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The Peregrine Chick:
Threats to endangered species more than doubled in past 40 years, study finds
Adrienne Berard / William & Mary University / 24 July 2019


The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis)

The year was 1973, three days after Christmas. President Richard Nixon’s approval ratings were bottoming out. The Watergate scandal was intensifying and Nixon had just professed to the nation he was “not a crook.” In the midst of political turmoil, he made a decision that would affect millions of lives for decades to come. He signed the Endangered Species Act into law.  “This legislation provides the Federal Government with needed authority to protect an irreplaceable part of our national heritage — threatened wildlife,” Nixon said in a statement. “America will be more beautiful in the years ahead, thanks to the measure that I have the pleasure of signing into law today.” The primary goal of the legislation was to protect animal and plant life from extinction. To do so, the government tasked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service with listing endangered species and recording threats to their survival.  “The Endangered Species Act is unique,” said Matthias Leu, associate professor of biology and chair of data science at William & Mary. “We were actually at the forefront of conservation in terms of this act. People forget that about Nixon. Despite his political issues, he was actually an environmentalist.”

For the past six years, Leu and a team of 11 undergraduate students have been data-mining ESA records to determine its efficacy and assess threats to domestic species over time. [...] The team found that the number of threats per ESA listing decision increased more than twofold during that 42-year period. They also found that the number of native species impacted by habitat loss continues to increase. Threats due to invasive species and changes in the environment have increased exponentially in the past 30 years, as well.  “To our knowledge, this is the first evaluation of temporal changes in threat occurrence for U.S. species listed under the ESA as outlined in federal listing documents,” the paper states. “The increasing frequency of these threats over time point to the importance of federal protection for rare species.”  Since the passage of the ESA and its subsequent amendments, the number of U.S. species requiring federal protection has ballooned from 137 between 1967 and 1973 to 1,663 in 2019, with 43 species considered recovered during that period, the paper states.  The American bald eagle was one of the first species to be placed on the endangered list. The ESA regulations proved so successful that by 2007, the eagle population had recovered sufficiently to be removed from the list. Other success stories include the humpback whale, the Louisiana black bear, the Virginia northern flying squirrel and the Arctic peregrine falcon.

To analyze the species still included on the list, the researchers developed a giant database, scanning listing decision documents for 1,732 domestic species. They decided to divvy up the species based on student preference. For example, some students read documents for all 52 bird species on the list, others handled all 139 species of fish, yet others tackled all 40 reptile species, and so on.  “The vertebrates went first and then towards the end, the only species left were the ones that nobody wanted to look at, like the insects,” Leu said. “But we had to do them all, so somebody got the bugs.”  Ann Marie Rydberg decided she would analyze documents for flowering plants on the list. There were 910 plant species to analyze, so it required all hands on deck to finish the job. [...]  Ultimately, the team determined there were six overarching threat categories: habitat modification, overutilization, pollution, species–species interaction (aka invasive species), demographic stochasticity (aka inbreeding) and environmental stochasticity (aka environmental change, like erosion).  “Our major finding was that species are now listed with more threats, substantially more threats,” Leu said. “That’s going to make it harder to remove species from the list, because the threats are increasing.”  The team found habitat loss was, and continues to be, the top threat over time. As a result, most endangered species are found, at least in part, on private lands, the paper states. Leu asserts that more efforts are needed to work with private landowners to conserve species in the United States.  “What’s really scary is we have invested millions of dollars to save habitat, but there is no decrease in that threat trend. In fact, it’s slightly increasing,” Leu said. “It’s private landowners that own the really productive, high biodiversity land. The government needs incentives to engage private landowners in conservation strategies, because the federal government simply does not own enough land to protect all the species. That’s the depressing part. Recovery is going to have to happen one backyard at a time. “ 

Leu says his research team is now collaborating with the D.C.-based conservation organization Defenders of Wildlife. The advocacy group is using the team’s data to craft legislation to protect threatened species.  “They are better situated and trained to take science to the Hill,” Leu said. “I don’t really see that as our role, but we’re glad they’re promoting our paper. It’s a nice translation from science into potential policy, because what our data show is we need to maintain existing government policy. We have empirical evidence showing it works.”

source: https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2019/extinction-by-the-numbers-threats-to-endangered-species-more-than-doubled-in-past-40-years,-study-finds.php

The Peregrine Chick:
Grizzly Bears Back On Endangered Species List As Legal Battle Ensues
Henri Marius / Teton Gravity Research / 5 Aug 2019



Before 1800, approximately 50,000 Grizzly bears roamed the United States. The greater North American Grizzly population occupied a continuous range that stretched west to the coast of California, East to the Great Plains of Nebraska and Oklahoma, south to portions of Northwestern Mexico and as far north as the arctic reaches of Canada. In 1975 when the U.S. first listed the species as endangered, the population numbered only 1,000, and their range was a shattered skeleton of its former self. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, an area that stretches into portions of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, with Yellowstone as its center, had only 136 Grizzly bears at the time. This startlingly low number prompted the Fish and Wildlife Service to place the species as endangered, an act which afforded them substantial protections and helped grow the population to the 700 strong it is today.

In 2017 the Trump administration, citing the increased number of bears in the park and reviewing the "best available scientific and commercial data," removed protections for the animals within the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Soon, a slew of environmental groups and Native American coalitions took legal action to challenge the decision of the Fish and Wildlife Service. The groups argued that the FWS had failed to account for a series of factors that went beyond the argument that there are enough bears for the population to be healthy. The groups provided evidence that food sources for the bears are in rapid decline, there is a plateauing number of crucial female bears in the park, and worries regarding the health of the larger Grizzly population in the U.S.

Environmentalists argue that for the bears to be delisted as a threatened species, it is crucial for the six ecosystems they inhabit to be connected. Without this, inbreeding within the smallest populations, places like the North Cascades where there are only ten bears and the Selkirk Mountains where there are forty, will inevitably spell their disaster. Environmentalists also argued that delisting the bears would set a dangerous precedent for future regulators and provide groups hostile to bear conservation more leverage to dismantle protections.

In 2018 a Montana Judge ruled against the Fish and Wildlife Service, telling the regulatory group that the bears must be relisted as a threatened species. On August 4th, almost a year after that initial decision was made, the FWS relisted the species as threatened and renewed their protections. The decision is a major win for environmental groups, and a loss for big game hunters and the ranchers that live on the periphery of the Park. One prominent Congresswoman, Liz Cheney (R) of Wyoming, has introduced an act alongside Senator Mike Enzi, which seeks to once again de-list the species in Yellowstone, and “prohibit future judicial review of this decision”

source: https://www.tetongravity.com/story/news/grizzly-bears-back-on-endangered-species-list-as-legal-battle-ensues

carly:
Ford is looking to do the same here in Ontario.  It's all about big business and 'oil', to heck with the environment.

The Peregrine Chick:
Black footed ferret population in Sask. wiped out by drought, plague
Alex Soloducha / CBC News  / 8 Aug 2019



The black footed ferret population was reintroduced to Grasslands National Park in 2009, but none of the animals have been spotted there since 2014.  Stefano Liccioli, wildlife ecologist, and scientist for species at risk with Parks Canada, said consecutive droughts and a non-native disease contributed to the disappearance.  "No ferrets have been detected in the park so our best estimate is that at this moment we do not have ferrets in the park," Liccioli said. The animal once lived throughout North America's great plains. It was the only native ferret on the continent and was classified as an endangered animal. It was last seen in Canada 1937 and was later thought to be extinct.

The species was found in Wyoming in 1981 and recovery efforts began throughout North America. In 2000, a recovery strategy for the black footed ferret and a management plan for the black tailed prairie dog were both published. Parks Canada started its reintroduction effort at Grasslands National Park in 2009 by releasing 74 animals, with the goal to reestablish a wild population in Canada.  In 2010, wild-born ferrets were observed at the park. Liccioli said it was incredibly significant because it showed that captive-born animals were capable of eventually producing wild litters.

But during the first four years of ferret releases, Grasslands National Park experienced two severe droughts that caused the prairie dog population to decline significantly.  The presence of sylvatic plague — the same bacteria that causes the bubonic and pneumonic plagues in humans — was also detected in the prairie dog population. Both prairie dogs and ferrets are highly susceptible.  The diet of the black footed ferret consists mostly of black tailed prairie dogs and with the decline of the prairie dog population, the ferrets were at risk.  In 2013 there were welfare concerns for both species and the decision was made to temporarily suspend any further release of ferrets.

Liccioli said since no ferrets have been detected, Parks Canada and Grasslands National Park are focusing efforts on better understanding prairie dog population dynamics and ecology in general, with contributions from the Calgary Zoo.  Liccioli said the prairie dog population at the park is on par with the long-term average over the past 25 years.  "We also learned that following drought the population will decline. But also, whenever there is good availability of food resources, prairie dogs breed. They have a lot of pups and the population bounces back," said Liccioli. "So we are in the process of seeing how again the population responds to all the different stressors." 

Liccioli said there are concerns that climate change will increase the frequency of both droughts and instances of sylvatic plague.  "We're gathering information on prairie dog ecology and population dynamics," said Liccioli. "We are trying to make informed decisions on both prairie dog and ferret recovery."

source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/black-footed-ferret-population-in-sask-wiped-out-by-drought-plague-1.5239562

The Peregrine Chick:
still looking for a happy story, in the meantime ....

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