Wolves, Sage Grouse and Bull Trout the Topics of OSC Update

Administrator Nate Fisher of the Governor’s Office of Species Conservation (OSC) presented an update to the Senate Resources & Environment committee on Monday. Some of the functions of OSC include coordinating federal ESA policies with state agencies; soliciting, providing and delegating funding for ESA programs; and serving as the “the voice” for Idaho on ESA policy and facilitating collaboration among state, federal and private stakeholders. Current OSC activities discussed were sage grouse, bull trout, the new secretarial order for wildlands on BLM acres, and wolves.

A March 5, 2010 order by the USFWS said that sage grouse were warranted for listing as endangered species but were precluded at this time because there are more important species that need to be listed. Sage grouse status will be reviewed annually to see if anything has changed. In the meantime, OSC is working with state, federal and private sector stakeholders to determine the short-term and long-term ramifications of the warranted but precluded determination. Western Watersheds Project is challenging the decision.

Last year, USFWS published a new, expanded proposal for critical habitat for bull trout in Idaho and surrounding states. OSC coordinated the state’s comments focusing on the economic impacts of such a far reaching designation. The USFWS rejected the state’s comment and designated 8,772 miles of streams and 170,218 acres of lakes and reservoirs as critical habitat.

The designation will further restrict land use, and more environmental activist lawsuits could be filed against activities on federal land near rivers and lakes designated as critical habitat. Fisher showed maps of the land mass in Idaho impacted by sage grouse and bull trout pointing the vast number of acres that will be impacted.

Just before Christmas, 2010, Interior Secretary Salazar issued an executive order expanding BLM wilderness planning. BLM is supposed to inventory lands that have “wilderness characteristics.” Once approved, those lands would have to be managed as de facto wilderness since only Congress has the authority to designate public land as wilderness. Even without Congressional designation, those lands would be managed as wilderness which will impact multiple uses of BLM land.

Last, but not least, is the issue of wolves. The Governor is appealing a Montana judge’s ruling that wolves could not be delisted in Idaho and Montana while still being listed in Wyoming. Idaho has tried to negotiate a new “designated agent status” which would give the state some flexibility to manage wolves and include a public hunting season to keep the numbers at manageable levels. The Department of Interior wasn’t interested in the state’s concerns so the Governor terminated Idaho’s role in day-to-day management of wolves. Idaho’s wolf population continues to expand putting livestock and elk, deer and moose populations at risk.