Tag Archives: Canada lynx

Montana looking at tighter trapping restrictions near Glacier and Yellowstone

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Montana FWP wants to tighten trapping rules near national parks to protect Canada Lynx . . .

Montana wildlife officials are considering stricter regulations in an effort to reduce the chances of Canada lynx being caught in traps set for other animals outside Glacier and Yellowstone national parks.

The plan presented to the state Fish and Wildlife Commission on Thursday is part of a settlement agreement in a lawsuit filed in 2013 by three environmental groups over trapping in the threatened species’ habitat.

Several of the settlement’s statewide restrictions are already in place, but additional changes are needed in special zones near Yellowstone National Park and a wider area outside Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana, Fish, Wildlife and Parks attorney Aimee Fausser said.

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Review of Canada lynx status delayed

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The feds are doing their required Canada lynx threat assessment, but they are a bit behind schedule . . .

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is applying a new threat assessment for federally protected Canada lynx from Maine to Washington State, delaying completion of the first five-year review.

The structured threat assessment will involve several other agencies, at least 15 states and more than 20 Native American tribes. The resulting assessment will serve as the basis of a streamlined five-year review, and a recovery plan if one is necessary, said Jim Zelenak of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Montana.

The delayed five-year review is the first since Canada lynx were declared threatened in 2000. Designations of critical habitat have been made in parts of Maine, Wyoming, Washington, Montana, Idaho and Minnesota.

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FWS begins report on Canada lynx

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Here’s a pretty good article on the difficulties faced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in evaluating the status of the Canada lynx . . .

Jim Zelenak has a long winter workload ahead of him.

He has to count a wildcat few people ever see, one that wanders with all the regularity of the Northern Lights, carrying so much legal and political baggage that it’s only now getting a five-year status review first assigned 15 years ago. Zelenak wants to know all we can know about the Canada lynx.

Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service started its formal five-year status review of the predator many people confuse with the more common bobcat. But lynx are bigger (18-20 pounds), more specialized (large paws ideal for hunting in snow) and considerably rarer than the more adaptable bobcat.

And the agency is looking to the public for any available lynx information, according to spokesman Ryan Moehring. That includes potential threats like habitat loss or disease, conservation actions that have improved lynx survival and observed changes in lynx populations. The deadline for submissions is Feb. 1.

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Feds begin review of Canada lynx threats

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Although focused primarily on the Canada lynx situation in Maine, this article offers some useful general observations, as well . . .

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is starting a review of federally protected Canada lynx at a time when the largest population of the cats in the Lower 48 appears to be poised for a decline.

The end of clear-cutting in Maine with the Forest Practices Act of 1989 has allowed forests to fill in, taking away some of the habitat preferred by snowshoe hares upon which lynx feed, potentially reducing populations of both species, said Jim Zelenak, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Montana.

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Suit filed over lynx habitat

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A number of conservation groups feel the feds are being too restrictive when it comes to lynx habitat designation . . .

Wildlife advocates sued the federal government Monday after it declined to designate some areas in the West as critical habitat for the imperiled Canada lynx.

WildEarth Guardians and three other groups assert that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service improperly excluded the southern Rocky Mountains of New Mexico and Colorado from 39,000 square miles of protected habitat for the elusive, forest-dwelling wild cat.

The plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Montana, also say the agency left out important habitat in portions of Washington state, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.

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Federal lynx protection added in New Mexico, but new habitat expansions denied

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Another federal decision that will leave everyone grumbling . . .

Canada lynx gained federal protections in New Mexico on Thursday, but U.S. wildlife officials again declined to designate critical habitat for the elusive animal in the Southern Rockies, parts of New England and other areas considered non-essential to their survival.

The two-part finding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service means the forest-dwelling wild cat will be protected as threatened throughout the lower 48 states. Lynx that had spread to New Mexico’s San Juan and Sangre de Cristo mountains after being introduced in Colorado previously were not protected.

However, officials decided that potential lynx habitat in the Southern Rockies of New Mexico, Colorado and portions of Wyoming were not areas essential to conservation of the species. As a result, lynx in the region still will be protected from hunting and trapping, but there will be less stringent reviews of human activities that could affect the dense forests they need to survive…

Also left out of the 39,000 square miles of designated critical habitat were portions or all of six national forests in Idaho and Montana, and areas with lynx in northern Vermont and northern New Hampshire.

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U.S. FWS awards $2M for easement on grizzly & lynx habitat on Stoltze land

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This short write-up on the acquisition of a conservation easement on F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber land belies a great deal of behind the scenes work over the past few years . . .

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has awarded the state of Montana $2 million to aid in the acquisition of a conservation easement on Haskill Basin near Whitefish.

The 3,000-acre-plus property, located next to Whitefish Mountain Resort, is the source of 75 percent of Whitefish’s municipal water supply and vital habitat for grizzly bears and Canada lynx.

F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. owns the property.

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Feds: Lynx recovery plan ready by 2018

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The feds are almost ready to be ready to create a lynx recovery plan . . .

U.S. wildlife officials revealed Monday that they expect to complete a recovery plan for imperiled Canada lynx in early 2018 — almost two decades after the snow-loving wild cats first received federal protections.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service laid out that timetable in court documents filed as part of a federal lawsuit in Montana brought by environmentalists unhappy with prior delays.

Lynx were designated a federally protected threatened species in 2000. Since then, federal officials have repeatedly missed their own deadlines to start work on a plan to help the animals. Officials have blamed budget limitations, other species that took priority and lawsuits that challenged the government’s designation of critical habitat for the animals.

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Judge tells U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to get off the dime on lynx recovery plan

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was told in federal district court to get moving on a lynx recovery plan . . .

Saying a decade was long enough, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy this week ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to finish its recovery plan for the imperiled Canada lynx, giving the agency 30 days to present its proposal.

Environmental groups that sued the agency lauded the decision as a critical and long-sought win for the wild cat. FWS said it would review Molloy’s ruling and determine its next move.

“We are reviewing the judge’s decisions and working on a strategy to comply with it,” said Leith Edgar, public affairs specialist with the Mountain-Prairie Region of FWS.

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Idaho trappers catch unexpected lynx; researchers attach tracking collar

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The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is finding lynx in unexpected places . . .

State biologists have put a satellite-tracking collar on a female Canada lynx captured alive by two trappers in northern Idaho.

The trappers called the Idaho Department of Fish and Game last week after finding the 17-pound lynx in one of their traps in the West Cabinet Mountains.

The agency is in the middle of a five-year attempt to collect information on 20 little-studied creatures in the Idaho Panhandle and northeastern Washington.

“I was surprised that there were lynx in the West Cabinets,” said Michael Lucid, who’s heading up the Multi-Species Baseline Initiative for Idaho Fish and Game. “It shows us how little we know about the animals that live in our forests.”

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