The Sagebrush Sea Campaign has merged with
a new organization, WildEarth Guardians!
The New York Times, Oregonian
and Baker City Herald have commented on the Bush Administration's
flawed decisionmaking process for greater sage-grouse.
A federal court reversed and remanded the Fish
and Wildlife Service's 12-month "not warranted" listing decision
issued in 2005.
A U.S Fish and Wildlife Service memorandum
provides new evidence that former Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald,
and the Fish and Wildlife Service Washington and Regional offices frustrated
and prevented agency biologists from recommending that the Service list
Gunnison sage-grouse as "endangered" or "threatened"
under the ESA.
Conservation organizations
filed a lawsuit against the Fish and Wildlife Service in federal court today
challenging the agency's failure to consider listing the Mono Basin area
sage grouse under the ESA.
BLM defers leasing on tens of thousands of
acres to protect sensitive habitat, potential protected areas.
As the House
Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing today to investigate the manipulation
of science in endangered species management, conservation groups urged the
Department of the Interior to immediately revisit many recent politically
tainted decisions by the Fish and Wildlife Service to deny protection to
imperiled wildlife under the ESA. Documents received by the Sagebrush Sea
Campaign indicate that political appointtees manipulated listing decisions
for both the greater and Gunnison
sage-grouse in recent years.
Deputy
Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald resigned from her position at the Department
of the Interior. Her
resignation comes just eight days before a Congressional oversight committee
hearing on political interference by Bush Administration officials in scientific
decisionmaking. Documents received by the Sagebrush Sea Campaign indicate
that MacDonald manipulated listing decisions for both the greater
and Gunnison sage-grouse
in recent years.
An investigation by the
DOI Inspector General has confirmed media accounts and evidence in the public
record that politcal appointee Julie MacDonald "has been heavily involved
with editing, commenting on, and reshaping … scientific reports"
used by the Fish and Wildlife Service in Endangered Species Act listing
decisions.
The American Bird Conservancy has ranked sagebrush third among
the twenty most threatened bird habitats in the United States. The ABC report
identifies livestock grazing, invasive species and fire as continuing threats
to sagebrush steppe.
San Miguel County (CO) and citizen organizations filed a lawsuit today in
federal court challenging the failure of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
to protect the Gunnison sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act.
The U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center has reported
that West Nile virus continued to spread into previously uninfected populations
of greater sage-grouse across the West in 2006.
Documents received from the Fish and Wildlife Service reveal that Bush Administration
officials reversed the agency's recommendation to list Gunnison sage-grouse
as "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act.
A coalition of conservation organizations is seeking the adoption of science-based
sage grouse conservation measures to increase sage grouse populations and
range, and avoid a new Endangered Species listing petition. ....More....