Judge: Canada Lynx decision violates ESA

A federal judge recently ruled in favor of environmental advocates regarding the Canada lynx, a regional species protected under the Endangered Species Act. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen affirmed the advocates’ contention that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to fully analyze potential habitat for the wildcat, currently designated as threatened, in its native range of Idaho, Montana and Colorado.

Christensen ruled against the groups’ claim that USFWS erred in excluding the Kettle Range of Washington and the state of Oregon from its analysis of viable lynx habitat, which another judge had ordered in 2014.

Michael Garrity, director of the Montana-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies, was one of the plaintiffs in the action. He noted that logging has decimated lynx habitat, particularly in Montana, Hence, any analysis of habitat must be all-inclusive to provide the utmost protection to the struggling species.

In the recent case, the advocates argued that the critical lynx habitat decision of 2014 failed to consider several federal lands such as the Nez Perce, Clearwater, Lolo and Idaho Panhandle national forests. They argued the 2014 decision was counter to a 2009 court order that USFWS determine which national forests qualified as critical habitat.

“Critical habitat designation identifies areas that contain the physical and biological features essential to the conservation of listed species and that may require special management or protection,” according to a Draft Environmental Assessment published by USFWS in 2009. Some of the features typical of lynx habitat include forests with varied ages of trees, the presence of the lynx’s principal prey — snowshoe hares — downed trees for use in denning and deep snowpack most of the winter, acording to USFWS.

Judge Christensen agreed that USFWS failed to satisfy the 2009 mandate because agency officials based their analysis on the presence of lynx instead of verifying that the necessary habitat features were present, according to The Helena Independent-Register.

“They do not have a good track record of following the law. This is the second time the court has ordered them to look at these areas where we know lynx area,” said Garrity.

He considers the accurate designation of critical Canada lynx habitat to be an important step in developing a lynx recovery plan. He said the latest court ruling will push the agency to begin revitalizing the species.

Canada lynx are “critically imperiled” in Idaho, according to a report from the state Fish and Game agency. “Within Idaho, populations occur north of the Salmon River in the west and north of the Caribou Range in the east. The total population size in Idaho is unknown, but it is thought to be less than 100 individuals.”

IDFG identifies the primary factors in the species’ demise as being “habitat degradation, fragmentation, and loss ... Fire suppression and timber management practices have affected landscape-scale characteristics of vegetation composition and structure. Increasing road densities causes habitat fragmentation and also leads to increased human disturbance.”

In a closely related issue, a federal judge ordered the state of Idaho in January to modify its trapping regulations to reduce the incidence of injury to the threatened lynx population. “A federal judge today ordered Idaho officials to develop trapping restrictions that prevent protected Canada lynx — one of the rarest cats in the United States — from being illegally hurt or killed across more than 20,000 square miles of the state’s Panhandle and Clearwater regions,” according to a Jan. 11 press release issued by the Center for Biological Diversity.

The ruling was the end result of a federal action the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians and the Western Watersheds Project brought against IDFG and Gov. Butch Otter for allowing people to set animal traps in lynx habitat.

“With this victory, lynx in the Clearwater should finally receive the protection they need. It’s only common sense to put practices in place that protect rare carnivores,” said Gary Macfarlane of Friends of the Clearwater, according to the press release.

Christensen’s recent ruling will mean the USFWS must conduct additional analysis of those forests it omitted in its 2014 decision in preparation for making a future decision on critical Canada lynx protections.