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January 8, 2008

Unique Pygmy Rabbit One Step Closer to ESA Protection

On January 8th U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a positive 90-day finding on a petition to list the pygmy rabbit as Threatened or Endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

In April 2003, conservation groups and concerned citizens submitted a formal petition to list the rare and unique pygmy rabbit as threatened or endangered and to have critical habitat designated for its protection. The Service initially found the rabbit not warranted to be listed on the basis that scientific or commercial information presented by the petitioners was insufficient. In March 2006 Western Watersheds Project, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Center for Native Ecosystems, Oregon Natural Deserts Association, and the Sagebrush Sea Project filed suit to challenge the Services 90-day finding.

In September of 2007, the court issued a judgment stating that the Service found the Service's denial of the petition was contrary to the applicable law. Advocates for the West represented the plaintiff groups in the case.

Pygmy rabbits, first discovered by naturalist C. Hart Merriam in the Pahsimeroi country of central Idaho, were once a characteristic native mammal over large areas of the Interior West. Pygmy rabbits have a very small home range focused on dense sagebrush cover. They dig their own burrows in soils under dense sagebrush, and in winter dig tunnels under the snow. Pygmies rely entirely on sagebrush as winter food, but in summer also eat native bunchgrasses.

Duane Short, Wild Species Program Director at Biodiversity Conservation Alliance noted, “While this court judgment is a step toward victory for the pygmy rabbit, Fish & Wildlife should act immediately to list this species. As rapidly as oil and gas development is fragmenting and destroying pygmy rabbit habitat, threats to its continued survival are increasing.” Short added, “Pygmy rabbits are especially vulnerable to habitat fragmentation from road networks, because these animals are too shy and cautious to venture out from the cover of sagebrush to cross a road. For this reason, the huge level of oil and gas development targeting sagebrush basins in Wyoming is a major threat to the pygmy rabbit.”

Extensive oil and gas development in Jonah Field and Atlantic Rim has been permitted by the BLM without the slightest consideration of its impacts to the disturbance sensitive pygmy rabbit. High density oil and gas development results in long-term sagebrush habitat destruction and constant disturbance to remaining pygmy rabbit habitat. Added threats to the pygmies include poor livestock grazing practices that are tolerated and even encouraged by the BLM and Forest Service.

Katie Fite, Biodiversity Director at Western Watersheds Project explained, “Grazing simplifies and destroys the dense and complex structure of sagebrush necessary to protect pygmy rabbits from eagles and other aerial predators. BLM and the Forest, under pressure from the livestock industry, are essentially carrying out a war on the best remaining pygmy habitats of dense mature and old growth sagebrush. Burning, mowing, chopping, disking and even herbiciding old growth sagebrush are routine BLM and Forest Service activities carried out in the name of restoration and Healthy Forests Fuels projects. This sagebrush killing is identical to livestock forage projects of the past - just called something else.”

Cattle destroy the pygmies’ protective cover provided by sagebrush, and deplete their summer food supply of bunchgrass. Cattle trampling collapses pygmy rabbit burrows, especially shallow natal burrows where pygmy rabbits care for their young, called kits. Livestock facilities like pipelines and fences being punched across public lands fragment and ultimately destroy the sagebrush communities required by this imperiled rabbit.

Under the best of circumstances, recovery of suitable pygmy rabbit sagebrush community structure may take a half century or more. Now, with global warming, there is a grave risk of cheatgrass invasion and worsening fuels problems following agency fuels treatments. Removing sagebrush cover makes sites hotter, drier and more prone to weed invasion, especially when chronic grazing disturbance is heaped on top of these treatments.

Sagebrush dependent wildlife, from pygmy rabbits to sage grouse, are under siege from the dual forces of livestock grazing and cheatgrass-driven fires, turning thousands of acres of the West into a barren moonscape," said Bill Marlett, Senior Conservation Advisor, of the Oregon Natural Desert Association.

Advocates for the West, Todd Tucci, Senior Staff Attorney said, “The Fish and Wildlife finding that the pygmy rabbit may be warranted for listing and threatened or endangered comes on the heels of a decision to revisit its 2004 decision that found the sage grouse not warranted for listing. This trend of the Service revisiting former decisions that denied protection for imperiled species indicates how severely the entire western sagebrush ecosystem is being impacted by oil and gas development and improper livestock grazing practices.”

"The pygmy rabbit's habitat is more threatened than ever before by so-called 'off-site mitigation' projects conducted by oil and gas companies,” added Josh Pollock of Center for Native Ecosystems. “We simply cannot afford to lose any more of our Sagebrush Sea environment, especially the stands of tall, mature sagebrush which serve so many wildlife species."

Mark Salvo, Director of the Sagebrush Sea Campaign said, “The pygmy rabbit is another in a long list of residents of the Sagebrush Sea that face an uncertain future,” said Mark Salvo, director of the Sagebrush Sea Campaign for Forest Guardians. “The sagebrush-steppe ecosystem is in tatters, and if the pygmy rabbit could talk, it would tell us so.”