Maine’s largest timberland owners are once again asking to be exempt from a federal desig-nation affecting thousands of square miles of Canada lynx territory in a handful of states.
Nearly two years ago, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service excluded all land in the state from the controversial “critical habitat” provision of the En-dangered Species Act.
At the time, federal biologists argued that Maine’s timberland owners already work well with biologists and researchers to protect populations of the threatened wildcat. Environ-mental groups, however, ac-cused the agency of caving in to Maine’s large forest products industry.
An ensuing political med-dling scandal in Washington, D.C., prompted the agency to scrap the entire critical habitat designation for lynx last year. A revised critical habitat pro-posal, released earlier this year, reinserted 10,600 square miles of lynx territory encompassing much of northern Maine.
But Maine landowners are once again petitioning for ex-clusion. To bolster the request, the Maine Forest Products Council has put forward a de-tailed, voluntary conservation plan that representatives claim will benefit the lynx more than additional federal oversight.
“What we are proposing is something different,” said Pat-rick Strauch, executive director of the Maine Forest Products Council, whose members own nearly 75 percent of the land within the proposed designa-tion. “It’s designed to determine what is best for the biology of the species, and our feet are held to the fire by the out-comes.”
“Critical habitat” designa-tion means that a landowner or developer must submit to an additional layer of bureaucratic review for any projects involv-ing federal money or permits.
The vast majority of re-viewed projects are allowed to go forward as planned, and pro-jects on private land that do not have any federal involvement are not subject to additional review. Yet many landowners, distrustful of the federal wild-life law, strongly oppose desig-nation.
Strauch said his organiza-tion’s membership fear critical habitat designation could be-come a way for other groups to use the courts to force land-owners to change their prac-tices. Strauch and others argue that Maine has the largest lynx population in the lower 48 states because of the forest products industry.
The conservation agreement includes: continued funding for lynx-related research, includ-ing habitat mapping and model-ing; development of landscape-scale planning guidelines for both lynx and other species; annual monitoring and report-ing; development of additional training on lynx management for woods workers.
“It’s not prescriptive. It is outcome-based,” Strauch said. “It provides the [Fish and Wild-life] Service with a pretty valu-able relationship with the land-owners.”
The agency also has proposed exempting five landowners that are working with federal biolo-gists to develop lynx manage-ment plans for 680,000 acres in Maine through the federal Healthy Forest Restoration Act.
Environmental groups will likely contest the exclusion of Maine’s commercial forests.
Tara Thornton, Maine organ-izer for the Endangered Species Coalition, said it’s an im-provement that the voluntary lynx-management agreements will be in writing this time. But Thornton said studies have shown that species fare better when critical habitat has been designated.
“We feel critical habitat in Maine is important for the re-covery of the lynx,” she said. “We want to see that the land they need to thrive and recover is protected.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is accepting public comments on the Canada lynx critical habitat proposal, a draft economic analysis accompany-ing the proposal as well as the potential exclusions. Comments will be accepted through Nov. 20 at: Public Comment Process-ing, Attn: FWS-R6-ES-2008-0026, Division of Policy and Direc-tives Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 222, Ar-lington, VA 22203.
Comments also can be filed electronically by going to www.regulations.gov and fol-lowing the instructions for submitting comments.
The service also will hold a public informational meeting from 2 to 4 p.m. Nov. 10 at the Black Bear Inn in Orono. Agency staff will give an over-view of the proposal and an-swer any questions.
On 10/23/08 at 5:08 AM,
mrclam wrote:
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It's ridiculous for us to call the Lynx endangered when it roams the Canadian wilderness in great numbers. It is not decreasing in population it is increasing it's range into Maine because things are going so well for it in the wild. The myopic assertions of our wildlife management teams and the shrill trills of the "save the planet" types cost us hundreds of millions of dollars protecting species that are not endangered in any way. Take the Bald Eagle, for example, it's numbers approached crow-like counts in Alaska and Canada and yet we spent hundreds of millions to "revive" them in parts of the lower 48 - remarkably, through this whole endangered period of time they were flying around everywhere in Down East Maine. I guess the "eagle counters never visit Washington County. If we can't find one in our backyard, it must be endangered, right?
On 10/23/08 at 5:42 AM,
sssster wrote:
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The environmentalists should tie up their own money investigating the fact that it is the forest products industry that has created the habitat that is resulting in the increase in the lynx's numbers. Bilologists in the past claimed that "old growth" forest were critical habitat for the lynx. Maine has shown that it is the silvicultural techniques of timber harvesting that has created an environment for the lynx to increase in population.
On 10/23/08 at 6:27 AM,
wishybone2 wrote:
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This is so sad that so much money is wasted on things like this. I dont understand how an animal that is not prevelent on the fringe of its range can be called endangered. Its normal for this to happen. It is true to that the silvicultural practices of the forest industry create perfect habitat for the food of the Lynx. Which is why they are here. I have seen lynx up here in the woods before and one time a mountain lion. It because of the crazy environmentlists that the state wont reconize an endangered animal such as the Mountain Lion because they try to create such problems over things they are not even educated on. All they know is that they want to save something.... pffff give me a break.... If I could post a pic I would show you one of 7 lynx in the road up here 2 winters ago... http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife/printerFriendly.cfm?issueID=119&articleID=1537 Read that... Its from a trusted science foundation.....
On 10/23/08 at 10:33 AM,
Brian30 wrote:
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What is critical is that we don't take any further value away from the land that these industrial landowners are harvesting responsibly.
On 10/23/08 at 11:02 AM,
DouglasWatts wrote:
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It's too bad the commenters here do not take some time to familiarize themselves with the U.S. Endangered Species Act, which was signed into law by the U.S. Congress and Richard Nixon 1973. If you did you would know that it does not matter under the ESA if an animal is common in Canada but is going extinct in Maine. The whole point of the ESA is to keep animals native to the U.S. from going extinct in the U.S. So ... umm ... like your children and grandchildren can see them. I know it's a horrible socialist concept to preserve entire species for future generations, but hey, blame that old commie Richard Nixon. He signed the ESA into law in 1973. Cheers.
On 10/23/08 at 7:32 PM,
justmehere wrote:
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Umm Douglass,
At one time coyotes were very few and far between in Maine, but they sure didn't become extinct, they just moved in by the thousands. The lynx is NOT becoming extinct in Maine, it is moving into Maine BECAUSE of forestry practices, not in spite of them. There numbers continue to increase, not decrease.
On 10/26/08 at 1:43 PM,
daryld wrote:
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We are currently seeing a precipitous (50% over the last two years) decline in the snowshoe hare population in Maine. The snowshoe hare is the primary prey of Canada Lynx and wherever hare populations have declined, lynx decline right behind them. We are seeing this decline due to forestry practices that have changed and will continue to (like putting in huge developments and changing the designation of the company from "timber company" to "real estate investment trust") do so. In a legal statement filed on October 14, 2008 Ken Elowe from Inland Fisheries and WIldlife admits that lynx populations are possibly in decline and that hare populations are anticipated to decline over the next several decades. I would go further in saying we can expect a decline of up to 85-90% in lynx populations as the hare populations crash. We no longer allow wholesale clearcutting and unless we do the hare and lynx populations will likely stay at historically lower levels. I believe that without adequate protection of habitat we will no longer have lynx in Maine to abuse. I know more than a few, including commenters here, who would like that. Thank god for the ESA!
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