News & Updates

Maine groups file notice on lynx habitat

The Associated Press wire report
August 08, 2007 04:39 PM

PORTLAND — Three Maine conservation groups were among 21 organizations that filed a notice of intent Wednesday to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its actions regarding the Canada lynx.

In a letter to H. Dale Hall, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, the groups said they want to force the agency to designate critical habitat for the lynx in Maine and four other states. The Natural Resources Council of Maine, Restore: The North Woods and the Wildlife Alliance of Maine are the three Maine groups that signed onto the letter.

The notice comes just a couple of weeks after Hall ordered the review of eight endangered species decisions, including the Canada lynx, because of alleged improper meddling by a senior Interior Department official.

The agency had proposed including more than 10,000 square miles of Maine woods and 8,000 additional acres in Minnesota, Idaho, Montana and Washington in critical habitat zones for the lynx, which is listed as threatened.

But all of the land in Maine, and all but 1,841 acres of the other lands, were excluded in a final rule published in November by the Interior Department after a top department official met with timberland owners that did not want their properties placed in critical habitat zones.

The notice of intent seeks to force the agency to designate critical habitat for the Canada lynx and list the species as endangered to give it a higher priority.

Jym St. Pierre, director of Restore: The North Woods, said the review is a good start but that more needs to be done. Two development projects have been proposed that would destroy lynx habitat in northern Maine, he said.

“Instead of bending the law to accommodate sprawling development by large corporate landowners, our wildlife agencies should follow the law, designate lynx critical habitat and get on with ensuring protection of this magnificent species,” St. Pierre said.