New lawsuit over wolf management plan in Wisconsin / Public News Service
Wisconsin’s wolf management plan has been in place for months now, but the legal fallout continues.
Conservation groups have appealed the process. A coalition announced the appeal this week, which questions how the management plan came about under the supervision of the state Department of Natural Resources.
A judge dismissed the original lawsuit in the spring, accusing an agency panel of violating rules for dealing with interest groups related to hunting.
Melissa Smith, executive director of Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife, said favoring certain voices would disadvantage other wildlife groups.
“It is quite outrageous that the citizens of Wisconsin have no legal recourse to challenge decisions affecting wildlife protection,” Smith claimed.
The coalition said the judge’s decision contradicts the principles of the Public Trust Doctrine. The DNR said it cannot respond to pending litigation. The legal action comes months after federal agencies decided to keep the gray wolf on the endangered species list.
State law requires that wolves be hunted when the animal is no longer under federal protection. However, the new management plan does not include a target with concrete numbers. Instead, the plan focuses on sustainability, which is a point of contention among hunting advocates.
At the same time, Smith stressed that she would like to see uniform government regulations.
“If you look at the deer plan, our deer plan for Wisconsin, it says clearly that deer are kept in public care,” Smith stressed. “It seems to be quite inconsistent when they decide something is kept in public care and when it’s not.”
Across the country, certain hunting and farming groups claim that the gray wolf population has grown too large and is endangering livestock. But conservationists say the concerns are often exaggerated and that management efforts must be based on science.
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A federal judge in Montana will hold a hearing next Tuesday on a request for a preliminary injunction against the Pintler Face logging and slash-and-burn project in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest.
A coalition of environmentalists and activists has filed a lawsuit to stop the work altogether.
The Pintler Project is located about 10 miles northwest of Wise River, Montana. It calls for the construction of 11 miles of new logging roads to access 3,400 acres of clearcuts, controlled fires, and the removal of more than 560 acres of aspen. A commercial portion of the project will also involve the removal of an additional 5,800 acres.
Mike Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said overall there could be no more devastating location for such a project, as it would destroy a continuous ecosystem that he said is necessary for lynx and grizzly bears to thrive.
“If we want these species to eventually recover and be removed from the endangered species list, we need to have a cohesive population to prevent inbreeding,” Garrity explained.
Critics of the lawsuit and supporters of the Pintler project said it would go a long way toward preventing wildfires but would undo years of economic development the state has made in the region.
Garrity argued that in addition to the sheer size of the project and the destruction it would cause to the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness ecosystem, it would also endanger the habitat of important wildlife and threaten one of the world’s most natural and efficient carbon sinks.
“These are old-growth forests,” Garrity emphasized. “The best thing about old-growth forests is that they not only provide great habitat for wildlife, but they also absorb carbon, and they do it for free. That’s one of the most effective ways to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.”
Garrity argued that the U.S. Forest Service circumvented a mandatory environmental impact statement and a political law by secretly removing lynx tags and pretending that 145 miles of roads in the project area were nonexistent so that logging could proceed. This is important because most grizzly bears are killed within a half-mile of a road. The coalition wants the judge to stop all work in the area until the entire case is decided.
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The Bureau of Land Management’s recently finalized Public Lands Rule could provide a boost to America’s most endangered land vertebrates: amphibians and reptiles.
The new rule allows land managers to prioritize habitat restoration for the first time.
According to JJ Apodaca, executive director of the Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy, it’s a huge success because unlike other wildlife that can migrate – like mule deer, which can travel nearly 20 miles in a day – turtles, frogs, salamanders and snakes depend on good habitat, which is where they now live.
“When the habitat of an amphibian or reptile is lost, it often means that the population is lost,” Apodaca stressed. “They don’t have the ability, like a wolf, to go to other areas and find another suitable habitat. They are, in a way, tied to what is there.”
Restoring habitat lost to human development is also seen as important to mitigating the worst impacts of climate change on turtles, snakes and the rest of Earth’s life forms. The BLM’s decision to equate conservation use of lands owned by all Americans with drilling and mining has drawn criticism. Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado called the move a land grab designed to block oil and gas development.
Apodaca noted that with the approximately 245 million acres of public lands managed by the BLM, there is plenty of room to make good decisions that take into account multiple priorities, which can now include conservation.
“I don’t think anyone in the conservation world believes that there is no extraction of any resources on BLM lands,” Apodaca stressed. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t do it in a smart way to balance extraction and biodiversity.”
Apodaca added that the new rule is in line with the majority of Americans who value natural landscapes and thriving wildlife and ecosystems. For too long, he argued, the focus has been solely on what can be taken from public lands.
“We have ignored the values that already exist,” Apodaca stressed. “Whether that’s recreation, clean water, clean air, biodiversity, all of those things.”
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An upcoming festival in Columbus, Ohio, aims to raise awareness of the plight of pollinators and ongoing conservation efforts.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, more than 70 pollinator species are considered endangered or threatened in 2020. Climate change is blamed for a nearly 50% decline in the number of North American bumblebees since 1974.
Kenia Lamarr, a Columbus artist, noted that the rusty-spotted bumblebee, which was listed as an endangered species in 2017, is now rarely seen in Ohio. Lamarr recently created a mural honoring the species in Columbus’s Linden neighborhood. She said public artwork can play a role in raising awareness and inspiring action for conservation.
“While I was working on the mural, community members came by and were able to talk to me and express their connection to the bumblebee,” Lamarr said.
The Endangered Species Coalition is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act by sponsoring murals across the country. The mural unveiling will be celebrated with a pollinator festival and party on June 15 from 1-4 p.m. in Linden.
Dianne Kadonaga, owner of the Sunny Glen community garden and coordinator of the group Connecting Community Corridor of People Pollinators and the Planet, said at least 20% of households in Linden and surrounding areas do not have access to reliable transportation, so access to a hyperlocal garden allows people to share gardening tools, seeds and plants, and knowledge.
“I wanted to keep the project hyperlocal, a mile or two from the Sunny Glen garden,” Kadonaga explained. “It’s the main demonstration garden where we have a small prairie garden for pollinators, a forest garden and a rain garden, all with native plants from the area.”
Sunny Glen will be giving away native plants on June 15th that will particularly benefit the Rusty-spotted Bumblebee and many other pollinators as well as local wildlife.
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