,000 square miles of critical habitat, but excluded the animal’s southern Rocky Mountain range, which runs from south-central Wyoming through Colorado and into north-central New Mexico.
Share with Us – We’d love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article, and smart, constructive criticism. By failing to protect these areas and refusing to designate any critical habitat in the Southern Rockies, the very agency charged with recovery of threatened and endangered species is leaving lynx populations isolated, essentially issuing their death sentence since isolated populations inevitably lead to inbreeding and then extinction. Fish and Wildlife in 2014 proposed 38,000 acres – but none of it was located in western Colorado where lynx apparently can survive.
But the judge agreed with the government that a critical habitat designation wasn’t needed in OR and the Kettle mountain range in Washington state, where there has been little evidence of lynx. “We’re hopeful this decision will mark a turning point for lynx conservation in the heart of southern Rockies lynx habitat”.
USFWS was disappointed with the remand of the 2014 lynx critical habitat designation, said spokeswoman Serena Baker.
The Fish and Wildlife Service couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.
She declined to say if the agency would appeal Christensen’s ruling or how long it would take to comply.
“In Montana lynx have been declining more than any other state and it’s mainly because of logging”, said Michael Garrity, executive director of Alliance for the Wild Rockies and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
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While many lynx did die following transplants beginning in the late ’90s, approximately 100 persist and are reproducing, said Mathew Bishop, attorney for several of the groups.
