Decision to exclude critical habitat revisited

In October 2007, in a move that will help the endangered Canada lynx, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced it will reexamine last year's decision to exempt from federal protection habitat critical to the recovery of the wild cat. The news comes in light of revelations that a top agency official, Julie MacDonald, meddled with scientific findings for lynx and other wildlife.

One of the rarest of three cat species native to Washington, lynx occur in coniferous forests with cold, snowy winters and a robust prey base including snowshoe hare. Outside Alaska, lynx populations in the US have been reduced to a few remaining strongholds, one of them Washington. Once widespread through all of Washington’s mountain ranges, our state's lynx population has been reduced to a few dozen that now live in the northern Cascades, Kettle River Range, and the Selkirk Mountains.

The agency had decided to eliminate all federal lands from the Endangered Species Act’s critical habitat protections, which meant, in Washington, the vast majority of lynx habitat, including the entire Colville National Forest. Conservation Northwest and other conservation groups had criticized the exemptions and threatened legal action, and many others spoke out against the plan.

Other wildlife also benefit

In related news, the Interior Department's inspector general will expand an investigation into similar decisions denying or limiting protections for 18 endangered species–including the northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, and bull trout.