Oregon Sued for Not Stopping Coastal Marten Trapping

State’s Last Two Populations of Cat-like Carnivores at Risk of Local Extinction

PORTLAND, Ore.— The Center for Biological Diversity and Cascadia Wildlands sued the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife today for failing to ban the trapping of imperiled Humboldt martens in Oregon’s coastal forests.

Today’s lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, comes after the secretive animal, a relative of the mink, was proposed for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. Fewer than 200 Humboldt martens survive in Oregon.

In August the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission directed the Department of Fish and Wildlife to draft rules to curtail coastal marten trapping, in response to a petition from conservation groups seeking a ban on marten trapping west of Interstate 5. Marten trapping season opened statewide Nov. 1, but the department did not enact rules to limit marten trapping in coastal forests, despite the directive.

“Oregon needs to immediately ban coastal marten trapping, or future generations may never get to encounter these furry, fierce little forest creatures,” said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center. “Science, the law and common sense all say the state must end this unsustainable trapping before we lose them forever.”

Following the largest mammal survey ever conducted in the state, researchers from Oregon State University and the U.S. Forest Service recommended eliminating trapping of coastal martens as a first step in rebuilding the state’s imperiled populations.

Scientists concluded that the human-caused mortality of just two or three martens per year could wipe out the population on the central coast within three decades. Three martens were killed by cars last year on Highway 101, so trapping of even a single marten this season would push the subspecies toward local extinction in Oregon.

“It is wildly irresponsible that the Department of Fish and Wildlife allowed the commercial trapping season for Humboldt martens to open in November,” said Nick Cady, legal director at Cascadia Wildlands. “The state doesn’t require marten trapping reports to be turned in until March, so they have no way of knowing how many coastal martens are being killed this winter. There is such a thin margin for error here, this could be it for the species.”

Humboldt martens are so rare they were thought to be extinct until they were rediscovered in 1996. There are only four surviving populations, with two in Northern California, one on the southern Oregon coast and one on the central Oregon coast. Earlier this year the California Department of Fish and Wildlife protected Humboldt martens as endangered. California banned their trapping in 1946.

There are two subspecies of Pacific martens in Oregon. Humboldt martens on the coast are critically imperiled, but interior martens from the Cascades and eastern mountain ranges are not imperiled.

You can find a copy of the memo here.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Cascadia Wildlands defends and restores Cascadia’s wild ecosystems in the forests, in the courts, and in the streets. We envision vast old-growth forests, rivers full of salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, and vibrant communities sustained by the unique landscapes of the Cascadia bioregion.

The post Oregon Sued for Humboldt Marten Trapping first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contact:
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (314) 482-3746, nick@old.cascwild.org
Quinn Read, Defenders of Wildlife, (206) 508-5474, qread@defenders.org
Jared Margolis, Center for Biological Diversity, (802) 310-4054, jmargolis@biologicaldiversity.org 
Joe Liebezeit, Audubon Society of Portland, (503) 329-6026 jliebezeit@audubonportland.org 
Danielle Moser, Oregon Wild, (503)-283-6343 x 226, dm@oregonwild.org

Agency Capitulates to Logging Industry, Ignores Science, Law, ODFW’s Mission

PORTLAND, Ore. — Five conservation groups filed a lawsuit today against the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) Commission for failing to uplist the marbled murrelet from threatened to endangered under the Oregon Endangered Species Act.

The groups petitioned the ODFW Commission to uplist the marbled murrelet in 2016. The Commission voted 4-2 in February to accept the petition to uplist the seabird and instructed ODFW staff to begin development of mandatory species survival guidelines as required under Oregon law.

But the Commission caved to intense pressure from the logging industry at a June meeting, voting 4-2 to deny the petition it had accepted just four months earlier.

“The Commission’s reversal of its decision to uplist the marbled murrelet just four months earlier ignored science, the law and ODFW’s mission to protect Oregon’s imperiled wildlife,” said Nick Cady, legal director at Cascadia Wildlands. “The reversal demonstrates this Commission’s active neglect of its duties towards imperiled species, and disappointingly, leaves the marbled murrelet on a path toward extinction in Oregon.”

The marbled murrelet is a small seabird that nests in old-growth and mature forests and forages at sea. Its population has declined dramatically over the decades because of extensive logging in Oregon’s Coast Range. It was listed as threatened under the Oregon Endangered Species Act in 1995. However, Oregon has allowed intensive clearcut logging to continue in marbled murrelet habitat on lands owned and regulated by the state. Uplisting to “endangered” status would require the state to develop a management plan and survival guidelines, providing much needed protections for the species.

“Imperiled species like the marbled murrelet will continue to slide toward extinction if we turn our back on them in favor of industry interests,” said Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Oregon needs to step up and protect the murrelet before it’s lost forever.”

In 2017, responding to the petition from conservation organizations, ODFW conducted a status review to assess the murrelet’s condition. The review demonstrated that murrelets need increased protection under the Oregon Endangered Species Act, due largely to loss of nesting habitat from ongoing clear-cut logging on lands managed by the state of Oregon.

“The ODFW Commission made exactly the right decision in February when it voted to uplist the marbled murrelet from threatened to endangered based on its own staff’s status report and hours of testimony from experts,” said Quinn Read, Northwest director at Defenders of Wildlife. “The law clearly requires the Commission to base its decision on science, but instead in June, the Commissioners continued a pattern of playing politics with the state’s most imperiled wildlife species.”

The status review provided copious evidence from multiple peer-reviewed studies that murrelets are in trouble in Oregon. The best available science predicts the extinction probability at 80 percent by 2060 along Oregon’s central and north coasts and 80 percent by 2100 along Oregon’s south coast. California and Washington have already classified murrelets as endangered, highlighting the bird’s dire status in those neighboring states.

“The science is clear and overwhelming,” said Joe Liebezeit, staff scientist at Audubon Society of Portland. “The June Commission decision unfortunately perpetuates an approach at ODFW that has spanned nearly three decades of the state turning its back on the murrelet and ignoring the science that shows that logging of our older coastal forests under the purview of the state of Oregon is a primary factor driving this species toward extinction.”

The lawsuit includes four claims. First, the ODFW Commission failed to base its decision upon documented and verifiable science. Second, the Commission failed to adequately explain its decision to reverse its prior decision to uplist. Next, the decision not to uplist is not supported by substantial evidence in the record. Finally, the Commission failed to provide adequate notice to the public or the petitioners to weigh in on its decision to reverse the uplisting in June.

The ODFW Commission will meet on Aug. 3 to consider survival guidelines for timber companies to help conserve marbled murrelets — guidelines that have no force of law and would be voluntary. Those guidelines would have been mandatory had the species been uplisted.

Trying to silence the public concerned about its surprise June decision, the Commission initially announced that it would accept no public testimony at the August hearing and turned down multiple request for public testimony. It only agreed to allow public testimony after conservation groups found an existing rule that requires the Commission to allow public testimony when at least 10 people or an organization representing at least 10 people request a hearing.

“This entire process has demonstrated a remarkable level of disrespect for the public and public process,” said Danielle Moser, Wildlife Program Coordinator for Oregon Wild. “The ODFW Commission failed to announce that it would be considering reversing its previous decision to uplist the murrelet, and instead, has done everything possible to squelch public input. It speaks to the urgent need for Governor Brown to appoint Commissioners who are committed to protecting Oregon’s native fish and wildlife, not beholden to special interest industries. This Friday, the ODFW Commission has a chance to fix the huge mistake it created in June by adopting mandatory survival guidelines. Oregon Wild and our members will be there, reminding the Commission of its mission to protect the state’s wildlife.”

###

The conservation groups in this case are represented by attorneys from Cascadia Wildlands and Center for Biological Diversity.

The post Press Release: Lawsuit Filed Challenging Oregon’s Failure to Protect Murrelets first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

After our first week on the job at Cascadia Wildlands, we took a road-trip to Baker City to attend the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (“ODFW”) Commission hearing. With caffeinated beverages in hand, we left early in the morning so we could site-see along the way. We took the southern route from Eugene through Bend where we enjoyed incredible views and windy roads scaling the steep mountain passes.

After five hours on the road, we stopped outside of Prairie City to check out the Strawberry Wilderness. Driving through Prairie City made it hard to believe we were near any mountainous wilderness. As the name suggested, the area was surrounded by rolling lush green hills. However, after driving a few miles outside the “city,” a dramatic range reached before us. We drove down an unpaved road for miles and were perplexed by the online description classifying the trail as “highly trafficked.” Yet, a row of shiny cars were revealed to us after turning the last bend.

We stretched our legs, ate our snacks, and changed our shoes before exploring what Strawberry Wilderness had to offer. The warm sunny day offered us perfect hiking weather and picturesque views of Strawberry Lake.

After exploring the region, we piled back in the car to finish our last one and a half hours on the road before we reached our campsite. After camping out that night, we woke to a clear morning and headed into Baker City to testify in front of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (“ODFW”) Commission.

We were preparing to give testimony to offer suggestions on proposed survival guidelines for the Marbled Murrelet on behalf of Cascadia Wildlands and other environmental groups. These survival guidelines are “Step 2” of the reclassification process of moving a species from a threatened to endangered status.

“Step 1” of this process began with Cascadia Wildlands and other environmental groups submitting a petition to re-classify the Marbled Murrelet from threatened to endangered in June 2016. Upon review of the petition, the ODFW decided to move forward with the listing process and scheduled a hearing in Salem on February 2018. This meeting was attended by enthusiastic stakeholders that resulted in the commission moving the Marbled Murrelet from threatened to endangered under the Oregon Endangered Species Act.

This decision is important for two major reasons. First, it reflects the true imperilment of the species. Second, it compelled the ODFW staff to create survival guidelines to ensure the persistence of the species. These guidelines impose quantifiable and measurable guidelines that ensure the survival of individual members of the species.

Due to an odd exemption in the state Endangered Species Act, the ODFW is not required to create these guidelines for species that were included at the time the law came in to affect—the Marbled Murrelet is one of these species. So, even though the Marbled Murrelet is considered threatened, its status was futile in ensuring its persistence because there were no protections to accompany the listing. Thus, Marbled Murrelet is threatened in name only.

This brings us to “Step 2.” Step 2 requires the ODFW commission to create survival guidelines at the time of listing the species. We understood this meeting to comprise “Step 2” of the re-classifying process. However, we were surprised upon arriving to find a room full of individuals asking the ODFW Commission not to reclassify the species as endangered. It soon became very clear after a few minutes of public testimony that the majority of testimony was not about survival guidelines. Instead, the meeting’s attendees used the hearing as their last chance to persuade the ODFW Commission not to uplist.

Unfortunately, they listened. Oregon law requires the ODFW commission to reclassify species based on verifiable scientific information related to the species biological status. While economic considerations are admissible in developing survival guidelines, they cannot contribute to the decision to classify a species.

Regardless of ODFW’s legal duty to list a species based on scientific evidence, the commission decided to decline to up-list the Marbled Murrelet with unsubstantial and unconvincing evidence. Furthermore, the commission was apprised of the Marbled Murrelet’s declining trend by the Cascadia Wildland’s petition, the final status review report, peer review of ODFW’s biological status report, and recommendations by its own staff. All of these sources were based on verifiable scientific information related to the species biological status. However, the Commission still decided to ignore its previous decision to uplist.

The sudden change of heart implies that the testimony from more than thirty people at the June meeting affected the ODFW Commission’s analysis. The majority of this testimony manifested relentless concern and apprehension regarding the potential economic impact of classifying the Marbled Murrelet as endangered. This concern predominantly stemmed from private timber and ranch industries.

After speaking with some down-trodden representatives of the Portland Audubon Society, we got back in the car after a long day and started our six-plus-hour journey back home. We lamented and reflected on the day with disappointment and began brainstorming the illegality of the ODFW’s action. Our first week working at Cascadia Wildlands showed us how disappointing and surprising some losses can be. With the experience behind us, we felt inspired and motivated to continue work on the issue and see what protections we can persuade state agencies to issue for the declining Marbled Murrelet.

You can take action now to protect the marbled murrelet!

The post When Oregon’s Fish and Wildlife Commission Lost its Marbles first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

PORTLAND, Ore.— Three conservation groups filed a legal challenge  today to the removal of protection from gray wolves under Oregon’s Endangered Species Act. According to the challenge, the 4-2 decision by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission to delist wolves violated the law by failing to follow best available science and prematurely removing protections before wolves are truly recovered. With only about 80 known adult wolves mostly confined to one small corner of the state, Oregon’s wolf population is far from recovery, according to leading scientists.

The post Suit Filed to Restore Endangered Species Act Protections for Wolves in Oregon first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.