Sturgeon Proposal Put On Fast Track Kootenai River Study Must Be Done This Year, Judge Orders

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to fast-track efforts to map critical habitat for the Kootenai River’s white sturgeon.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti ruled last week that the government must release a final habitat proposal by the end of the year - still five years late.

Conti’s ruling pleased both environmentalists and private property boosters in North Idaho. Both are eager to see what the government has in store to help sturgeon recover.

Boundary County commissioners - who don’t normally agree with environmental groups - applauded the decision.

“It is unusual,” acknowledged Boundary County Commissioner Kevin Lederhos. “They probably would like a large area of critical habitat designated, and us a smaller one.”

But farmers and landowners along the Kootenai River want to know exactly what restrictions or flow changes will accompany sturgeon protections, Lederhos said. “It’s a step in the right direction. We were hoping about four years ago they’d try to designate it.”

Under the Endangered Species Act, the federal government was supposed to designate habitat critical for survival and recovery for sturgeon by 1995.

In a lawsuit filed in Conti’s San Francisco court in June 1999, the Center for Biological Diversity accused the government of violating the act: The service failed to map habitat needs for sturgeon and three other species.

“Habitat protection is the key to protecting endangered species, and without protected habitat these species will go extinct,” Peter Galvin, the center’s conservation biologist, said from the group’s Berkeley office.

Kootenai River sturgeon thrived from British Columbia, through Bonners Ferry, and into Canada at Kootenay Lake until the mid-1960s. Farming and the construction of Libby Dam drove populations down, biologists speculate.

The fish were listed as endangered in 1994. The Endangered Species Act requires critical habitat designation within a year of listing.

Fish and Wildlife Service officials told the judge that budget cuts forced the agency to delay habitat designation. The agency requested a judicial stay until Jan. 15, 2002, when it expected to release designations for the sturgeon.

But Conti ruled the government hadn’t justified further delays.

He ordered a draft habitat designation within 60 days and a final proposal in 120 days.

While the court has sympathy for the government’s predicament, “the solution of being over-obligated and under-funded rests with Congress, and not with the court,” Conti, a senior judge, wrote in his opinion.

The Fish and Wildlife Service will have trouble meeting Conti’s order, said Susan Martin, supervisor of the agency’s Spokane office.

Officials in Spokane and at the agency’s regional office in Portland were unaware of the decision until they were contacted by The Spokesman-Review.

The agency still is evaluating the consequences, Martin said. “It will be very difficult meeting a 60-day time frame,” she said.

The other species named in the decision are the Bay checkerspot butterfly, the Monterey spineflower and the robust spineflower.