Agency Fails To Protect Imperiled Lynx Environmentalists Immediately Denounce Decision Not To List Animal As Endangered

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refused to declare the Canada lynx an endangered species Thursday but acknowledged the elusive cat has suffered significant population losses in the nation’s lower 48 states.

The unusual move, confirming the animal’s dire situation while denying it the protection of the Endangered Species Act, drew quick criticism from environmentalists, who contend the Clinton administration is dragging its feet on aggressive enforcement of the 1973 law.

“We’re glad the Fish and Wildlife Service finally is acknowledging the magnitude of threats to the lynx, but its failure to actually initiate the listing process is another indication of its lack of nerve in acting on controversial species,” said spokeswoman Joan Moody of Defenders of Wildlife in Washington, D.C.

While thousands of lynx remain in Alaska and Canada, biologists estimate there are only a few hundred in the lower 48 states - about 20 to 50 in Maine, 150 to 400 in Montana, 50 or fewer in Idaho and 100 to 150 in Washington state, said Bill Snape, a lawyer for Defenders of Wildlife.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has concluded there is not a surviving lynx population in Idaho, but it says lynx still are found in Wyoming. No one was available after hours to comment on the Idaho-Wyoming discrepancy.

The two sides agree lynx remain in Maine, Montana and Washington state.

Thursday’s decision was the agency’s response to a federal judge in Seattle who in March ordered reconsideration of an earlier Fish and Wildlife Service decision to keep the lynx off the list amid mounting evidence it is on the road to extinction in the contiguous United States.

The new ruling reverses the agency’s earlier claim that federal protection is not warranted in Washington, Montana, Wyoming and Maine.

Instead, the agency said protection is “warranted but precluded” at this time because other species are in more serious condition and require a quicker government response.

The agency is required to reassess the situation within a year and could propose listing the lynx as a threatened or endangered species at that time.

“There’s no doubt that the number of Canada lynx - the only lynx in North America - has decreased significantly in the lower 48 states,” said Ralph Morgenweck, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s regional office in Denver.

“Unfortunately, our resources are limited, and other species are in worse condition and require more immediate action on our part,” he said.

The Canada lynx, about the size of a bobcat, has large furry paws for hunting in deep snow. Weighing 22 pounds on the average and growing to about 34 inches in length, it has long tufts on the ears, a flared facial ruff and a short black-tipped tail.

The Clinton administration has been under fire from environmentalists in recent months for emphasizing voluntary protection agreements with landowners rather than imposing the full force of the Endangered Species Act to prohibit logging and other commercial activities that may be harmful to fish and wildlife.

The Fish and Wildlife Service issued a similar “warranted but precluded” decision on the bull trout in several Western states two years ago and currently is involved in a court battle with environmentalists over that decision. Agency officials have indicated they do plan to actually list the bull trout in some places soon.

The Northwest Ecosystem Alliance in Bellingham, one of the groups that petitioned for listing of the lynx, is considering court challenges.

“It’s the same old bull when it comes to listing species. They don’t want to confront the timber industry,” said Mitch Friedman, the group’s executive director.

The Fish and Wildlife Service decided against listing the lynx in 1994 despite findings by its own field offices that only a few hundred of the cats remain in a few U.S. states.

The agency “consistently has ignored the analysis of its expert biologists,” U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler of Seattle said on March 28 in ordering the agency to reconsider.

“The agency ignores the findings of its own biologists that forest clearing and current timber management represent ongoing threats to the existence of the already greatly diminished lynx population and that such threats will only continue absent imposition of legal protection under the Endangered Species Act,” she said.

Morgenweck, of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said agency biologists re-examined information in the 1994 administrative record, considered new information and consulted experts on the lynx.

They concluded the cat is being threatened by loss of forest habitat, past hunting and trapping, inadequate regulatory mechanisms to restore the lynx population and increased human access to suitable forests.<