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If one only gave the announcement a quick glance, a person might think recent news from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) was actually a plus for America’s hunters and anglers. After all, the release’s title reads, “U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Promotes Public Access to Hunting and Fishing.” The very first paragraph states: “Continuing the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to increase recreational access on public lands, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today 48 new distinct hunting opportunities on approximately 3,000 acres nationwide in the National Wildlife Refuge System.” Good news, huh? Things get problematic, though, once a...

The agency's emails, obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request, show that officials were aware Williams did not meet the statute's requirements, but they explored how to circumvent it. The government watchdog Protect the Public's Trust published records Thursday that appear to show how Interior Department officials explored ways to circumvent a statute in the nomination process for Martha Williams as the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service because she did not appear to have the "scientific education" required under the statute. Before she was sworn in to lead the agency in March 2022, Williams served as...

A U.S. wind power developer pleaded guilty to multiple violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act after its wind turbine blades allegedly killed more than 135 bald and golden eagles across the country. The company, ESI Energy, pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts of violations in the form of golden eagle deaths. Prosecutors said the birds were documented to have been killed by blunt force trauma after being struck by its wind turbine blades at its facilities in Wyoming or New Mexico, where ESI had not applied for the necessary permits. As part of the settlement, ESI “acknowledged that at...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it will review allegations that Donald Trump Jr., may have illegally killed a rare sheep during a recent trip to Mongolia and imported parts of the animal back to the U.S.

The federal office that protects employees against reprisals for whistleblowing is advocating on behalf of a federal employee in Alaska who complained about the handling of an Arctic offshore lease sale. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel announced .. it’s filing a whistleblower retaliation complaint with the Merit Systems Protection Board on behalf of Jeffrey Missal, a regional environmental officer for the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Missal was fired after filing a complaint with the Interior Department’s inspector general and contending that the department violated environmental regulations to facilitate Arctic oil exploration. ... Missal...

Twitter post in article. The Trump administration announced it will propose a rule to strip gray wolves of their endangered species protections, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson confirmed in a statement to The Hill. Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announced the decision during the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Denver, the spokesperson said. "The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will soon propose a rule to delist the gray wolf in the lower 48 states and return management of the species to the states and tribes," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Recovery of the gray...

A planned hunt of grizzly bears near Yellowstone National Park has trophy hunters and environmentalists on edge as a federal judge may rule as early as Thursday if the planned hunt can still go forward. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen is set to hear arguments in six lawsuits brought by environmental groups against a planned grizzly bear hunt that hunters say they should be allowed to participate in. About 700 grizzlies living in and around Yellowstone National Park lost their protected status last year when they were removed from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's threatened species list. Ranchers and...

Wildlife conservation groups are collaborating with a federal government agency to halt construction of the southern border wall by fudging science to claim that unimpeded trans-border corridors are essential to an “endangered species” with 99% of its population in Mexico. Under the plan, large areas of Arizona and New Mexico would be prohibited from erecting a border wall so that jaguars—which don’t even occupy the area—can roam back and forth between the two countries. More than ¾ million acres in Arizona and New Mexico would be designated as critical habitat for jaguars under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), which...

Under a dark canopy of fir trees lie a blanket of moss and decomposing needles. Scattered across this dark forest floor are hundreds of pocket gopher skulls and bones in a timeless scene only nature can create. Based on the location and detritus, it appears that many generations of owls have flourished in this young stand of trees, nourished by the large population of nearby pocket gophers and other rodents. Normally, this would just be another example of the natural cycle of life. Perhaps this would be a scene that a biology professor would explore with students. However, in south...

There were two sightings of Western yellow-billed cuckoos this year, both in Delta County, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said. The secretive birds are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering designating parts of western Colorado as critical habitat for the migratory bird, including lands along the Colorado River through Mesa County. Sightings — which frequently involve people hearing the cuckoo’s distinctive “klak-klak” sound — have been recorded in Mesa and Delta counties in previous years. ... “We have changed the initial map due to comments from the proposed...

Four Western Slope men, including two local U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees, have been sentenced in the poaching of a trophy bull elk on private land on the Roan Plateau, Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced Tuesday. State officials said Thad Bingham, 44, of Fruita, killed the elk, while Brian Scheer, 45, of Fruita, Josh Fitzsimmons, 45, of Rifle, and Barrett Rowles, 48, whose hometown wasn’t given, participated in the illegal hunt in October 2014, which the state agency took two years to investigate. Bingham and Scheer work at the service’s Horsethief Canyon Native Fish Facility Ponds near Fruita, where...

The Utah Attorney General's Office filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Department of the Interior and Department of Agriculture, claiming the agencies' strategy to disallow new mining on or near greater sage grouse habitats is a breach of "numerous federal laws and regulations." The lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeks an order voiding the federal government's land-use plan amendments submitted last year that would directly prohibit new hard rock mining on 233,300 acres in Utah. "The state of Utah claims that the 2015 federal plan amendments disregarded the hallmark of federal land management -- multiple use and sustained yield --...

A growing number of state organizations seek to remedy what they consider negligent policies and shoddy oversight of public land on the part of federal agencies. Under the umbrella name Transfer of Public Lands, the movement offers a solution to the problem that is simple in concept: transfer ownership and management of public lands administered by federal agencies to equivalent state agencies. These agencies, being accountable to governors, state legislators and citizens, will manage the public lands in a more conscientious, cost-effective way. ... Unlike states east of the Continental Divide, public lands in Western states such as Washington and...

The Obama administration's decision to extend Endangered Species Act protections for two breeds of lions is a turning point for the lions now roaming Africa, advocacy groups say. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signaled in a document obtained by the Associated Press that it would classify the lion as threatened or endangered across its entire range in Africa. The agency has scheduled a noon conference call to discuss its findings. The Humane Society of the United States projects that American trophy hunters imported 5,647 lions in the past decade. The group's president and CEO, Wayne Pacelle, said he expects...

On September 24, 2015, the federal Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) published a Notice of Proposed Withdrawal (“BLM notice”), proposing to withdraw from mineral location and entry federal lands identified as “sagebrush focal areas” in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. The BLM notice commences a two-year temporary segregation period, prohibiting location and entry of new mining claims on BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands in these sagebrush focal areas. If the BLM decides to withdraw the area at the end of the segregation period, the withdrawal will last up to 20 years, but could be extended in the...

Oil and gas producers in one of the most active drilling areas in the country have had to make concessions to not disturb species such as the lesser prairie chicken and the dunes sagebrush lizard. Now industry officials in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico may have four other species to contend with: make way for the Cascade Caverns salamander, the Arizona toad, the alligator snapping turtle and the Rio Grande cooter. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday it is giving what it calls “status reviews” to the four amphibians and reptiles found in the Southwest as...

The Western Governors' Association released a report today highlighting the voluntary efforts in 11 states to conserve the habitat of sage-grouse as part of an effort to avoid a federal listing of the bird under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The association, which represents the governors of 19 Western states, said that “the breadth and depth of voluntary conservation efforts across the region, if allowed to run their course, will provide the bird with the necessary habitat to live and thrive.” The greater sage grouse is found in 11 states and its habitat encompasses 186 million acres . The U.S....

Expert says western yellow-billed cuckoo may be more prevalent than first thought. Paonia ornithologist Jason Beason likes to say that there are a lot of cuckoos out there. The line is good for laughs at presentations like the talks he gave in the Roaring Fork Valley last week, and it accurately reflects the fact that dozens of species of cuckoos populate the Earth in both the Old and New Worlds. These include birds people might not immediately think of as being cuckoos, such as the greater roadrunner in the southwestern United States. But in the case of the cuckoo of...

DENVER — Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper made good Friday on his promise to sue the federal government over its hotly contested move to list the Gunnison sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act. The Colorado Attorney General’s office filed a notice of intent to sue with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Fish and Wildlife Service director Daniel M. Ashe, arguing that the agency’s Nov. 12 decision to list the bird as threatened was flawed and failed to appreciate fully the impact of aggressive state and local conservation efforts. “The Service failed to use the best available science in its listing...

Large turnouts are expected at two upcoming public hearings on proposed changes to the Mexican wolf management plan, including expansion of the wolf-management areas in Arizona and New Mexico. The hearings, Aug. 11 in Pinetop, Ariz., and Aug. 13 in Truth or Consequences, N.M., will be the final opportunity for verbal testimony on proposed changes to management of the endangered Mexican gray wolf population in the two states. Public hearings last year in Albuquerque and Pinetop drew a total of around 1,000 people, most of whom were not allotted time to speak. ... The Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to...