Snail Kites disappearing from the Everglades

There have been a few stories in recent days about the dwindling number of snail kites found in the Everglades. The Herald Tribune notes that the snail kite was one of the "founding members of the federal endangered species list in 1967." The causes may be linked to drought causing a drop in the number of apple snails as well as water control measures that have been implemented to try to help protect another endangered bird, the Cape Sable seaside sparrow. The endangered snail kite hawk is nearing extinction. More from CBS4 & UPI.

Florida Bar Journal: Continued Protection of the Bald Eagle After Delisting

I'd previously posted about the recent decision to remove the bald eagle from the endangered species list. The Florida Bar Journal this month has an article on the protections that remain available for the eagles given the delisting. The article notes that despite being removed from the endangered species list, the eagles are still protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It also discusses the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Bald Eagle Management Plan and newly adopted Rule 68A-16.002. The article is definitely worth checking out.

NY Times Part 1: The Battle over Wolf delisting

The New York Times has an interesting article on the aftermath of the delisting of gray wolves from the endangered species list. According to the article, in the first few days after the delisting 10 wolves were killed in Wyoming alone. On the first day protections were lifted, one of the wolves that was shot was a partially crippled radio-collared wolf named 253M. A coalition of environmental groups have stated that they will go to federal court on April 28th to challenge the delisting.

Florida Bald Eagle taken off endangered species list

WWSB ABC 7 reports that the Florida Bald Eagle has been removed from the endangered species list by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. The eagles are recovering in Florida with 1,100 active nests counted last year after a low of 88 nests counted in 1973. Monitoring and development restrictions remain in place even after the delisting.

11th Circuit rules in favor of Wildlife in the Florida Keys

With a tip of the hat to a post at How Appealing, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling that will impact wildlife in the Florida Keys. Specifically, the court ruled in favor of a number of endangered and threatened species and animal/environmental groups holding that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) failed to comply with section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, with regard to FEMA’s administration of the National Flood Insurance Program in the Florida Keys.

It's always good to see animals being named as parties to a case in their own right. In the 11th Circuit's opinion, the plaintiffs–appellees were three environmental organizations and eight endangered or threatened species. The organizations were the National Wildlife Federation, the Florida Wildlife Federation, and the Defenders of Wildlife. The endangered or threatened species are the Florida Key deer, the Key Largo cotton mouse, the Key Largo woodrat, the Key tree-cactus, the Lower Keys marsh rabbit, the Schaus’ swallowtail butterfly, the silver rice rat, and the Stock Island tree snail.

As a bonus piece of trivia, the opinion's author, Judge Barkett, was a justice on the Florida Supreme Court before being appointed to the 11th Circuit. She was the first woman to serve on the Florida Supreme Court and the first female chief justice. According to the Florida Supreme Court's website, when she was appointed to the court in 1985 "the Justices' chambers collectively had only two restrooms: one marked 'Justices' and the other for women. With Barkett's appointment, this situation obviously came to an end."

Wolves delisted

Sorry for the abbreviated posts to follow... I've been packing & running errands for the past several days. In case you missed it both MSNBC and CNN ran stories over the weekend on the Bush Administration's removal of gray wolves from the endangered species list. According to the CNN article, this means that "the wolves can be shot and killed once they step out of Yellowstone National Park as soon as the affected states establish a hunting season." A lawsuit to restore the wolves to the list is being planned but in the meantime Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana are moving forward with hunting plans in an attempt to reduce the population of 1,500 wolves to between 900 to 1,250.

CNN Planet Peril: Polar Bear Lawsuit

Here's an interesting video from CNN on the lawsuit by environmental groups based on the federal government's failure to make the decision on listing polar bears as an endangered species:

Eleven Conservation Groups Challenge Federal Wolf Delisting

Defenders of Wildlife issued a press release on the decision by eleven different conservation groups to challenge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's removal of the northern Rocky Mountain wolf from the endangered species list. The groups assert that the removal violates the Endangered Species Act because of the genetic inadequacy of the present population and the refusal of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana to commit to conservation. The groups submitted a notice letter before the new delisting rules were set to be issued and indicated that they will seek relief in federal court. A copy of the notice, sent on behalf of the groups by Earthjustice, is available here (pdf).

The groups involved included Earthjustice, Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club. Center for Biological Diversity, The Humane Society of the United States, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Friends of Clearwater, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands Project, and Western Watersheds Project.

Collier debate brews over town, panthers

News Press reports here on a controversy over the possibility of the development of the new town of Big Cypress to encroach on the habitat of endangered Florida panthers. The proposed new town of 9,000 residences would be built over the next 15 years in Collier county. Environmental experts say more than 90 percent of the town's boundaries fall within primary panther habitat, according to the article.

Wolves Lose Protection Under Endangered Species Act

Defenders of Wildlife issued this press release on the removal of northern Rockies gray wolf from the list of species protected under the Endangered Species Act. According to the article, DOW opposes the delisting and notes that the move could lead to dramatic reductions in wolf populations:

“We will support delisting of the northern Rockies wolf when the states establish sustainable management plans that ensure viable, interconnected wolf populations throughout the region,” said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife. “Unfortunately, the current state plans seem designed to lead only to the dramatic decline and need for quick relisting of the wolf. That’s not in anyone’s best interest.”

Woodpecker stewardship agreement continued

A number of parties in the Florida panhandle have elected to continue an environmental stewardship agreement designed to protect endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers. The News Herald in Panama City reports here that the St. Joe Company, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are continuing the Lathrop Bayou and Wetappo Creek Land Stewardship Agreement. These parties along with the Sierra Club will maintain two tracts of land as woodpecker habitat. The goal is to increase the number of woodpeckers in in Bay and Gulf counties.

Justice Talking: Endangered Species and Drought

NPR's Justice Talking program presented a program concerning water policies nationwide and the problems that different regions face as the climate changes. Of course, the three-state dispute between Florida, Georgia, and Alabama was mentioned throughout. While the entire program is worth downloading, the segment on drought and the impact that water shortages have on endangered species is of particular interest. It features an interview with Kierán Suckling, the executive director and co-founder of the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson, Arizona, which has secured protection for over 350 endangered species and 70 million acres of habitat in the U.S. He discusses the plight of endangered fresh water mussels in the Apalachicola River basin and the continuing crisis with water coming into Florida. He refers to the freshwater mussels as the biggest extinction crisis in North America and agrees that they are a "canary in the coal mine" group of species.

An mp3 of that segment is available here for download. See one of my previous posts on the subject here.

U.S. proposes removing brown pelican from endangered species list

Bloomberg reports that U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has proposed completely removing the brown pelican from the endangered species list. after almost 40 years. Kempthorne attributed the brown pelican's rebound in part to the U.S. ban on the use of the pesticide DDT in 1972. The proposal will be published in the Federal Register and a 60-day comment period will follow. Florida's brown pelicans had previously been removed from the list.

The press release from the Department of Interior's website is available here. The website also features a factsheet (pdf) from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as photos and video footage.

Critical Habitat Proposed to Protect Florida’s Disappearing Corals

The Center for Biological Diversity issued a press release on Wednesday announcing that the federal government had proposed designating almost 5,000 square miles of reef area off the coasts of Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands as critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act for the threatened staghorn and elkhorn corals. The press release notes that the corals arethe first and currently only species to be placed to on the list due to threats to their survival primarily caused by global warming. Under the terms of the court settlement the critical habitat designation for the corals must be finalized by November 30, 2008. The proposed area was required by a settlement agreement of a 2007 lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity.

More is available here. From the press release:

Once the most abundant and important reef-building corals in Florida and the Caribbean, staghorn and elkhorn corals have declined by upwards of 90 percent in many areas, primarily as a result of disease and “bleaching,” an often-fatal stress response to abnormally high water temperatures in which corals expel the symbiotic algae that give them color. The rising temperature of the ocean as a result of global warming is the single greatest threat to these two coral species as well as coral reefs more generally worldwide. Scientists have predicted that most of the world’s coral reefs will disappear by mid-century due to global warming and the related threat of ocean acidification under a business-as-usual emissions scenario.

Audubon ranks Florida fourth in number of bird species in peril

Tampa Bay Online reports here on a watch list released by the National Audubon Society finding that Florida ranks fourth, after Hawaii, California and Texas, for the number of species that have professional bird-watchers worried. A total of 68 species of Florida birds appear on the list as being at risk of extinction or in serious decline, including the Red Knot, Scrub Jay (pictured), red-cockaded woodpecker and reddish egret.

"We think of extinction as something going on in the Brazilian rain forest or in Africa," said Ann Paul, Audubon of Florida's regional coordinator for Tampa Bay. "But, we see extinction going on, in that species are getting rare ... right here in Florida."

Update: Whooping Cranes make it to Dunnellon

The St. Pete Times breaking news blog reports here that the 17 whooping cranes traveling from Wisconsin have arrived at Dunnellon on their way to the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge. The journey has been delayed on a number of occasions and has taken more than three months so far. Be sure to check out the pictures of the cranes and the ultralight aircraft leading the way.

Hialeah Seafood Dealers Sentenced in International Smuggling Operation

I'd posted previously on the conviction of a Canadian company for Queen Conch smuggling through a Florida company. Now the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida issued this press release on the sentencing of two individuals from Florida in association with the conspiracy to smuggle large quantities of queen conch taken from Caribbean waters to customers throughout Canada and the United States. From the press release:

Queen conch (Strombus gigas) is a commercially valuable seafood product, that is a protected species under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) and is a species listed for protection since 1992 in an international treaty known as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora ( “CITES”). The importation of queen conch, alive or dead, and its parts and derivatives, is subject to the requirements of CITES and the ESA. To engage in trade in queen conch, all imports or exports must be accompanied by a CITES export certificate from the country of origin, or a re-export permit from a country of re-export.

Deaths of Key Deer probed

Wildlife officials are investigating the killing of several endangered Key Deer, according to this story at the Bradenton Herald. In one incident, the heads of three Key Deer were found on federal land. In another, a three- foot long spear was discovered protruding from in a live deer that later had to be euthanized. Killing Key Deer is a crime under the Endangered Species Act and punishable by fines or jail time or both. Key Deer can only be found in certain parts of the Florida Keys.

Cranes grounded again

The whooping cranes on their way from Wisconsin have been grounded again due to bad weather, according to the St. Pete Times. Previous posts on the cranes' trek are here and here. This year's trip has lasted longer than the past six migrations, which ended with the cranes arrival in December. Last year, all the birds that made it to Florida died, all but one killed by lightning and rising water from a strong February storm.

Vancouver Company Convicted of Queen Conch Smuggling

A Canadian company has been fined after illegally trafficking of meat from the endangered Caribbean Queen conch. According to an article at the Environment News Service, investigators determined that in January of 2005, Pacific Marine Union unlawfully exported two shipments of Queen conch to Caribbean Conch, Inc. of Hialeah, Florida. The investigation involved law enforcement agencies in both the United States and Canada. Endangered species , like the Queen conch, are listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, and protected under the laws of both countries.