Plan to protect lynx includes 2,000 square miles in NCW

Wenatchee World by AP and Michele McNeil article on lynx critical habitat

Federal wildlife managers announced Thursday that they have dramatically increased the amount of land they want to designate as critical habitat for the Canada lynx, a threatened species.

Federal wildlife managers want to designate about 2,000 square miles in portions of Chelan and Okanogan counties as critical habitat for the Canada lynx, a threatened species.

The forested lands are part of a dramatic increase in the area — 42,753 square miles in six states — that could come under tighter federal oversight under the proposal released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Thursday.

That's more than 20 times the 1,841 square miles in three states — Minnesota, Montana and Washington — the agency designated in late 2006.

A final decision might not come until Feb. 15, 2009. Fish and Wildlife said it was accepting public comments on the proposal until April 28, 2008.

The agency reconsidered its earlier rulings about the lynx and seven other species after allegations that Julie MacDonald, a deputy assistant secretary of the interior, interfered in the decisions. She has resigned.

Besides Washington, states where land would now be designated as critical lynx habitat are Maine, Minnesota, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

Bob Naney, a wildlife biologist for the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, said the habitat designation in North Central Washington is roughly north of Lake Chelan, west of the Okanogan Valley, and east of the Cascade Crest, stretching north to the Canadian border. He said the area has been scorched by several large wildfires in recent years, and it is not known how adversely those fires have impacted the habitat.

Naney said the two forests have been consulting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on forest management activities in that area since the lynx received federal protection in 2000, so he does not expect the designation to have a significant impact.

Bill Gaines, also a wildlife biologist for the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, said there is not believed to be a resident population of lynx south of Lake Chelan.

"Washington state is home to one of the last and largest lynx populations left in the United States," said Dave Werntz, science director for Conservation Northwest, located in Bellingham. "We have a responsibility to ensure that this magnificent animal continues to thrive and contribute to lynx recovery across the Pacific Northwest."

Conservation Northwest, according to the group's Web site, keeps "a watchful eye on publicly owned forests in the Northwest, particularly national forest lands, making sure that government is managing them with the future of wildlife and communities in mind."

In September 2005, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a preliminary lynx recovery assessment that identified habitat in Washington needed to maintain and restore lynx populations over the long run. The Service identified core 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 in Thursday's critical habitat designation, according to Conservation Northwest

"After identifying lands needed for recovery, the Fish and Wildlife Service inexplicably excluded several regions where lynx currently live and areas that are essential to long-term lynx survival, such as the Kettle River Range in northeast Washington," said Werntz.

In the meantime, he said, there are two timber sales in North Central Washington that would destroy lynx habitat.

The first is the Branch Sorts timber sale in the Loomis State Forest, located in the North Fork Toats Drainage and within proposed critical habitat. The second is Mutton Integrated Resource Project on the Okanogan National Forest, where biologists have recently documented lynx activity.

World staff writer Michelle McNiel contributed to this report.