The Associated Press published an interesting story about the toughness of endangered whooping cranes.

After the poisonous snake slithered into the whooping crane family’s marshy grounds and sank its fangs into the chick’s neck, death seemed certain.

The bird’s head quickly turned red and swelled to the size of a basketball. He refused to eat for days and was too weak to even stand. Somehow, though, he survived.

And now the bird — dubbed Scarbaby — is a healthy adult whose resilience offers a speck of hope for the endangered species. Just a year after a record number of cranes died in their south Texas wintering grounds, wildlife managers embrace even the smallest successes.

“To me, it symbolizes the fight to survive,” said Tom Stehn, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who’s studied them for nearly 30 years. “They’re pretty tough.”

The article goes on to relay how drought is threatening the comeback of the endangered whooping cranes, and a group is suing the state of Texas because there is concern the government allows too much water to be drawn from rivers, which can leave the birds without enough water and crabs for food.

Tags:
wildlife, whooping crane

The National Wildlife Refuge Association has put out an action alert urging citizens to write their representatives and senators about Refuge System funding for Fiscal Year 2011.

Refuge champions in Congress, House Refuge Caucus leaders, Mike Thompson (D-CA), Michael Castle (R-DE), Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) and Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) and Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), are sending letters to the House & Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittees urging them to increase funding for the NWRS in FY’11. For the letters to have an impact with appropriators, the more members who sign the letter the better!

The letters urge appropriators to increase funding to the Refuge System - ensuring it will be able to properly administer its nearly 150 million acres. Last year 55 Representatives and 32 Senators signed their respective letter in support of $514 million, if your Representative or Senators signed last year, they should easily sign again this year!

Visit the NWRA Action Center to see if your representatives and senators have signed, and if they haven’t, please contact them now.

The Refuge System has many challenges ahead of it — from development, to climate change, to invasive species, to staff shortages — and now is not the time to shortchange the Refuge System budget. Representatives and senators will act — but only if they hear from their voters. Contact your representatives and senators today.

Tags:
National Wildlife Refuge System

• Refuge System Awards Celebration (photos)
• Refuge opens visitor center
• USFWS Announces Final EIS for Yukon Flats NWR Proposed Land Exchange
• Secretary Salazar Releases New “State of the Birds” Report Showing Climate Change Threatens Hundreds of Species

March 14 marks the 107th anniversary of the beginning of the National Wildlife Refuge System, which started with tiny Pelican Island NWR near Sebastian, Florida. And this photo captures the essence of the challenge for so many refuges — protecting habitat in the midst of development.

The National Audubon Society has put out an Action Alert asking citizens to submit comments opposing the proposed land swap at Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. This blog has reported many times on the proposed land swap (see posts on Sept. 15, 2008, March 25, 2009, and Sept. 29, 2009), which would lead to the construction of a $15.6 million, nine-mile gravel road through federally designated wilderness in one of the most pristine refuges in the Refuge System — potentially opening the door to more invasions of wilderness land.

The National Audubon Society reports:

Izembek National Wildlife Refuge on the Alaska Peninsula is one of the world’s most critically important northern wetlands for migrating birds. A proposed road would cut through Izembek’s protected Wilderness, pristine habitat that Audubon and other conservation groups have been working to save for over a decade. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now accepting public comments—help keep this special place safe.

The proposed road would cut through the biological heart of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. The land swap required to build a road would sacrifice key habitats: 206 acres of critical, internationally recognized wildlife habitat in exchange for a larger amount of less important habitat. The wildlife values of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge are globally significant, and should not be compromised, particularly when there are other reasonable alternatives for addressing transportation between King Cove and Cold Bay.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be holding a public hearing in Washington, DC and one in Anchorage, Alaska.

If you are interested in attending the hearing and would like help preparing testimony, please contact Taldi Water in the National Audubon Society Washington, D.C. office at twalter@audubon.org or (202) 861-2242 x3042.

You can submit written comments opposing the land swap by visiting the NAS Action Center page or by visiting the Audubon Alaska Society website.

Comments are due by April 30.

Tags:
National Wildlife Refuge System, Izembek NWR, Alaska

The Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement (CARE) has just released their Restoring America’s Wildlife Refuges 2010 report, which warns of the threat from an Obama Administration proposal to significantly cut the Refuge System’s budget.

From CARE:

America’s National Wildlife Refuge System, comprising 150 million acres, requires a minimum of $900 million annually to operate adequately. The report finds that:

• Refuges face a $3.7 billion backlog in deferred maintenance and operations funding. Washed-out trails, leaking roofs, closed roads, and broken equipment are just a few of the more than 11,000 problems currently waiting to be addressed on refuges nationwide. Unless funding is secured to address the backlog, many refuge facilities could deteriorate beyond repair.
• Crime is a big problem in the Refuge System, yet only 213 officers patrol its more than 150 million acres. A minimum of 209 additional officers are needed (at an additional annual cost of $31.4 million) to protect refuge visitors and respond to crimes that include drug production and dealing, wildlife poaching, illegal border activity, assaults, and a variety of natural resource violations.
• The Refuge System is fighting a losing battle against invasive plants and animals. Approximately 2.3 million acres of refuge lands are overrun with non-native invasive plants, while more than 4,400 invasive animal populations ravage millions more acres. The Refuge System needs at least $25 million per year to treat just one-third of its infested plant acreage and begin low-level control of invasive animals.
• There has been a dramatic increase in oil and gas drilling on 155 refuges, but the Refuge System is not well equipped to oversee these activities or clean up degraded sites. Some $15 million per year is needed to adequately oversee oil and gas operations on wildlife refuges.
• With the recent addition of more than 50 million acres of marine monuments in the Pacific Ocean, the Refuge System faces increased management, coordination, restoration, and law enforcement challenges. These increased responsibilities carry a price tag of between $18 and $35 million annually.

CARE has urged that Congress boost refuge operations and maintenance funding to $578 million for FY 2011. These funds are needed to provide nature programs to the public, maintain high water quality, complete critical habitat restoration projects, and properly patrol and enforce laws in the Refuge System. Since 2008, Congress has begun to reverse a damaging trend of budget cuts that started in 2003, but the Obama administration’s proposed budget will retard the momentum that the Refuge System was finally enjoying after years of neglect.

Tags:
National Wildlife Refuge System, Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement

The Palm Beach Post is reporting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is developing plans for a new national wildlife refuge in Florida, north of Lake Okeechobee. The refuge could be 100,000 acres or more in size and would help reduce pollution flowing into the Everglades, as well as give climate-impacted species a haven within the state.

Land under study includes everything from preserves near the Walt Disney World Resort to the 54,000-acre Kissimmee Preserve State Park.

The Florida Chapter of the Nature Conservancy has driven the planning effort and, in a paper published last November, floated a concept that calls for purchasing a 20,000- to 50,000-acre core of “high quality habitat suitable for public access,” along with other parcels throughout the region that could be managed as “satellite preserves.”

Conservancy spokeswoman Jill Austin confirmed Wednesday that a plan is “being finalized” that should be ready for the media soon but declined to elaborate in detail. “They’re studying it,” she said.

Tags:
wildlife refuge, Everglades, National Wildlife Refuge System, Florida

• Researchers share Ash Meadows revelations
• How to transfer refuge land to Jefferson Parkway under debate
• Suit seeks to halt engineered crops at refuge
• Piping plover help continues on PI
• Watch: Living north of the Arctic Circle

The New York Times reports that the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, Rose Atoll Marine National Monument, and Marianas Trench National Monument – which were created by former President Bush and given to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the Refuge System — are being neglected.

The islands’ leaders said the reserve would bring international attention and federal investment, but they say they have been left empty-handed. The monument has no advisory council, no management plan and no plans for a visitor center or science education outreach…

One challenge for the Marianas Trench Monument stems from Bush placing it under the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service. The monument has to compete with hundreds of other refuges for funding for a visitors center. And its budget is lumped with 27 national wildlife refuges, monuments and memorials in Hawaii and the rest of the Pacific. Funding for the complex actually was cut by more than 22 percent in 2010, even though the protected area greatly expanded. The complex received just over $1 million in 2010.

The Times reports that the Friends of the Marianas Trench Monument (Friends of the Monument) have asked not only for more money but for the government to give oversight of the monument to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, thus taking it away from USFWS.

Bush’s proclamation required the creation of an advisory board for the monument within three months. But the Obama administration has not yet formed the panel. Interior is planning to complete the roster for the advisory board soon, said Eileen Sobeck, Interior’s deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks.

Sobeck said the Fish and Wildlife Service will also begin to move forward with a management plan this year.

Tags:
wildlife, wildlife refuge, Pacific, National Wildlife Refuge System

The Lufkin Daily News just ran an editorial by Richard Donovan — the president of the Friends of the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas — regarding the recent decision by the Supreme Court to not hear challenges to the creation of the Neches River National Wildlife Refuge in Texas.

While Texas Forest Country is still basking in the glow of the Supreme Court’s validation of the Neches River National Wildlife Refuge, I congratulate all of you who helped make the wildlife sanctuary possible.

The refuge truly is a gift East Texans have given themselves. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged their office received more letters, faxes, and phone calls in support of this refuge than any other ever established…

Not long before his untimely death, Charlie Wilson called to express his thanks for the efforts to protect the Neches and its wildlife. The congressman realized the untapped economic potential of this exceptional, natural place in today’s world of technology and speed. He cautioned us not to falter and added, “You truly are doing the Lord’s work.”

With your kind permission, I would like to acquaint you with the Texas Conservation Alliance, without whose dedicated commitment this refuge would never have become a reality…

Texas Conservation Alliance is building support for a study of the Neches as a Wild and Scenic River. Designating the Neches as a Wild and Scenic River would protect it from dams and pumping that plan to deliver 80 percent of the marketable water to other parts of the state. The resulting diminished water flows could spell disastrous consequences for the Big Thicket and other wildlife habitat down river. All types of wildlife will suffer as hardwood bottomlands shrink, sloughs and old lakes dry up, and the increased salinity of the Sabine Estuary destroys or diminishes the oyster and commercial and recreational fishing, so valuable to the Beaumont area. Citizen support is crucial to convince congressmen up and down the river that the last wild, free flowing river in the state should remain wild and free flowing.

You can learn more about helping the Texas Conservation Alliance on their website. Note that the Alliance includes the Friends of Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge and the Friends of the Neches River.

Tags:
National Wildlife Refuge System, Neches River NWR, Texas

The blog National Parks Traveler is reporting that the state of Alaska is moving to expand their powers so they would be allowed to kill predators in national parks and preserves without prior approval from the federal government.

The matter is before the Alaska Board of Game, which convenes Friday in Fairbanks for a session that runs through March 7. A number of proposals that could involve national parks and preserves are among the agenda items for the session, but none has drawn as much attention as “Proposal 131.” According to the Board of Game’s agenda, this proposal drafted by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game would allow the state to control predators — mainly wolves — on park lands without Park Service permission..

The proposal seems to be driven by low caribou numbers on a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-managed wildlife refuge in the Aleutian islands. However, the proposal before the Board of Game addresses both Fish and Wildlife Service and Park Service lands in the state.

“Under their regulation, they would no longer have to seek our approval,” said Dave Mills, a former superintendent at Gates of Arctic National Park and Preserve and Yukon-Charley National Preserve who now runs subsistence programs in Alaska for the Park Service. “They could just consult with us on potential predator control activities. The problem with that is we have laws and regulations that require us to do certain things before that (predator control) would happen, or not to allow that. In the case of predator control, there’s a whole set of conditions that would have to be met before we would even consider anything like that.”

So concerned are the two federal agencies that the regional directors for both the Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service plan to provide testimony on Friday about the impacts such a rule change could have. In a joint letter sent earlier this month to the Board of Game, Park Service Regional Director Sue Masica and Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Director Geoffrey Haskett pointed out that the proposed change could “directly affect federal lands and the wildlife that use those lands.”

“It has been suggested that by removing these State regulations, compliance with specific Federal laws might be avoided,” the letter went on. “We need to be clear; all of the Federal statutes that apply to park, monument, preserve and refuge lands must be fully complied with, regardless of the disposition of this State regulation. Our initial assessment of the proposal is that even if it were to pass, predator control activities within parks and refuges would require specific Federal authorization and supporting NEPA analysis. We understand the State’s concern about State management of wildlife in Alaska and do not wish to intrude on those traditional powers; however, those powers are not absolute when we are dealing with Federal lands within the State.

“The discussion created by this proposal is touching upon fundamental jurisdictional issues between the Federal and State governments.”

The Alaska Board of Game has taken an extreme turn when it comes to killing predators in order to bolster hunting within the state — one example being former governor Sarah Palin’s notorious aerial wolf hunts. Wildlife is not managed for the health of the ecosystem, but rather to increase the income from hunting game, and that’s where state and federal officials will inevitably clash when it comes to managing Alaska’s wildlife.

Tags:
National Wildlife Refuge System, Alaska Board of Game

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