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Defenders Magazine
Defenders in Action: Penned in the Den?
Lynx continue to make inroads in the Rockies; many of the kittens born in Colorado last year survived the winter and some of the reintroduced cats have moved north into Wyoming forests, according to recent reports. But new plans for U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands may reverse gains the threatened species has made in the region.
The federal government is proposing to allow blanket exemptions from rules governing logging, oil and gas drilling, and the building of energy transmission lines on forest lands—a plan that the Forest Service admits could decrease crucial lynx habitat and fragment the forests on which the cats depend. By expanding snowmobile trails, some biologists also say that the plan could allow coyotes, which can travel on the packed trails, to compete unnaturally with lynx by eating snowshoe hares and other traditional lynx prey. The proposal ignores the recommendations of a team of biologists.
“Given how little is known about lifestyle needs of lynx in the lower 48 states, this decision carries far too much risk,” says J. Christopher Haney, conservation scientist for Defenders. He adds, “we want to see the Forest Service reduce uncertainty for this threatened species by following the biologists’ recommendations.”
The proposed plans reflect Bush administration directives to speed energy development and logging in our nation’s forests. The Forest Service- and BLM-backed alternatives are only one of several options that must be presented under federal law before a final decision is made. Other options offer more safeguards for the threatened creatures.
Learn more about lynx and how you can help protect them.
