WASHINGTON, DC - February 28 -Today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced its revised proposal to protect certain areas of Canada lynx habitat. The proposal marks the first time that FWS has been required by a court to reconsider a critical habitat designation that was influenced improperly by former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Julie Macdonald – a political appointee who altered the original designation to exclude U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, State and private lands.

The following is a statement by Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive vice president of Defenders of Wildlife and former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Clinton administration.

“While we are pleased that the Fish and Wildlife Service has recognized that its previous decision to exclude virtually all lynx habitat from protection was improper, this new proposal still falls short of offering adequate protections to the lynx.

“The new proposal addresses several shortcomings in the previous critical habitat designation for the lynx, but fails to go far enough to ensure the continued survival and recovery of the lynx.  For example, although FWS has moved toward including important habitat such as the Greater Yellowstone Area in Wyoming and Montana, the proposal leaves out significant habitat occupied by the lynx in other important areas, such as in Washington and Colorado. Moreover, the positive step of FWS re-proposing lynx habitat in Maine for protection—an area that was stripped of protection at the hands of Ms. MacDonald—is tempered by the fact that FWS continues to discount the importance of areas that serve as important lynx dispersal habitat or that could support lynx if managed properly.

“The science is clear regarding the lynx’s need for substantial protected habitat, especially in light of the continuing impacts of global warming on the lynx and it habitat. Defenders will continue to push the Service, as we have had to do now for 17 years, to designate sufficient habitat to ensure the lynx’s recovery, based on science and the needs of the lynx, rather than politics.”

Background:

The Endangered Species Act requires that for every species protected as threatened or endangered, the federal agency charged with recovering the species designate and protect those areas that are essential to the species’ recovery.  These areas are designated as critical habitat, and federal agencies are prohibited from taking or permitting actions that will destroy or adversely modify this vital habitat.

The new FWS proposal comes in response to Defenders of Wildlife’s notice to FWS that it would sue if the agency did not withdraw and reconsider the flawed Canada lynx protection plan, which FWS has admitted was influenced by political meddling, and follows a court-ordered schedule entered in ongoing litigation by Defenders against FWS.

Defenders of Wildlife is represented in the litigation by the Washington, D.C. public-interest law firm of Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal.  Defenders is working to preserve the Canada lynx in the United States in partnership with American Wildlands, Animal Welfare Institute, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Native Ecosystems, Colorado Wild, Conservation Northwest, Friends of the Clearwater, Friends of the Wild Swan, HOWL: Help Our Wolves Live, Humane Society of the United States, Natural Resources Council of Maine, Oregon Wild, RESTORE: The North Woods, San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council, Wild Earth Guardians, The Lands Council, Wildlife Alliance of Maine and Wyoming Outdoor Council.

Learn more about what Defenders is doing to help save the lynx.

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Defenders of Wildlife is dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities.  With more than 1 million members and activists, Defenders of Wildlife is a leading advocate for innovative solutions to safeguard our wildlife heritage for generations to come.  For more information, visit www.defenders.org

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