Northern Arapahoes Given Right to Kill Eagles for Religious Purposes

From the Seattle PI....

A federal government decision to allow a Wyoming tribe to kill two bald eagles for a religious ceremony is a victory for American Indian sovereignty as well as for long-suppressed religious freedoms, the tribe says.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service granted a permit March 9 to the Northern Arapaho Tribe allowing it either to kill or capture and release two bald eagles this year.

While no one questions the religious sincerity of Northern Arapaho tribal members, spokesmen for some conservation and animal rights groups question why the tribe can't meet its religious needs without killing wild eagles. They say the tribe could raise captive birds, or accept eagle feathers or carcasses already available from a federal repository that collects birds killed by power lines or other causes.

The Northern Arapaho share the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming with the Eastern Shoshone Tribe. The Northern Arapaho decline to say specifically what they will do with the eagles the federal permit allows them to kill.

Lawsuit Filed to Protect US Wolverines

Oh, what a surprise. The Department of the Interior ignored scientific conclusions regarding an endangered species. Again. And it's up to the environmental movement to stop it. Again.

Environmental groups sued the U.S. government Tuesday to protect wolverines under the Endangered Species Act, saying the Interior Department disregarded scientific conclusions that the species is in jeopardy.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied the species protection in March and said that even if wolverines disappeared from the lower 48 states, the species would survive because there are larger populations in Canada.

We have seen this over and over again with this Administration. They just don't give a f@#$. It terrifies me what a McCain-Palin administration could look like. That woman makes Bush look like a compassionate conservative.

US Fish & Wildlife Has Forensic Lab

For now......

Our crime laboratory is very much like a 'typical' police lab, except the victim is an animal. We examine, identify, and compare evidence using a wide range of scientific procedures and instruments, in the attempt to link suspect, victim and crime scene with physical evidence.

VP Palin won't like this!

Canadian Sentenced for Ivory Smuggling

Good news.

Tania Julie Siyam, a 32-year-old Canadian art dealer, has been sentenced to serve 60 months in prison and pay a $100,000 fine for illegally smuggling ivory from Cameroon to the United States. The sentence follows a long running international investigation by special agents of the U.S, Fish and Wildlife Service, wildlife officials from Environment Canada and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Cleveland, Ohio. Siyam plead guilty in a U.S. District Court to four federal felony charges.

Tania Siyam originally operated art import and export businesses in Montreal, Canada, and Cameroon that were fronts for smuggling products from endangered and protected wildlife species, including raw elephant ivory.

US Fish & Wildlife Only Accepting Snail Mail

OK, so if you have a comment about the changes to the Endangered Species Act, you can ONLY snail mail or hand deliver your letter. No email or faxes.

Plus...

You only have 30 days to comment.

And there will be no public hearing.

That's just BS.

Gray Wolf Returns to Federal Protection

This is good news.

Judge Donald Molloy of Montana ruled Friday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner when it removed wolves in the Northern Rockies Region from the endangered species list in March.

He agreed with arguments made by environmental and animal rights groups that wolf populations in Yellowstone National Park do not yet interbreed with wolves in Idaho and western Montana to an extent that ensures genetic diversity. He also ruled the agency approved Wyoming’s state wolf management plan last year despite previously saying the basic tenants of that plan that allow wolves to be killed without regulation in 90 percent of the state, was inadequate to protect wolves. Lastly, Molloy ruled the groups proved that wolves were likely to be harmed by public hunting seasons planned in each state this fall.

Mexican Wolf Recovery-Screwed Again

This from the Center for Biological Diversity, not exactly a radical left-wing environmental group.

The House Natural Resources Committee heard testimony Wednesday from retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator David Parsons that political interference in management decisions was to blame for the low numbers of endangered Mexican gray wolves in the wild.

At the hearing, entitled “The Danger of Deception: Do Endangered Species Have a Chance?,” Parsons spoke about a “process within a process,” in which a 2005 public comment period on the five-year review of the Mexican wolf reintroduction program was interrupted by two private meetings between senior regional officials of the Fish and Wildlife Service and livestock interests, arranged at the request of Representative Steve Pearce, R-N.M.

After the Pearce meetings the Fish and Wildlife Service issued a conditional moratorium on releases of new wolves into the wild, despite the fact that the wolf population had dropped by 20 percent during the previous year. (The moratorium ultimately did not take effect, because a minimum number of breeding pairs did not exist.)

In addition, the suspect “process within a process” helped persuade the Fish and Wildlife Service to adopt its Mexican wolf control protocol, SOP 13, despite warnings by independent wolf scientists that federal shooting and trapping of wolves should be reduced and not increased in order to comply with the law.

As predicted by the scientists, SOP 13 increased mortality and undercut population growth. It has resulted in the stagnation of the endangered wolf population at around 50 animals. The wolf population was intended to reach over 100 animals by the end of 2006.

Conservationists Try to Save Lynx in New Mexico

Another example of the US Fish and Wildlife Service screwing a species. But I'm probably in the minority when I say that this didn't just start with the Bush Administration. It's an ongoing problem that won't go away with a new administration, regardless of whose that is.

The federal government lists the elusive, furry cats as threatened in 14 states — but not in New Mexico.

"We've thought the Fish and Wildlife Service's position on lynx in New Mexico is very odd," said Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians, one of the groups that sued. "Once lynx cross from Colorado into New Mexico — which they have been doing — they're suddenly not protected anymore. We don't think that makes any sense."

The Colorado Division of Wildlife, which has released more than 200 lynx in Colorado since 1999, tracked about 60 of the animals into New Mexico's Taos, Rio Arriba and San Juan counties between 1999 and 2006, the lawsuit said.

Photo by artct45.