'Tainted' decision disputed

A coalition of conservation groups have put the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on notice that they will take legal action if a "tainted" critical habitat designation for Canada lynx is not thrown out.

Friends of the Wild Swan, a Montana group, and 20 other organizations are challenging the 2006 designation that was directly influenced by former Interior Department Deputy Secretary Julie MacDonald. A press release for the coalition said the lynx decision was "politically influenced" and thus "tainted."

MacDonald resigned in May after the release of a report from the Interior Inspector General that concluded she coerced decisions that ran counter to scientific findings of Service field staff.

Last year's critical habitat designation for lynx was one of eight decisions that are being reviewed by the Service because of MacDonald's involvement.

A June 21 report from Mitch King, the Service's Mountain-Prairie regional director, outlines MacDonald's influence on the lynx critical habitat designation.

The Service had initially proposed a designation that included Forest Service lands, but in November of 2005, just four-days before a court-ordered deadline, "MacDonald ordered all U.S. Forest Service lands to be removed from the proposed designation," King's report states.

Then in 2006, as a final critical habitat designation was being developed, "MacDonald met with representatives of Plum Creek Timber Co., the Maine Forest Products Council, and members of Maine's congressional delegation regarding the designation. Plum Creek and the Maine Forest Council were opposed to any designation on their properties."

The report continues: "Because of the inequity that would result if the only private commercial forest land excluded from the designation was Plum Creek property, we determined that all private commercial forest lands should be excluded, thereby maintaining cooperative working relationships with landowners."

The Service was considering a designation of 18,000 square miles in Maine, the Great Lakes states and the Pacific Northwest, but the final designation applied to just 1,841 square miles, mostly on lands that ironically already provide the best protections for lynx: Glacier, Voyageurs and North Cascades national parks.

"The designated critical habitat was woefully inadequate," said Arlene Montgomery of Friends of the Wild Swan. "It's time to have science rather than politics drive decisions about threatened and endangered species and the habitat they need to survive and recover."

Montgomery said the conservation groups want the Service to "get rid of this decision and go back and look at the science."

There is a "very good possibility" that will happen because the regional director concluded in his report that the designation may need to be remanded, said Diane Katzenberger, public affairs officer at the Mountain-Prairie regional headquarters in Denver.

However, developing a new critical habitat designation is not likely to start soon, Katzenberger said.

"Critical habitat funding is limited," she said. "We may not have the funding to re-do lynx critical habitat until fiscal year '09."

With or without a critical habitat designation, Katzenberger said, lynx and their habitat are protected by the Endangered Species Act.

"The protections for lynx are the result of being listed," she said. "They don't come as a result of designating critical habitat."

Any activities that could be harmful to lynx or their habitat are subject to a "consultation" review by the Service, she said.

Montgomery said the conservation coalition is not satisfied with the way the Service chose to review decisions involving MacDonald.

She questions why only eight ESA decisions are being reviewed, when MacDonald was involved with others.

When the review was announced July 20, the Service acknowledged that MacDonald influenced other decisions, but they "involved application of law and policy that were within her authority to make as deputy assistant secretary."

Service Director Dale Hall declared, "We have acted to correct problems. Should our reviews indicate that additional corrective actions are necessary, we will take appropriate action as quickly as we can."

Montgomery is not so trusting.

"A behind-closed-doors internal investigation is not enough," she said. "The public has no way of knowing how the review was conducted. The integrity of this agency has been tarnished and to gain credibility, the Fish and Wildlife Service must withdraw this illegal decision, open the process to the public and use accurate scientific data or we will be forced to take legal action."

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com