Protection Denied Western Gray Squirrel
Feb 06, 2006
Court rules western gray squirrels remain off the endangered species list, even though their populations face extinction in Washington State.
Last call for a native squirrel?
Western gray squirrels remain off the endangered species list even though their populations face extinction in Washington State.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has refused to list the squirrel on the grounds that other western gray squirrel populations in Oregon and California are stable. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in February 2007 confirmed the agency’s determination and denied protection for western gray squirrels in Washington, despite biologists’ recommendations. As a result the western gray squirrel in Washington won’t receive protection.
Together with other conservation organizations, Conservation Northwest had petitioned the federal agency to gain Washington’s squirrel endangered status as a “distinct population segment.” Surveys last summer documented fewer than 300 western gray squirrels in the state.
One of the three remaining Washington populations lives in south Puget Sound in rare oak-woodland prairie at the site of the proposed Cross-Base Highway. The others reside in eastern Washington.
