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Large area proposed as critical habitat for Canada lynx

Posted at 3:49 PM on 29 Feb 2008

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed that 42,753 square miles of the northern U.S. be designated as critical habitat for the Canada lynx. The new area is more than 20 times bigger than a proposal made in 2006, which the agency promised to revisit after it became clear that former USFWS overseer Julie MacDonald's influence trumped scientists' recommendations. Activists generally applauded the new plan, although some were disappointed that no areas of the southern Rockies were included. The Interior Department is taking public comment on its lynx-habitat proposal until Apr. 28.

sources: Associated Press, The Denver Post, Billings Gazette, Environment News Service

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Comments: (6 comments)

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have a Gristmill account, log in below. If you don't have a Gristmill account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

Habitat plan shortchanges lynx in Washington State

But what most media failed to report (including Grist) was that lynx in Washington are still short-changed by the latest critical habitat proposal (but kudos to the Wenatchee World for getting it right). In September 2005, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identified areas for lynx in the northern Cascades, Kettle River Range, the Selkirks, and southern Cascades that contribute to lynx recovery. All of these areas, except the northern Cascades, were excluded from Thursday's critical habitat designation. They claimed that areas like the Kettle River Range in the Columbia Highlands were not critical habitat because there was no evidence of a reproducing lynx population present in the last 20 years.

Just because federal scientists haven't found or made the effort to find the cats doesn't mean they aren't there.

Regardless, critical habitat designations are meant to cover lands necessary to recover an animal, not just protect the land where they happen to have held on in for the past 20 years. As populations stabilize or hopefully grow with habitat protections, there needs to be sufficient wild places for future lynx generations.

http://www.conservationnw.org

by JasmineMinbashian at 7:19 PM on 29 Feb 2008

The plan will depend on...

...who wins the next elections. By the time the plan is in its final stages and is ready to go for implementation, the next administration will be in power. Given the EPA admin's current record of goin' against the science arm, if the current admin. isn't replaced or is replaced with people with similar agendas as the current admin., then the lynx plan for expansion will probably fail.

The best hope is for a new admin. to be instated that'll be more in line with the science arm.

by Tasermons Partner at 7:25 PM on 29 Feb 2008

problems in Colorado and Maine too

Right about Washington, Jasmine. Also, the small re-introduced population in Colorado ought not to have been given up on just yet. And in Maine, it is not clear how "critical habitat" will affect the already not altogether popular development plans around Moosehead Lake.

Here is the news item at the Defenders of Wildlife site:

http://www.defenders.org/newsroom/press_releases_folder/2 ...

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 3:12 AM on 01 Mar 2008

"Potential" Lynx habitat

When I worked on the Bitterroot National Forest several years ago, there was an elevational line that designated "Potential Lynx Habitat". All of that was hands-off, despite the massive amounts of dead trees in that zone. Part of the deal made in salvage logging after the big fires was to preserve the perfect barkbeetle habitat, as well. Of course, millions of trees that survived the fires are now dead from bark beetles whose population exploded, emerging from the dying trees, green with needles but a cooked cambium layer. The perfect host for another cloud of voracious bark beetles. I HAVE pics!

Scenic pics at http://Lhfotoware.blogspot.com

by Backcut at 7:31 AM on 01 Mar 2008

Dead Trees Are Necessary For Forest Health

Dead trees provide matter from which new life springs. Any natural forest has many dead trees laying about. Forests were in much better condition before humans began killing trees. Other than some restoration to remove non-natives, plant trees in logged areas, remove trees where fire suppression, cattle grazing, or other destructive activities have occurred, what needs to be done is just to leave the forests alone, along with the rest of the planet.

by Wolverine at 11:37 AM on 01 Mar 2008

MN Critical Habitat

I can't speak for the other states, but I always thought that the MN critical habitat area was kind of ridiculous. I mean, what's the point of limiting the critical habitat to a National Park, where development is more or less exempted regardless? I'll be interested to see the results of the new proposal.

by wallrock at 7:24 AM on 04 Mar 2008

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