Helping Wildlife Without Politics Network Of State, Federal Experts Working To End Conflict Between Jobs And Saving Endangered Species

Mention the Endangered Species Act these days and many Idahoans flinch, all too aware how federal protection for another animal or plant could erase more resource-based jobs.

But a network of state and federal wildlife experts called the Idaho State Conservation Effort is brainstorming ways to revive species and avoid the expense and bureaucratic paralysis now synonymous with the law.

“Instead of Big Brother telling you, it’s doing it on your own,” said Allan Thomas, a U.S. Bureau of Land Management biologist.

“The effort started in Idaho. We are the only area doing anything of this scale, and lots of others are watching us.”

Here’s how Thomas describes the hoped-for result:

“The conservation groups will get recovery of most species, the public land users will be able to avoid restrictions and lockouts, the federal land agencies will be able to use their funds to manage habitats instead of consulting and developing stacks of reports - and the plants and animals will keep on doing what they do best.”

Central Idaho residents are apprehensive about the Endangered Species Act. They are concerned that gray wolves being released in the wilderness will ravage their livestock and a proposal to reintroduce grizzly bears could cripple logging.

An environmentalist lawsuit prompted U.S. District Judge David Ezra last month to order an injunction against mining, logging, grazing and road building that might harm endangered salmon habitat on six Idaho national forests.

The ruling was stayed until mid-March while the Forest Service and National Marine Fisheries Service consult.

About 135 species of plants and animals are candidates for addition to the federal protection list in Idaho. Government biologists have until October 1996 to either list them all or gather evidence why they should not be designated under the terms of a conservationist lawsuit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lost.

The Forest Service and BLM were successful in removing threats and writing management agreements for 19 species of rare plants on rangelands in Idaho and southeastern Oregon. Building on those accomplishments, the Conservation Effort group was formed to consider ways to help more species.

The Idaho departments of Fish and Game, and Parks and Recreation are in the lead.

The Forest Service, BLM and Fish and Wildlife Service also are members.

The group’s first step is evaluating a species’ habitat to determine its range, employing information from universities, Indian tribes and companies like Boise Cascade Corp. Next comes pinpointing threats, outlining recovery plans, and developing final drafts that may require formal environmental impact statements and public hearings.

On a short list of eight highpriority species for the group are the Bonneville cutthroat trout, Idaho ground squirrel, Wood River sculpin, harlequin duck, Christ’s Indian paintbrush, Coeur d’Alene salamander, Idaho dunes tiger beetle and St. Anthony primrose.

Thomas said they were chosen because the team thought they could recover quickly.

A list of 37 other species was selected last October. It includes the wolverine, trumpeter swan, Bonneville cisco, lynx, redband trout, Aase’s onion and woven-spore lichen.

Sometimes, it doesn’t take much effort to pull them from the edge.

Christ’s Indian paintbrush is believed to exist only on Mount Harrison south of Burley, and the chief danger it faces is trampling by hang glider pilots. Thomas said Parks and Recreation will develop a parking area and walkways to hang glider jump-off spots to avoid the wildflowers.

St. Anthony primrose patches have been found in rocky areas where offroad vehicles on the eastern Idaho sand dunes can’t destroy them, so they are not as threatened as initially believed.

“They’re rare and we’ll still have to watch them,” Thomas said.

The first species the group took on was the bull trout. The spotted fish once was found throughout the region but pollution of its pristine waters shrunk its range by about 95 percent. That left stable populations in only a few places, including Lake Pend Oreille.

The Conservation Effort’s bull trout guidelines led to steps to begin helping the fish. For instance, bull trout in the Jarbidge River along the Nevada border were cut off from their spawning beds by a road, so agencies and landowners agreed to alter a culvert to let the fish through.

But four Montana-based conservation groups filed suit, challenging Fish and Wildlife’s decision to keep the bull trout off the endangered species list. That lawsuit remains unresolved.

Chuck Harris, Idaho Fish and Game’s principal non-game wildlife biologist and a Conservation Effort member, said the bull trout decline has gone on so long that it’s impossible to predict whether the fish can be saved.

“We don’t want to leave the impression that all of this is easy to do,” Harris said. “A lot of the steps are the same as if they were listed. It’s not as though nobody will be hurt.”