[MCN] Documents Debunk Sen. Daines' Endangered Species Act, Forest Management Claims

[Matthew Koehler]

Please keep in mind that these these documents obtained by the Center for
Biological Diversity dispute the Endangered Species Act and National Forest
logging claims made by Senator Daines and Senator Tester in their attempt
to weaken protections for endangered species to foster more industrial
logging on public lands as part of S. 605, the so-called "Litigation Relief
for Forest Management Projects Act."

The documents also dispute similar claims made in support of S. 605 by the
National Wildlife Federation, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership,
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, The Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness,
Montana Wood Products Association and other groups that support Daines and
Tester's S. 605.

America's public lands and endangered wildlife deserve better than baseless
claims solely designed to increase industrial logging and weaken
protections for our most threatened wildlife.

- Matthew Koehler

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For Immediate Release, July 10, 2017

Contact: Brett Hartl, (202) 817-8121, bhartl at biologicaldiversity.org

*Documents Debunk Sen. Daines' Endangered Species Act, Forest Management
Claims*

*Recent Federal Agency Cooperation on Sierra Nevada Frog Conservation
Undermines Rationale for Altering Act*

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2017/sierra-nevada-frogs-07-10-2017.php

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2017 — Documents obtained by the Center for Biological
Diversity demonstrate that the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service are able to quickly complete so-called “programmatic”
consultations when new species are added to the endangered species list or
when critical habitat is designated for their protection.

The documents (
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/amphibian_conservation/pdfs/Sierra_Nevada_Forests_Endangered_Frogs_Biological_Opinion.pdf)
debunk claims by two Montana senators that legislation is urgently needed
to avoid prolonged delays in forest logging projects.

“Considering how best to protect key areas where endangered species live
may not be a big deal for federal land management agencies, but it’s
critical to the survival of animals that are facing extinction,” said Brett
Hartl, government affairs director at the Center. “The Fish and Wildlife
Service just proved Senators Daines and Tester wrong. Programmatic
endangered species consultations can be done quickly without the sky
falling, putting important conservation measures in place to protect our
most endangered wildlife.”

A 2015 court decision — Cottonwood Environmental Law Center v. U.S. Forest
Service — reaffirmed that the Endangered Species Act requires the Forest
Service to ensure its actions do not harm endangered species at both the
programmatic level, as in an entire national forest or region, and the
site-specific level. Consultations at the programmatic level are required
to ensure federal agencies consider the needs of each endangered species
across large areas, avoiding death-by-a-thousand-cuts scenarios.

Earlier this year Sen. Daines and Sen. Tester introduced S. 605 — the
Litigation Relief for Forest Management Projects Act — which would overturn
the Cottonwood decision. Then, during a Senate Agriculture Committee
hearing last week, Daines claimed (
https://www.agriculture.senate.gov/hearings/conservation-and-forestry-perspectives-on-the-past-and-future-direction-for-the-2018-farm-bill-1)
national forests were “in crisis.” The “number one issue,” according to
Daines, is that “litigation by fringe groups is slowing down forest
management.”

However, in June the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service completed
a Cottonwood-type consultation in just 10 days on nine national forests in
the Sierra Nevada region following the designation of critical habitat for
the Yosemite toad and Sierra Nevada and mountain yellow-legged frogs.

“Senator Daines is wrong. If the Forest Service simply complied with the
law, it could move forward with projects in a matter of weeks,” said Hartl.
“The main reasons forest projects don’t occur is because Republicans in
Congress have been starving the agencies of funding. Weakening the
Endangered Species Act won’t make these projects happen sooner, but it will
push endangered species closer to extinction.”

On June 5 the Forest Service reinitiated consultation on the Sierra Nevada
national forests. Ten days later the Fish and Wildlife Service completed a
75-page biological opinion concluding that the Forest Service could
continue implementing its management plans if it adopted common-sense
conservation measures including:

• Avoiding logging activities when frogs are resting in burrows and only
translocating them out of the area into suitable habitat when it is safe to
do so;

• Avoiding the use of certain types of plastic netting used in logging
operations that trap and injure frogs;

• Disinfecting equipment, boots and clothing to limit the spread of chytrid
fungus — a leading cause of frog extinction worldwide — in areas that have
logging operations.

www.biologicaldiversity.org
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