FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Testimony at Joint Agriculture Hearing Calls on Forest Service to Protect Lynx Habitat in Colorado

The House and Senate Joint Agriculture Committee of the At a Denver hearing before the Colorado State Legislature on the issue of lynx protection on the White River National Forest, Jacob Smith, Executive Director of Center for Native Ecosystems, commended the Division of Wildlife for their lynx recovery efforts but called on the Forest Service to do its part to protect lynx habitat across the state.

The House and Senate Joint Agriculture Committee of the Colorado State Legislature today held a hearing in Denver on the issue of lynx protection on the White River National Forest and across Colorado. Jacob Smith, Executive Director of Center for Native Ecosystems, testified along with two agency officials.

"Colorado has worked hard to recover the lynx, and without strong lynx protections we run the risk of wasting this tremendous effort and investment," said Smith.

In his testimony, Smith commended the Division of Wildlife for their lynx recovery efforts but called on the Forest Service to do its part to protect lynx habitat across the state. He said: "I encourage [the committee] to call on [the Forest Service] to commit to adopting a scientifically sound management plan that follows the recommendations of the biologists without also including sweeping exemptions to these very same recommendations. To fail to do this places the state’s tremendous lynx recovery effort needlessly at risk."

According to the Denver Post (April 24, 2005), Deputy Undersecretary of Agriculture David Tenny said, "How many people in Colorado got to comment on the lynx provisions during the plan’s development. Zero." In today’s hearing, Representative Joshua Penry echoed that same erroneous claim.

In fact, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement specifically raised issues of lynx management on the White River National Forest. For example, on page 3-222, the Draft EIS specifically refers to the lynx reintroduction and recovery program, acknowledging that 10-12 animals had been introduced at that point in time. Indeed, many people who commented on the draft plan specifically commented on lynx protections.

Other testimony centered on whether or not Deputy Undersecretary Tenny knew about lynx on the White River when he ordered the Forest Service to weaken lynx protections. In his order, Mr. Tenny stated claimed that "the record provides no recent, documented evidence that naturally occurring lynx occupy any portion of the plan area."

Mr. Tenny was in error. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement details the historical presence of lynx on the White River National Forest and implies that reintroduced lynx may eventually reoccupy their former range on the forest. Furthermore, the Draft Forest Plan included "Goals" and "Objectives” for recovering listed species and specifically cites the objective to improve habitat conditions for lynx (Objective 1.1b, p. 1-3 Proposed Revised Land and Resource Management Plan). Given the extent of the effort by state and federal agencies to release and track lynx in Colorado, and the extent of the news coverage of the state's release program, his failure to note the presence of lynx on the White River National Forest – discussed in the administrative record for the Forest Plan – is especially surprising. A phone call to the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or his own agency, the U.S. Forest Service, would have quickly resolved his confusion.

"Since Mr. Tenny relies on phony rational to justify his meddling, we're left to surmise that he is only interested in being the handmaiden to commercial interests that want to maximize their profits, lynx be damned," said Sloan Shoemaker, Executive Director of the Wilderness Workshop. "We hope the Forest Service will protect Colorado's enormous investment in this magnificent animal’s recovery by basing future management decisions on the sound science and rejecting politically motivated directives like Mr. Tenny’s."

"Ski industry lobbyists and others are trying to do an end-run around the White River National Forest's planning process," said Wendy Keefover-Ring, Carnivore Recovery Director for Sinapu. "Instead of protecting old growth habitat, they want to have the unfettered ability to destroy the very habitat lynx require."

Rick Cables, Regional Forester for the Rocky Mountain Region of the U.S. Forest Service, and Bruce McCloskey, Director of Colorado Division of Wildlife, also testified.

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