[wisb] Marbled Murrelet Will Retain Protection as a Threatened Species

From: "William Mueller" <iltlawas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "wisbirdn" <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:12:34 -0500
From the Center for Biological Diversity

 Marbled Murrelet Will Retain Protection as a Threatened Species: 

Evidence Mounts That the Obama Administration 
Must Withdraw the Bush Oregon Logging Plan 

SEATTLE? Rebuffing the anti-science stance of the Bush administration, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today released a report finding that
continued protection of marbled murrelets in Washington, Oregon, and
California is required. This report replaces a 2004 review in which Bush
political appointees reversed scientific and legal conclusions to try to
eliminate protections for murrelets. The new report finds that the
tri-state murrelet population is distinct and separate from other
populations in Canada and Alaska.
 
?Science has won the day,? said Noah Greenwald, biodiversity program
director for the Center for Biological Diversity. ?The marbled murrelet is
severely imperiled and needs the protections of the Endangered Species Act
to survive.? 

The report concluded that ?[t]he species decline has been largely caused by
extensive removal of late-successional and old-growth coastal forest which
serve as nesting habitat for murrelets.? It comes as Obama administration
officials reconsider a Bush administration decision to increase logging of
murrelet habitat in old-growth forests in western Oregon. Protection for
the murrelets, as well as for salmon and northern spotted owls, stands in
the way of this decision. 

?Today?s report affirms the need to protect old-growth coastal forests used
by this seabird to nest and raise their young ? yet another in a growing
list of reasons that the Obama administration should withdraw the Western
Oregon Plan Revisions (also known as WOPR),? said Kristen Boyles, an
Earthjustice attorney. 
? Protecting murrelet forests also helps recover salmon and spotted owl
populations, clean our air from excess carbon, and prevent pollution from
entering drinking water sources for communities all up and down the coast,?
continued Boyles, who has litigated to protect and defend the birds. 

Tragically, today?s report finds a 26-percent decline in the Washington,
Oregon, and California marbled murrelet population since 2002. It also
admits that the genetically distinct central California population has
declined by 75 percent since 2003. ?Because we?ve failed to protect it,
this unique California murrelet is sliding into an extinction vortex,? said
Scott Greacen, executive director of the Environmental Protection
Information Center.
 
The timber industry has filed multiple lawsuits to remove protections from
the murrelet. To date, those lawsuits have been unsuccessful. With today?s
report confirming the dire straits of murrelets, Fish and Wildlife Service
moved to dismiss the last of these pending cases. 

The marbled murrelet is a small seabird that nests in old-growth forests
along the Pacific Coast of North America. In 1992, the Fish and Wildlife
Service listed the marbled murrelet population in Washington, Oregon, and
California as a threatened species due to logging of its old-growth
habitat. 

Represented by Earthjustice, the Audubon Society of Portland, Center for
Biological Diversity, Conservation Northwest, Environmental Protection
Information Center, Gifford Pinchot Task Force, Oregon Wild, Seattle
Audubon Society, Sierra Club, and The Wilderness Society intervened in the
timber industry lawsuit to defend the murrelet. 


William P. Mueller
Milwaukee
(414) 698-9108
E-mail: iltlawas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On the web: http://home.earthlink.net/~iltlawas/
Blog: http://bluebirdslaugh.blogspot.com

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[wisb] Marbled Murrelet Will Retain Protection as a Threatened Species

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