Threatened Seabird Ruling Clears Path to Old Growth Logging

PORTLAND, Oregon, September 3, 2004 (ENS) - The Pacific Northwest population of a threatened seabird known as the marbled murrelet is not distinct from populations in Alaska and Canada, the Bush administration announced Wednesday.

The ruling ignores opinions by regional officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as well as independent scientists and opens the door to removing the species from the federal endangered species list.

Critics say the decision shows the Bush administration’s hostility to protecting imperiled species and its intent to allow more logging in federal old growth forests.

“This announcement is a slap in the face of sound science and open, credible decision making,” said Dave Werntz, science director at the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance.

Marbled murrelets are unique. Unlike other seabirds, they build solitary nests in old growth trees, often miles from the ocean where they feed.

Marbled murrelet, Brachyramphus marmoratus, on its nest in a British Columbia old growth forest. (Photo courtesy Simon Fraser University)

The listing was in response to the loss of nesting habitat from logging and urbanization, as well as mortality associated with gill-net fisheries and air pollution.

In 2002, the timber industry filed suit challenging the listing – the legal action prompted this latest status review of the species.

The private environmental consulting firm in Seattle hired by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct the scientific review of the bird's status found the Pacific Northwest murrelet population has declined some 10 percent since 1992 and warned the species could be extinct within 40 years.

The total Pacific Northwest population of the elusive birds is estimated at some 24,000 – the region covers 18 percent of the species’ historic range.

More than 860,000 marbled murrelets are believed to exist in Alaska, with an additional 66,000 reported in British Columbia, Canada, where extensive logging of coastal forests has destroyed much of their habitat.

The draft review by the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Northwest Regional Office concluded that marbled murrelets in the Pacific Northwest are distinct from populations in Alaska and Canada and questioned the effectiveness of Canada’s protection of the species.

But those findings were rejected by agency officials in Washington, DC, who contend the Pacific Northwest marbled murrelets are not genetically, ecologically or behaviorally distinct from their Alaskan and Canadian cousins.

In addition, officials said the species is adequately protected in Canada "against illegal exploitation." A new wildlife law, the Species At Risk Act, took effect in Canada this year that aims to protect the species.

Administration officials said the dispute between the regional office and the agency’s headquarters is one of policy, not science.

Dave Allen, regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Region, said the decision does not change the current legal protection of the species in the Pacific Northwest.

“The question of whether the population in California, Oregon and Washington constitutes a significant portion of the range of the species, or whether the species as a whole is at risk of extinction, must be addressed before we take any action to affect the status of the murrelet as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act,” Allen said.

A marbled murrelet swims in Prince William Sound Alaska. This population was affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. (Photo courtesy )

But delisting the species will be much easier now that the Fish and Wildlife Service can include the Pacific Northwest population with the much more abundant group of the species in Alaska.

Environmentalists denounced the decision as the trumping of politics over science. Federal protection for the murrelet under the Endangered Species Act is viewed as vital, because 90 percent of the Pacific Northwest’s population nests in national forests.

“The report of the scientific review team could not have been more compelling in its call for continued protection for murrelets, and its conclusions that these birds are on the path to extinction,” said Susan Ash, conservation director with the Portland Audubon Society.

“Once again, the Bush administration is doing the bidding of its campaign contributors," charged Ash, "ignoring sound science in order to serve up more precious old growth forests to the timber industry.”

"We need Endangered Species Act decisions to based on real science if it is to provide a safety net for imperiled birds like the marbled murrelet," said Bob Perciasepe, chief operating officer of National Audubon Society. "The administration is using junk science to cut holes in the safety net big enough for an old growth forest to fall through."

The status review, released in March, Perciasepesays, recommends keeping the murrelet's current population status, stating that "Marbled Murrelets should be considered to include at least three distinct populations: (1) the Aleutian Islands or northern population; (2) the Alaska Peninsula to Puget Sound or central population; and (3) the California, Oregon, and western Washington or southern population.

In April, the Fish and Wildlife Service's Regional Office in Portland confirmed to the Audubonthat the Pacific Northwest Murrelets deserve federal protection. Perciasepe says, "The latest announcement reverses the Regional Office's recommendations despite weak scientific evidence to support the reversal."