Queen Charlotte Goshawk Endangered Listing Denial Illegal

WASHINGTON, DC, May 27, 2004 (ENS) - A federal court has struck down a 1997 decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not to list the Queen Charlotte Goshawk on the federal endangered species list.

Conservationists hailed the ruling and say it represents new hope for the longtime effort to save the imperiled raptor, which has lost millions of acres of its old growth habitat and faces further habitat loss from logging plans in the United States and Canada.

"We are glad the court agreed with us that the Service's actions were illegal," said Corrie Bosman, Alaska program coordinator for the Center for Biological Diversity.

In 1994, the Center along with several other conservation groups filed a formal petition to list the species as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act because of concerns about habitat loss.

The goshawk lives in rainforest that stretches from Alaska's Tongass National Forest, along the British Columbia coast to Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

Some 50 percent of its range is located in the 37.3 million acres of coastal British Columbia.

But the court determined that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to make a determination whether Vancouver Island, British Columbia is a "significant portion" of the goshawk's range and failed to assess if the species is threatened or endangered on the island.

"Clearly the Service can not properly assess whether the goshawk is threatened or endangered throughout its range if it ignores a significant portion of that range in its analysis," Bosman said. "You can not make a determination on the future viability of a species by looking at pieces of the puzzle."

The court remanded the decision back to the agency, but did not provide a timeline for its revision.

In order for the agency to "do things right," Bosman said, "they will need to not only look at the Vancouver Island issue, but need to start over and look at all the logging currently threatening the Queen Charlotte goshawk."