Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Jamie Rappaport Clark, President & CEO
Bruce Babbit, former Secretary of the Interior 

The true price of Sally Jewell’s confirmation as the new interior secretary is about to be revealed. Before agreeing not to fight Jewell’s nomination last month, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) extracted a commitment from the Interior Department to delay a decision on whether a road can be built to the southwest Alaska village of King Cove, population 950.

A few weeks ago, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that the road would severely damage the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, a national treasure that is home to a vast array of creatures, including seals, salmon, caribou, bears and waterfowl. The senator was buying time in an effort to persuade the new secretary to go against the service’s findings and approve the road anyway. Now the final decision is pending — and more than wildlife is at stake. It is really the U.S. taxpayer who stands to lose if the road goes through.

The additional cost to federal taxpayers for building the road would be more than $33 million — a lot of money for one tiny village. And if it seems like you have heard this story before, that’s because you have.

In 1998, we were the interior secretary and director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, respectively, when the Izembek road proposal was earmarked in an appropriations bill headed for passage in Congress. But a lengthy scientific review determined that the road would devastate the Izembek refuge, so President Bill Clinton threatened a veto unless the earmark was removed.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), then chairman of the Appropriations Committee, rolled out his main argument: The residents of King Cove needed better access to an air strip in the event of medical emergencies requiring evacuation. In response, we suggested upgrading the existing ferry service from King Cove across Cold Bay to the air strip, which would avoid the need for a road through a wildlife refuge.

Stevens responded that an upgraded ferry would work, if we were prepared to also fund an upgrade of the existing marine terminals on the bay. We agreed. The senator then demanded an upgraded video teleconference link to a trauma facility in Anchorage. We agreed. Then he asked for a new ocean-worthy hovercraft capable of crossing the bay in any weather. We agreed to that as well. The final bill to the U.S. taxpayer? Over $50 million; more than $52,000 per resident of King Cove.

It was a huge price to pay to accommodate the rare medical emergencies of one small Alaska village, but accommodate them we did. Alaska got its taxpayer-funded medical emergency solution, and we helped ensure the survival of the Izembek Refuge. End of story.

Or so we thought.

Now the Alaska delegation is back, once again demanding a road through the refuge, as if the 1998 deal had never happened. That hovercraft purchased with taxpayer dollars? Despite a 100 percent success rate in carrying out more than 30 medical evacuations, local officials suspended service in 2010, saying the hovercraft was unreliable and too expensive to operate. But that hasn’t stopped them from using it to transport seasonal seafood workers from a nearby cannery.

Moreover, as Pete Mjos, the former medical director for the area, recently said, the proposed road would be impassable and even life-threatening during the region’s typical winter storms. Even in the best weather conditions, it would still be a two-hour trip. The hovercraft? Thirty minutes each way across the bay. And all without slicing through a pristine wilderness area with 21 miles of road, eight bridges, 19 culverts and 254 stream crossings.

Congress is on record calling for an end to earmarks for pork-barrel projects. And every day we hear more calls for spending cuts and belt-tightening. U.S. taxpayers have already chipped in more than enough for this project. Asking them to pay tens of millions on top of the more than $50 million they have already spent is asking too much. It’s time the Izembek road project was killed for good.

This letter was originally published in the Washington Post.

©Pauline I. Stacey

Laurie Macdonald, Florida Program Director

Last month, we celebrated the First Annual Everglades Day, designated by the Florida legislature in recognition of America’s unique and intriguingly diverse Everglades ecoregion. The date, April 7th, was also the birthday of the late Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, an iconic heroine and newspaper reporter who spent many years writing about and advocating for Everglades protection.

The Everglades region is recognized as an International Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site and a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance. The area encompasses three national parks, and a dozen national wildlife refuges and marine preserves, as well as a host of state, regional and local parks, forests and wildlife management areas. Extensive private land holdings in the region are also an integral component of valuable wildlife habitat ranging from 100,000-acre ranches to thousands of one-acre lots.

Biodiversity here is among the highest in the nation, with many species found nowhere else in the U.S. Many of Defenders’ key species are in the region, including Florida panthers, manatees, sea turtles, gopher tortoises and other listed species such as the Everglade kite, wood stork, Big Cypress fox squirrel, American crocodile and Key deer.

The Everglades are truly a national treasure and deserve the utmost protection and management. Without adequate funding, we’d be unable to acquire the habitat and linkages that species like panthers and bears need, protect water quality or work to protect natural systems from degradation and invasive species.

Throughout the month of April, we took action to protect south Florida’s Greater Everglades region. Defenders’ Florida Representative Elizabeth Fleming, our lobbyist Travis Moore and I, as well as other Everglades Coalition members, met with volunteers from around the state in Tallahassee to speak with our state senators and representatives who were in the midst of the Florida legislative session. Our message: The state budget needs to provide adequate funding for Everglades protection and restoration projects that protect our water and wildlife. One third of all Floridians rely on clean water from the Greater Everglades Ecosystem, and more than 120 federal and state endangered and threatened species depend on the region’s varied wetland, upland and marine habitats. The health of the Everglades brings economic health to the region. Quite simply, what’s good for the Everglades is good for southern Florida and beyond, because its visitors and migratory wildlife come from around the globe.

Staff and volunteers on the steps of the Florida Capitol.(©Pauline I. Stacey)

This was the first trip to the state capital for Will Johnson, a Defenders volunteer who made the nearly 7-hour drive to Tallahassee from Naples, who said, “Everglades Action Day is a great opportunity to engage with legislators and a wonderful group of activists to help preserve and protect the beauty and wildlife of Florida.”

Another volunteer, Magdalena Braker, took the long ride by joining others on a chartered bus that the Everglades Coalition reserved for the event, starting in Miami and picking up activists along way. Magdalena urged legislators to provide funding and support for the Everglades with this message: “La riqueza natural y servicios ambientales de los Everglades se están marchitando debajo presiones urbanas y venimos para emfátizar la importancia de los Everglades tanto para las especies silvestre como para los ciudadanos del sur de la Florida.” Which means:

“The natural resources and ecosystem services of the Everglades are withering under the pressures of urbanization, and we come here to emphasize the importance of the Everglades, not only for the native wildlife, but for South Floridians.”

The nearly 60 volunteers who made the trip from around the state to Tallahassee attended more than 30 meetings with their elected officials, asking them to make funding for the Everglades a priority. And it made an important contribution to Everglades protection! Just last week, as the 2013 legislative session concluded, the Florida Legislature designated $70M for Everglades restoration projects. Thanks for all who participated in our action day! If you’re in Florida, join us next year for lobby days at the state capital! And no matter where you live, get to know your state representative and senator back in your district. It always makes a big difference when elected officials hear directly from their constituents.

Fl. Representative Powell meets with volunteers and activists (©Pauline I. Stacey)

Brilliant, Blue, and Bouncing Back!

Defenders of Wildlife has set itself the goal of moving more than 100 endangered species up the federal recovery ladder over the next decade. Our “Road to Recovery” series will highlight several of these plants and animals and outline the challenges that lay ahead for improving their status.

Photo courtesy of John & Karen Hollingsworth / USFWS

The Karner blue butterfly was first identified in 1944 by the novelist Vladimir Nabokov. Though better known for his controversial book Lolita published 11 years later, Nabokov was also a dedicated lepidopterist who spent time as a zoology researcher at a Harvard museum. He described the Karner blue butterfly during a trip along the New York Central Railroad in Karner, New York (now part of Albany). Now, all that remains of the town is Old Karner Street, and the blue butterfly that shares its name has been considered endangered since 1992.

The Karner blue (Lycaeides melissa samuelis) was abundant in the 1900′s and once ranged from New Hampshire to Iowa and north into Canada. Today populations only persist in Wisconsin,  Minnesota, Ohio and Indiana, along with very small populations in New York and New Hampshire, having endured an astounding 99% reduction in population in the past century.

The Karner blue has an inch-long wingspan with light silver and brown hues on the underside of their wings and deep blue pigments on top. Adults drink nectar from an array of plant species, including rock cress, butterfly weed and goldenrod, and live anywhere from four to 21 days during which they mate and lay eggs. The Karner blue is bivoltine, meaning it produces two broods each year — one in spring and one in summer. The larvae have a symbiotic relationship with several species of ant that defend against predators and increase survival rates, though larva survival is ultimately dependent on the availability of just one plant.

Photo courtesy of Joel Trickwild / USFWS

The Karner blue butterfly’s annual life cycle is inextricably tied to wild blue
lupine since the larva eat its leaves exclusively. The majority of the remaining Karner populations are small, and several are at risk of extinction from habitat degradation.

Wisconsin currently supports the majority of the Karner population and is the only state so far to develop a comprehensive statewide Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP). As of 2006 the HCP includes 40 partners consisting of major forestry stakeholders, conservation organizations, county forest departments, utility companies, private landowners, The Nature Conservancy, and the Wisconsin Departments of Agriculture and Transportation. These groups are working together to make sure that open areas are maintained as butterfly habitat, while ensuring that potentially destructive activities like timber harvest, prescribed burns and mowing are compatible with long-term Karner conservation.

In New York, the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission in New York is clearing away non-native plants and re-growing lupine to guarantee the butterflies have enough lupine. Since 1991 the Commission has been administering controlled brush fires to maintain the unique ecosystem for both plants and animals. In addition the preserve has been protecting precious habitat for the Karner as well as other native species.

For the last decade, captive-bred butterfly populations have been reintroduced to New Hampshire and Ohio by local conservation groups and are successfully breeding in the wild. The Federal Karner Blue Butterfly Recovery Plan proposed in 2003 outlines a plan to restore the species over a 20-year period. But many communities are taking the initiative to start butterfly restorations programs of their own. For example, students at Farnsworth Middle School in Guilderland, New York, began a project as part of their ecology curriculum about the Pine Bush ecosystem. Farnsworth’s seventh graders raise and study butterflies, including the Karner blue, which are then released in the summer. The students are active in scientific research with the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission and are the only school in the nation where the students are allowed to handle the Karner blue.

With collaborative efforts like these, the future of these brilliant butterflies is looking much brighter. And because they have a such a short lifecycle, populations can bounce back quickly, which means it shouldn’t take much to move these blue beauties farther down the road to recovery.

Defenders’ president and CEO, Jamie Rappaport Clark

Jamie Rappaport Clark, President and CEO 

It’s no secret Congress is gridlocked on climate change. Climate change challenges the sources of energy that fueled the industrial revolution and our current standard of living. Shifting to new sources of energy is a big deal, with lots of special interests with high stakes in the outcome.

We have to change. And we can. Think of the amazing technological revolutions we have seen in just the last decade. Yes we are powering 21st century technology with 19th century energy. There simply has to be a better way.

It has become clear that we can’t wait for Congress to help transition to a low-carbon energy system. In 2012, we experienced the most expensive storm on record, record heat waves, record wildfires and record lows in Arctic sea ice. Our communities and the natural systems we value and depend on are feeling these impacts now.

Our lawmakers finally took an excellent step in the right direction over the winter. When Congress funded emergency recovery efforts following Superstorm Sandy, it put in provisions to encourage rebuilding with climate change adaptation in mind and preparing for future storms and weather events made more likely by our planet heating up. Now Congress needs to build on that foundation and get ahead of the curve, enacting laws to make our communities, wildlife and natural areas more resilient to the changes to come.

The Obama administration is trying to move forward, as exemplified by the recent release of the National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy. That strategy now needs to be implemented, and Congress needs to incorporate climate risks throughout federal decision making to mitigate those risks and prepare for future impacts. This will save lives, livelihoods and dollars.

Hopefully, our political leaders have a growing awareness of extreme weather and the formidable threat it poses both to our communities and our natural resources. It’s time for them to focus on the future and put people, homes and habitat ahead of 19th century interests.

Originally published in the National Journal, in response to “What’s Holding Back Energy & Climate Policy?”

Feds to abandon wolf recovery nationwide – We’ve been very busy at Defenders since last Friday when the LA Times first reported that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is ready to give up on gray wolves across the country except in the Southwest. Our Executive Vice President Don Barry was interviewed by several reporters, including the Associated Press for a story that was picked up by more than 200 outlets from coast to coast (e.g., USA Today). He emphasized that the Service is throwing in the towel too soon, long before wolves are fully recovered.

“There’s a race to the bottom to see who can be more anti-wolf… They’re basically giving up on wolf recovery before the job is done.”

Don also talked to Aaron Kunz with Northwest Public Radio to discuss the potential impacts for wolves in the region, as well as the impacts beyond their current range in states where there are no wolves.

“Wolves are still not recovered in key parts of their range. Delisting at this point could preclude the return of wolves in Utah or California or Colorado.”

Places like the Olympic peninsula in Washington, much of western Colorado and northern California, and parts of Utah have large swaths of wilderness that could benefit from the return of wolves. But without federal guidance and resources, wolves may never make it there on their own. Our greatest concern is that by moving forward with this nationwide delisting proposal, the Service is leaving wolves entirely at the mercy of anti-wolf politicians in the states.

Giving up on wolf recovery with just a few thousand wolves in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes sets a very low bar for endangered species conservation in America. It also undermines decades of hard work and billions of dollars of public investment in restoring these majestic creatures to the landscape.

If you haven’t already, please contact Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and tell her not to abandon wolf recovery!

Montana gets tougher, Wyoming eases up on wolf hunting next season – Wyoming Game and Fish deserves credit for trying to avoid driving wolf numbers too low. Their proposed hunting regulations would cut in half the number of wolves that can be killed in state’s trophy game management area. In the 2013-2014 season, the proposal would allow 26 wolves to be killed by hunters in this area, down from a quota of 52 this past year. However, part of the reason they’re giving wolves a break is that there are far fewer of them in the state to begin with, compared to Idaho and Montana. Also, the completely unrestricted killing of wolves in the predator zone that encompasses most of the state has contributed to the decline of Wyoming’s wolf population. We’d much rather see Wyoming start managing and maintaining wolves outside of the regulated hunting zone and protect wolves that move outside of Yellowstone National Park. But we also need to support the state’s willingness to carefully monitor the population and revise its hunting season accordingly. You can weigh in on the proposed regulations over the next month at a series of public hearings or by submitting comments online.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, on the other hand, continues the push to reduce its wolf population. Their proposed hunting and trapping regulations for the upcoming season would expand the hunting season to March 31^st when females may be pregnant, and allow each hunter or trapper to kill up to five wolves, instead of just three. Though only two hunters and about a dozen trappers reported killing more than one wolf last year, we can expect those numbers to keep increasing as hunters and especially trappers gain more experience. The state also wants to make it easier for hunters  by allowing them to shoot wolves standing near a baited site set for trapping. Montana’s wildlife commission will be meeting next week to discuss the proposed regulations. Click here for more details. Please ask Montana’s commissioners to stop ratcheting up their wolf-killing efforts unnecessarily and focus instead on maintaining nature’s healthy balance among all species.

Washington state wolf powwow this weekend –Live in the Seattle area? Not busy this weekend? Want to learn more about wolves and Native American culture? Perfect! Then come out to the 28^th Annual Edmonds Community College Powwow, “Teachings of the Wolves,” starting this evening. Defenders is proud to help sponsor the event, which includes dance and drum ceremonies, singing, storytelling, arts and crafts.  The focus of this year’s celebration will be on understanding the deep connection that Native Americans in the region have always shared with the spirit of the wolves. We look forward to working with native communities across the state to help restore wolves, which have been a vital part of their history and way of life for millennia. If you attend the event, please stop by the Defenders’ booth and meet our local representatives.

Kylie Paul, Rockies & Plains Representative 

Wolverines may finally be getting the federal protections they need. In response to well over a decade of successful legal efforts by Defenders and a few of our partners, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced in February its proposal to list the wolverine as a threatened species in the lower 48 states under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Alongside the proposed listing, FWS also announced its proposal to designate the southern Rocky Mountains (southern Wyoming, Colorado and northern New Mexico) as an experimental population area for wolverines, which opens up the possibility of a reintroduction of wolverines to Colorado.

If approved, these proposals will give wolverines a fighting chance for survival in a warming world. There are only an estimated 300 wolverines spread across the entire western United States, and scientists predict they could lose up to two-thirds of their suitable snowy habitat by 2099 due to climate change. That’s why we’ve been busy over the past few months educating wildlife enthusiasts about this amazing critter and encouraging them to support wolverine conservation through the public participation process on this proposal to protect wolverines.

Film Screenings
Defenders of Wildlife collaborated with our conservation partners in Colorado and Montana to introduce the public to these mysterious, cold-loving critters through the PBS award-winning documentary, Wolverine: Chasing the Phantom. This informative documentary highlights the challenges facing the wolverine. These powerful carnivores are specially adapted for winter existence and survive in the rugged, snow-covered alpine environment by scavenging and storing food. Wolverines’ large paws act like snowshoes that allow them to stay on top of deep snow, and their crampon-like claws help them to climb up and over steep cliffs and snow-covered peaks. Unfortunately, these awe-inspiring creatures are not invincible – climate change is expected to melt away much of their snowy habitat over the next several decades.

Wolverines are incredibly rare, and even the researchers that dedicate their lives to studying this remarkable creature can go years without seeing a wolverine in the wild. Many biologists rely on wolverine tracks, scavenging sites and images they capture through remote cameras to learn more about this elusive critter. Fortunately, in Chasing the Phantom, the audience is offered a glimpse into the wolverine’s world through the eyes of researchers with the Glacier National Park Wolverine Project. Viewers also get up-close and personal, following the movements and behavior of two wolverines raised in captivity. They are beautiful, playful and ridiculously cute!

(c) Ken Curtis

Almost 300 wildlife enthusiasts attended the film screenings in Denver, Bozeman, and Missoula. Each screening was followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session with experts from a variety of backgrounds. In Denver, the audience was especially interested in the potential reintroduction of wolverines into Colorado. Bridget Fahey with the FWS and Eric Odell with Colorado Parks and Wildlife explained that some climate models show that Colorado – with the highest average elevation of any state in the Lower 48, including 54 peaks over 14,000 feet – will likely retain the continuous cold temperatures and snow cover necessary for the wolverine to survive, even as the climate continues to change. All of the panel experts, including Caitlin Balch-Burnett with Defenders, emphasized that getting wolverines on the ground in Colorado could be one of the greatest steps we can take to ensure that wolverines survive the effects of climate change.

In Bozeman, the producer and filmmaker of Chasing the Phantom, Gianna Savoie, joined the panel to share her experiences working on the documentary and how she created a film on such a remote creature. Bob Inman with Wildlife Conservation Society discussed wolverine biology and research, and I talked about the proposed listing of wolverines under the Endangered Species Act. The event in Missoula offered Mike Schwartz, a leading wolverine conservation genetics team leader, who discussed many of the incorrect myths about wolverines.

FWS public hearings
The FWS hosted three public hearings on their wolverine proposals in the southern and northern Rocky Mountains: Boise, Idaho; Lakewood, Colorado; and Helena, Montana. We reached out to our supporters in the area and encouraged them to attend – many took the opportunity to speak directly to the federal officials and biologists that will be involved in the final decision to list the wolverine under the ESA.

There was widespread support for wolverines at the public hearings, especially in Boise and Lakewood, where nearly all of the public comments were positive. Alex Marks, a Defenders member who attended the Lakewood hearing, commented:

“I wanted to testify at the Fish and Wildlife hearing about the dual proposals for the wolverine because I wanted to let the agency know how important it was for these proposals to move forward .… The ESA was established to both “stabilize” and “revitalize” any species in need of its protections.”

We were thrilled with the amount of support and positive feedback we have been seeing for the listing proposal and the Colorado reintroduction – it all bodes well for the future of wolverines in the U.S.!