Letters Alert: Endangered Marbled Murrelet Habitat

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Public COMMENTS NEEDED on endangered marbled murrelet habitat

For a moment, imagine yourself in charge of a wildlife agency responsible for ensuring that our premier environmental law-the Endangered Species Act (ESA)-was working to help endangered species recover. You learn that the population of a bird dependant upon old growth forests for habitat has plummeted dramatically over the last couple decades, hanging on the precipice of extinction in some areas, including California. What would be the responsible and logical thing for you to do? 

Slash its critical habitat acreage by over 90 % ?

That is precisely what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has proposed. Citing "redundant" protections of some habitat (see below), they claim it will cut costs. We think it could cost the endangered bird its life. Fish and Wildlife Service needs to hear from you. (See below for tips on letter writing.)

The bird is the marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus), a member of the Auk family also called a fog lark, a small, elusive and shy seabird which has the unique habit of nesting high in old growth trees near the ocean. In fact, the murrelet is dependant on old growth forests for its nesting habitat and reproduction, which is why this rarely seen bird is at the center of controversy. Our diminutive feathered friend has the audacity to nest in some of the most commercially valuable trees, like ancient redwoods. That is also why its numbers have plummeted during decades of industrial logging in the Pacific Northwest. Murrelets are long-lived but lay only one egg per year. They often return to the same grove of trees year after year.

The federal Wildlife agency originally identified over 3.9 million acres in Oregon, Washington and California as critical habitat for the murrelet, which was listed as threatened under the federal ESA in 1992. USFWS proposed in early September to cut critical habitat designation by almost 95% to only 221,692 acres in the three states. Science clearly shows murrelets need more, not less, protection, but these changes are being forced by a timber industry lawsuit.

Protections already in place that are cited by USFWS making critical habitat designation "redundant" include:

* the Northwest Forest Plan, but it is under attack by the Bush administration, seeking changes that would severely compromise habitat protection.
* so-called "Habitat Protection Plans" on private lands, but they are not enacted in perpetuity, and have a life that is arguably considerably shorter than the time necessary for the species to recover. For example, the acreage set aside in the Marbled Murrelet Conservation Areas on Pacific Lumber land in the Headwaters Forest area via the Headwaters deal are 50-year set-asides, so designated in 1999.

A status report commissioned by the Bush administration in 2003 showed the murrelet to be in far greater danger of extinction than previously believed. Among the scientific report's most disturbing conclusions is that, under existing protections, the marbled murrelet faces a 100% probability of extinction in California within the next forty years. Those findings, which were suppressed after the report came out in 2004, call into question the adequacy of even current habitat protections.

Population numbers for the entire PNW region are estimated to be about 24,000, with fewer than 4,000 individuals estimated to be left in California. Historically, the population numbered around 60,000 in California alone.

Some species are pushed to the brink of extinction because of hunting, such as the American bison and blue whales, but in the murrelet's case, particularly in California, it is habitat loss. 96% of murrelet habitat is already lost, and greater loss is predicted from logging and urbanization. The five-year scientific status review completed in March 2004 determined that murrelet populations are declining more rapidly than previously thought.

This critical habitat reduction could be a step towards de-listing the species from the federal endangered species list by the Bush administration. That industry-driven proposal is based on lumping the populations from California, Oregon and Washington with populations from Alaska and British Columbia when reviewing population health, giving a very different picture, since the murrelet exists in greater numbers by far in Alaska and Canada. A wildlife scientist at Humboldt State University said his work with genetics experts show that "California birds [murrelets] were different from [those in] Alaska on every level looked at" by their study.

Neither the ESA listing nor the critical habitat designation that currently exists means the bird's nesting trees are off limits to all logging. Via the Headwaters Deal, Maxxam / Pacific Lumber received a "take" permit to log approximately 10,000 acres of marbled murrelet habitat and kill up to 340 of the birds. Even though this logging was contrary to USFWS Recovery Plan for the murrelet, it was a trade off for several old growth groves being set aside for 50 years via the Deal. Ironically, those groves-Allen Creek, Shaw, Bell Lawrence (All Species Grove) and Cooper as well as North Fork Elk are areas USFWS has now identified as exclusions from critical habitat.

PL logging of old growth redwood forest is clearly one of the factors pushing the murrelet to the brink of extinction in California, and most conservation biologists believe this habitat reduction would be the "nail in the coffin" of this rare and special creature.

The Pacific region office of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is accepting comments on its habitat slashing proposal until Nov. 13, issuing a final decision by August 2007.

You can write a letter based on the points below:

** The only rationale for critical habitat reduction that has any ecological basis would be a recovery of a population, presumably achieved through protection of its habitat over time. The opposite is true of the murrelet population.

** USFWS's own Recovery Plan for the murrelet stresses that the its survival depends on protection of all existing nesting habitat and minimal loss of forests that could develop into murrelet habitat over the next 50 to 100 years (like the cut over land undergoing restoration in Headwaters Forest Reserve).

** USFWS, as a federal agency, is supposed to ensure any action taken under their authority does not "jeopardize" the continued existence of a listed species.

** Murrelets are long-lived but lay only one egg per year. That means their recovery must happen over a long period of time.

** Besides the fact that the cutting of their nest habitat has decimated the population, their nests are threatened even in parks because the baby chicks and unhatched eggs are a favorite prey of corvids, like ravens, crows and jays, which are abundant around areas of human activity because they are opportunistic feeders who go after food scraps left behind by hikers, picnickers and campers. The population has also been affected by urbanization, gill-net fishing and air pollution.

***Though it is a seabird, the murrelet is the canary for forest health.***

Comments to
Department of the Interior 
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Pacific Regional Office 
911 NE 11th Avenue , Portland, Oregon 97232-4181 
Phone: 503/231-6121   Fax: 503/231-2122

Please send copies to BACH if convenient. If you would like to help with research for BACH's comments, please contact us.
USFWS's proposal can be found at http://www.fws.gov/policy/library/06-7437.pdf



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