Feds look to remove Canada lynx from ESA

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week announced the Canada lynx should be considered for delisting from the Endangered Species Act, even though it admits there’s a high likelihood the snow-loving cat could be extirpated from much of its range in the Lower 48 by the end of the century.

The lynx was listed in 2000. The rare cat, with huge paws and long legs that allow it to navigate in deep snows, feeds primarily on snowshoe hares. Lynx populations are tied to the hare’s health. In good hare years lynx thrive, in bad hare years, not so much.

In a species status report released last week, a panelist of 10 scientists concluded that lynx were likely to persist in most of their range in the lower 48 through 2050, but by 2100, that likelihood dropped to just a 50 percent chance in two units, a 15 percent chance in one unit and a 38 and 35 percent chance it two other units.

Only one unit that encompasses northern Montana and Idaho is expected to have a high probability of lynx populations by 2100.

But there’s a caveat to the prediction — the scientists themselves are “uncertain” about the longterm prediction.

In fact, the Service admits that it doesn’t have a whole lot of data on lynx and it also doesn’t have much data snowshoe hares.

But the report also notes that the federal government has taken measures to protect lynx habitat since it was listed, as have tribal and some private landowners.

Montana Sen. Steve Daines praised the announcement.

“This report is exciting news and the result of two decades of collaborative work between state and tribal governments, conservation organizations, sportsmen, landowners, and countless others who are committed to protecting and recovering the Canada lynx,” he said. “Secretary Zinke has done great work to ensure our endangered species can reach recovery, and I look forward to working closely with him as the delisting of the Canada lynx is considered so that management of the species can be returned to the states and our tribes.”

When the lynx was first proposed for delisting, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks opposed the measure. In 1997, FWP estimated that the lynx population in Montana was somewhere between 740 and 1,040 animals. But the report last week estimated there were 200 to 300 lynx in both Montana and Idaho.

At the time, FWP allowed between two and five animals to be harvested by trappers annually.

Environmental groups oppose the idea of delisting lynx.

“I find it unbelievable that the agency says that resident lynx populations in all geographic units are expected to be smaller and more fragmented and isolated in the future and each geographic unit will be less resilient in the future. Yet the risk of extinction by 2050 is sufficiently low that the lynx DPS does not meet the definition of a threatened species,” said Arlene Montgomery of Friends of the Wild Swan. “This flies in the face of climate change science (including the Montana Climate Assessment) that our temperatures are warming, snowpack will be less and forests will be drier. It does not take into consideration a growing population and increased recreational pressure. This appears to be another case of the Fish and Wildlife Service shirking its duty to actually recover threatened species.”

Friends of the Wild Swan and other groups sued the Service in 2014 in federal court. Under a settlement, the Service was supposed to produce a recovery plan by Jan. 15, 2018. Instead, they announced plans to delist lynx on Jan. 11.

The next step is to publish a proposed rule in the federal register, receive public comments, review and analyze those comments, conduct a peer review, and then announce a final decision, the Service said in a release last week.

“We are very certain the species will persist until 2050. At this point, it doesn’t warrant protections under the (ESA),” Jody Bush, office supervisor of the Montana Ecological Services Field Office of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.