Protected land for lynx expands; areas in Washington will grow
The amount of land designated as critical habitat for the Canada lynx, a cat federally classified as a threatened species, will increase more than 20-fold under a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision announced Tuesday.
The Associated Press
HELENA, Mont. — The amount of land designated as critical habitat for the Canada lynx, a cat federally classified as a threatened species, will increase more than 20-fold under a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision announced Tuesday.
The designation will apply to about 39,000 square miles in six states, up from a total of 1,841 square miles in three, the agency said. Lands in Maine, Idaho and Wyoming are being added, and the amount of land designated in Washington, Montana and Minnesota will expand.
Shawn Sartorius, the Fish and Wildlife Service's lead lynx biologist, said he knows of no terrestrial critical-habitat designation larger than the 39,000-square-mile plan.
Plum Creek Timber Co., the nation's largest owner of private land, finds the Fish and Wildlife Service decision disappointing but "will work with the agency as it implements the critical-habitat designation and as it determines how the designation will be applied to private land," said Kathy Budinick, spokeswoman for the Seattle-based company.
"It's too early to tell what the implications to our business will be, but we have dealt with Endangered Species Act issues for years and this is one of our areas of expertise," Budinick said. "So we will deal with related implications for our operations as they arise."
Critical habitat identifies places with features essential for conservation of threatened or endangered species. For lynx, it includes forests with features such as woody debris for denning; habitat for the snowshoe hare, on which lynx prey; and extended periods of deep, fluffy snow, through which lynx move with relative ease.
The critical-habitat designation applies to about 10,000 square miles in northwestern Montana and a small portion of northeastern Idaho, and about 9,500 square miles in Yellowstone National Park and surrounding areas in Montana and Wyoming. The designated lands in Maine total about 9,500 square miles, followed by Minnesota with about 8,000 and Washington with roughly 1,800. Some of the land is public and some private.
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