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Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 April 2009 04:14

Written by Christy Hemken

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Last Updated on Friday, 15 January 2010 05:31

Written by Heather Hamilton

Casper – Deputy Chief of staff for the Governor’s Office Ryan Lance explained Wyoming’s position and planned approach for dealing with the Endangered Species Act during the closing general session of the WSGA/WWGA joint winter convention in early December.
“The reality of our circumstance is that even in favorable climates and circumstances our ability to move the ESA reform wasn’t very successful. That handicaps where we are today with the current players and doesn’t cast a positive light. We are thinking about creative ways to address ESA at the state level,” he told the audience.
The issue began when states were asked to make a list of species to study and develop recovery plans. Wyoming Game and Fish put about 270 species on the list. Of those, roughly 250 were listed simply to find out more about the species.
“A couple years ago we got a pot of about $1.5 million to go out and do our own research and determine what is really going on,” Lance explained. This proactive approach uses the research findings to prove listing a species is unwarranted.
The state has currently spent over $100,000 conducting such research on the Black Hills snail. They found the snail to be pervasive across the entire West and received a not warranted ruling from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when it was petitioned for listing.
“We are now studying the narrow-footed diving beetle,” said Lance. The beetle is found in the Powder River Basin and, if listed, could prove detrimental to the area’s industry.
“Doing this over and over and over for the 250 species found on the sensitive species list is the ultimate goal,” said Lance, adding finite resources also make it a matter of choice. “We need to determine which species we will waste millions of dollars on and which we won’t.”
Compensation is also made to landowners for working with the state to conduct research. These deals can be complicated at times, but they’re a logical facet to utilize for research. Lance explained that conducting research with the state usually involves minimal management practice changes, as ranchers are already doing the best job at preservation.
Possible listing of the sage grouse is a top concern for Wyoming.  “We are paying the price for the rest of the West not doing a good job on weed control. We have 52 percent of the bird population, yet still face listing, which is ridiclous, but it’s what we have to deal with.”
The state is prepared to fight should a listing occur. “Our concern is that with a listing comes the potential to open up a resource management plan for point of grazing. We have a liaison with the BLM to work on conservation ideas.” Lance pointed out that many of them would already in practice, prociding rest-rotation grazing as an example.
Candidate Conservation Agreements (CCA’s) don’t prevent listings, but  do protect the ability to continue ongoing practices in the event of a  listing.
Lance also assured his audience, “We will continue to move forward. The state is working hard to prevent future misrepresentation by the ESA of Western plant and animal species. “That fact that we have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to protect our livelihood is ridiculous, but it’s something we have to do today.”
Heather Hamilton is assistant editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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Last Updated on Thursday, 01 July 2010 14:28

Written by Heather Hamilton

The mid-May decision to reject a petition to reclassify three black-footed ferret populations managed under the 10(j) experimental, nonessential designation of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) was met with relief and support in Wyoming, South Dakota and Arizona.
“Under the ESA, the black-footed ferret is a listed species, and it’s the rarest animal in North America. We’re trying to recover it and get it off the ESA list. This petition would have done severe damage to ferret reintroduction programs in Wyoming as well as recovery programs across the country,” states a news release from the Game and Fish.
“One of the provisions to do that is a 10 (j) ruling, which gives us a lot more flexibility on management. We can put together a set of 10(j) assurances for landowners that allow them to do everything they already do. If we can work out 10(j) provisions the landowners are comfortable with, then we release the ferret. That’s what happened in the Shirley Basin,” explains Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) Deputy Director and Chairman of the Black-Footed Ferret Recovery Implementation Team Executive Committee John Emmerich.
He adds the recent petition to relist the ferret was backed by three environmental groups that challenged the treatment of “experimental, non-essential” populations on public land.
“Under 10(j) we can designate an area as an experimental, nonessential populations and that gives us flexibility in management. In their petition they said that shouldn’t be used on public lands. Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) said there were adequate protections on both public and private lands and that they will continue to support language in the current 10(j) rules,” says Emmerich.
Nongame Mammal Biologist with Wyoming Game and Fish Martin Greiner adds the WGFD worked with FWS initially to address the petition and assist in the decision making process.
“The petition highlighted some fears of landowners and attempted to undermine the relationships we have built with the private landowners who have been instrumental in moving the ferret recovery program forward,” explains Greiner. “At this point we can start over again with our landowner partners and hopefully get going with reintroducing and monitoring ferrets on private lands.”
Director of Arizona Game and Fish Larry Voyles says the loss of public trust that would have resulted from reclassifying an existing 10 (j) population would almost certainly have hindered, if not crippled, the vast strides made in recovering threatened and endangered species. This is in addition to destroying the foundation of cooperative conservation that has been a major contributing factor in progress already achieved.
Active reintroduction of ferrets into the wild has been ongoing since 1991 and today there are 19 black-footed ferret reintroduction sites across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The species was believed to have gone extinct until a small colony was discovered near Meeteetse in 1981. Canine distemper outbreaks and the possibility of exposure to the plague reduced the population to 18 individuals, which were captured and put into a captive breeding program.
“Of those last 18 animals captured, only seven of the 18 are represented genetically. The other 11 animals were never bred in captivity,” says Greiner.
Of the lack of genetic diversity within the current population estimated at 800 to 1,000 individuals, Greiner says the bottlenecked genetic pool appears to have a minimal impact.
“Ferrets appear to be able to overcome some of these bottlenecks we’ve seen negatively impact other carnivore populations. Lack of genetic diversity doesn’t appear to be as important to the ferret,” notes Greiner.
“It all boils down to the landowners getting back to a comfort level where they’re willing to work with ferret reintroduction again. We’re not going to do it unless landowners are willing to participate, and we’ll start working on it again as a result of the ruling,” says Emmerich.
“Now that we have the final determination on the petition we are planning to revisit our partners and see how we can pick up the pieces and move forward,” adds Greiner. “We take a different approach in Wyoming through focusing on individual relationships with landowners. It’s important to make sure the rules aren’t changed on private landowners down the road. That’s what really concerned us about this petition.”
Heather Hamilton is editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Last Updated on Friday, 12 August 2011 09:56

Written by Christy Martinez

Although the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse has been relisted in Wyoming, many who are involved with the issue don’t think the decision will have immediate or operation-changing effects on agriculture.
“The impact to agricultural operations will be minimal. It may be an inconvenience, but the listing shouldn’t cause an increase in expenses or a change in activities,” says U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Pat Deibert, who works from Cheyenne.
However, she says problems could arrive with projects that use federal funding, or state funding with federal ties, because of increased review.
“There could potentially be implications for folks who are waiting for funding to do work in riparian areas,” says Deibert. “It doesn’t mean they won’t be able to get those funds – it just may delay them.”
Although Deibert predicts minimal impacts to the agricultural industry, Renee Taylor of Taylor Environmental Consulting says it could be a big deal for the Niobrara Shale oil play, as well as for those who would like to build new houses or sheds on their private property. With respect to the energy industry, she says it’s relatively easy to avoid Preble’s habitat, because standard stipulations already direct oil and gas to stay 500 feet from riparian corridors.
The relisting, a decision made July 7, won’t actually take effect until Aug. 6, a date set by the judge. Deibert says that nothing on the ground or in the mouse’s habitat spurred the relisting decision – it was simply that the judge found fault with the FWS policy that allowed the mouse to be listed in one state and not another, using the state line as a boundary.
“We are disappointed in the ruling,” says Wyoming Farm Bureau Executive Vice President Ken Hamilton. “I don’t think we were in danger of having the mouse go extinct here in Wyoming.”
In 1998, the FWS listed the mouse as “threatened” under the ESA in Colorado and Wyoming; in 2003, the agency initiated efforts to designate “critical habitat,” which it revised in December 2010. In July 1999, the FWS received petitions to remove the mouse from the ESA list, but, in December 2003, refused to take action.              In that same month, the State of Wyoming filed a petition to delist the mouse, and in February 2005 the FWS concluded delisting was warranted and initiated rulemaking to do so. In February 2006 the FWS extended the time to take final agency action on the proposed delisting.
Meanwhile, in March 2007 the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior issued an opinion concluding that the ESA permitted a species to be delisted in a part of its range while it retained its ESA protection elsewhere. In November 2007, FWS proposed to determine that the animal was no longer threatened in Wyoming and could be delisted. In July 2008 the FWS withdrew ESA protection for the Preble’s mouse in Wyoming.
Taylor says her research, funded by True Ranches, helped demonstrate that the mouse was much more broadly distributed in the state than anybody ever thought, and that the population was stable and sound, and that the subspecies is alive and well.
“The agency was able to determine that the threats to the mouse in Colorado don’t exist in Wyoming,” says Taylor, noting that along Colorado’s Front Range every riparian or stream corridor from Interstate 25 to the base of the Rockies contains either a housing development or a gravel pit.
“Those are things that threaten the mouse,” says Taylor, noting that some tried to make the case that livestock grazing was as detrimental as the development. “We were able to demonstrate through the historical record that, when the mouse was first found in 1904 by Chugwater, the habitat wasn’t nearly as good or as stable as it is today. There was little or no riparian habitat then, but now it’s back, and it’s beautiful.”
“In Wyoming we don’t have the urbanization in riparian corridors, or the gravel pits, so the Service was able to say the threats don’t exist in Wyoming, and they delisted,” says Taylor, adding that the state line was chosen as a simple way for people to know whether or not they were in the listed area.
In June 2009, several environmental groups filed a lawsuit in Colorado federal district court to challenge the July 2008 rule. In August 2009, the district court granted the right of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation and the Wyoming Stock Growers Association to intervene to defend the decision.
“The listing goes back to 1998, and with that we will restore the 4(d) rule,” says Deibert of the court’s most recent decision. The rule exempts certain agricultural activities from being considered an interference with a listed species.
“It basically says you can continue with normal agricultural activities, as long as it’s not your intent to kill the mouse,” she explains. “For folks who are grazing, and have good riparian management, this listing should not be an issue.”
“If you’ve traditionally hayed, your fine. If you switch crops to something that will require extra tillage, you might want to talk to someone, but that most likely won’t be in riparian areas, anyway,” she adds.
The mouse, which lives in southeast Wyoming riparian areas, can be found from Interstate 25 clear to the top of the Laramie Range, says Taylor.
“The listing applies to the whole state, but the animal is distributed only to Albany, Laramie, Platte, Goshen and Converse counties,” says Deibert. “It’s a riparian species that wants to be near water, and they’re underground for nine months of the year.”
Taylor says the mouse “adores” noxious weeds, and that the more nasty, snarly and wicked a place is, the better the mouse likes it.
“The mouse is alive and well and does not need to be relisted in the state of Wyoming,” says Taylor. “If you’re good to the riparian community, you’ll be good to the mouse, and we were able to demonstrate that the livestock industry has been good to riparian corridors, and thus to the mouse.”
Christy Martinez is managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .