Farmers, energy firms hike bids to delist endangered species and protect them with voluntary agreements

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeing increased interest in agreements to remove certain species from endangered lists, which would absolves the federal government from protecting them, in the wake of its decision to remove the dunes sagebrush lizard from the list this summer.

If a species is removed, its protection falls to voluntary state-led conservation agreements, and landowners don't have to follow federal protection policies. Voluntary agreements "have been a long time in the making," Allison Winter of Energy and Environment News reports. The Endangered Species Act has been shrouded in controversy since its 1973 enactment, she writes, even though environmentalists say its one of the most effective laws for protecting species. Critics of the act say it's become too cumbersome and restrictive on development. Voluntary agreements began during the Clinton administration, and more than 70 landowners have enrolled 1.1 million acres in conservation agreements, providing habitat for 41 species.

Ranchers, farmers, wind-energy companies and oil and gas companies are increasing requests for such agreements so they can increase development on previously protected land, and the FWS is trying to determine how to streamline the review process, Winter reports. The agency plans to issue final listing decisions for 251 species, and initial findings on hundreds of other species, as part of a legal settlement with environmental groups. Two high-profile candidates are the greater sage grouse and the lesser prairie chicken, the status of which could affect development across the West, Winter reports.

The grass that took the West may have a tiny but potent enemy: a fungus with a scary name

Ecologist Susan Meyer stands in cheatgrass in
Utah's Skull Valley. (NYT photo by Michael Friberg)

Called "the black fingers of death," the tiniest fringe, the barest wisps of darkness on white wheat-colored grass may, in fact, save an iconic American landscape from perhaps the most disruptive invasive plant in the country.

"Black fingers, the fungus with the horror-movie handle, is the new artillery that wildland biologists are firing at cheatgrass, a weed that has remade the landscape of the Intermountain West," writes Felicity Barringer of The New York Times. The fingers, "no longer than a baby’s eyelashes," are like "little marching armies of toothpicks." Fungus armies, that is.

Mike Styler, head of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, said of cheatgrass: “It’s changed the entire ecology of the West.” Creatures that depend on the sagebrush habitat, from butterflies to the greater sage grouse, which is being considered for protections under the Endangered Species Act, are severely stressed by its proliferation. And because cheatgrass and development are moving closer together, a few years ago a cheatgrass-fueled fire near Boise unfortunately burned down homes.

Dr. Susan Meyer is a U.S. Forest Service ecologist based in Provo, Utah, and her work these days is centered on figuring out how this fungus, which looks like a miniature mohawk haircut, does its lethal work, and how, exactly, to get the tiny spears do more of it. Barringer writes, "The black fingers of death, Pyrenophora semeniperda, may help restoration ecologists like Meyer reclaim some beachheads in the vast swath of land already conquered by cheatgrass," Barringer writes. "For decades, scientists have been trying to stop its advance, to little effect."

Lately, the effort has gotten attention from all sorts of places, and the pressure to control cheatgrass is increasing. Financial support for the fungus research has come from the Joint Fire Science Program of the National Interagency Fire Center.  (Read more)

Researchers hope artificial bat cave will give clues to fight deadly white-nose syndrome

AP photo by Allison Smith

Conservationists have built an artificial cave near Clarksville, Tenn., in an effort to save bats from the fungus of white-nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats across the U.S. The Nature Conservancy-built cave is thought to be the first man-made hibernating structure for bats in the wild, which control insects and help pollinate some crops.

The cave is built from concrete with textured ceilings so bats can cling to it, and is about the size of a single-wide mobile home. It was covered with 4 feet of soil, leaving only the air intake, right, that serves as the bat entrance visible from the surface, The Associated Press reports. It is located near a natural cave with an established hibernating population of gray bats, which are to be lured to the artificial cave by ultra-sonic bat calls emitted by loudspeakers.

White-nose syndrome has killed more than 5.7 million bats since it was first detected in 2006. It causes bats to wake from hibernation and search for food in the winter, eventually succumbing to weather or starvation. Scientists have been trying to determine its cause and how to prevent it. During its first two years in a cave, white-nose fungus develops slowly, but spikes in the third, making cleaning of the artificial cave essential so the disease doesn't reach lethal levels. It will be cleaned every spring with Formula 409 when hibernation stops. (Read more)

Wolves in Rockies going off endangered list; activists say hunting laws will threaten them

Wolves in the northern Rocky Mountain region of Wyoming are finally poised to be removed from the endangered species list by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but activists fear new state laws that expand hunting and trapping of wolves will threaten their newly established numbers. (Yellowstone National Park photo)

The agency announced the wolf population in Wyoming is officially "recovered," just like those in Idaho and Montana. When the decision takes effect in September, it will mark the end of a 17-year wolf recovery process in the region, Kim Murphy of the Los Angeles Times reports. Wolves had recovered so much in some places, ranchers were reporting frequent deaths of livestock, and state laws had been expanded to allow ranchers to protect herds with killing and trapping. In some instances, state agencies had employed helicopters to aerially kill wolves.

Legal action is expected from activists in Montana, where they contend newly authorized wolf traps could threaten Canada lynx, and in Wyoming, where critics argue that the state's wolf-control laws could "leave them vulnerable to wholesale killing through most of the state," Murphy reports. In Idaho, a proposed law would allow live-baiting of problem wolves with dogs, something attorneys for Earthjustice said has been discussed in Wyoming, too. (Read more)

Officials of Western states want to keep possibly endangered species off federal list; scientists say alternatives won't protect the animals

"Candidate conservation agreements" are plans to keep an animal or plant species from being placed on the federal endangered-species list to prevent restrictions on land use that includes habitat of the species. Keeping dwindling species off the endangered list through these agreements is a growing trend in the West, where the fate of more than 1,000 species will be decided by 2018 under settlements between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and two environmental groups, Joshua Zaffos of High Country News reports. (HCN photo by Noppadol Paothong: endangered-list candidate Gunnison sage grouse)

Fish and Wildlife had a backlog of species to be considered for listing, and WildEarth Gaurdians and the Center of Biological Diversity filed lawsuits and listing petitions to speed up the process. Those groups have agreed to curtail those after the agency agreed to process the backlog. Zaffos reports wildlife managers have to determine if the conservation agreements are "producing meaningful results" before the agreements between the agency and environmental groups can affect listings.

Scientists and environmentalists are questioning "on-the-ground benefits" of candidate conservation agreements, Zaffos reports. Some agreements require landowners and users to "continue current practices and preserve existing vacant habitat without trying to restore populations or address major threats," he writes. College of Idaho professor Eric Yensen told Zaffos the agreements can "prevent poisoning, shooting and similar responses," and ease reintroductions. But, they don't stop habitat loss or development, Yensen said. Despite that, Fish and Wildlife plans to extend conservation agreements, and is accepting public comment on the how to improve them through July. (Read more)