Lawsuit seeks critical habitat for caribou
Bellingham Herald - The Associated Press
Friday, Jan. 16, 2009
 
Four environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit seeking critical habitat designation for endangered woodland caribou that roam northern Idaho and northeastern Washington state.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Spokane names U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall as defendants.
The designation of critical habitat could restrict snowmobiling and other activities that could harm the last caribou herd in the Lower 48 states.

"Caribou is by far the most endangered species in this country," Mike Petersen, executive director of the Lands Council in Spokane, told The Spokesman-Review. "There are only a few dozen left. We feel that just ignoring the problem like the Bush administration has done is not a solution to recovery."

Besides the Lands Council, other plaintiffs are Defenders of Wildlife, Selkirk Conservation Alliance, and the Center for Biological Diversity.

The groups said the federal agencies named in the lawsuit have failed to rule on a petition the groups submitted six years ago concerning designating critical habitat for the caribou.
In the lawsuit, the groups said the "unreasonable delay in making a final decision to grant or deny" the petition violates federal law.

The lawsuit asks that the agencies be forced to either grant or deny the petition.
Jerry R. Boggs, executive director of the Selkirk Conservation Alliance, said the groups wanted to file the lawsuit while President George Bush was in office, but realize it will be decided after Barack Obama becomes president Tuesday.

"We do expect a ruling to be issued under the Obama administration," Boggs said.
Suzanne Audet, caribou recovery coordinator for Fish and Wildlife based in Spokane, said she hadn't seen the lawsuit and couldn't comment on it.

However, she said federal officials initially declined to designate critical habitat for fear poachers would then learn where to find the caribou.

She also said the agency's resources for designating critical habitat had been drained due to the cost of defending against lawsuits.

About 40 caribou roam between the two states and into Canada, Boggs said.
The lawsuit notes that these caribou are a mountain ecotype, the remnants of a much larger population, and are different from more northern herds associated with flat tundra habitat. The mountain ecotype is usually found above 4,000 feet, according to the lawsuit, and survives by eating lichens in old growth forests.

"Any animal that lives on arboreal lichens has a pretty tough time," said Boggs.
The lawsuit notes that a caribou recovery plan previously created by the federal government calls for protecting 443,000 acres of habitat to "support a self-sustaining caribou population." Most of the land is in the Idaho Panhandle and Washington state's Colville National Forest.

Petersen said the designation would help the U.S. Forest Service in determining a winter a recreation plan the agency is developing for 400,000 acres surrounding northern Idaho's Priest Lake, a favored snowmobiling area.

Much of that area is being managed by court order as a result of lawsuits by environmental groups who said federal agencies had failed to protect caribou from increasing numbers of snowmobilers.

Click here to find out more about The Lands Council's work to protect caribou.