OFCO contributed to a joint comment submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Washington Department of Natural Resources on the Long-Term Conservation Strategy for the Marbled Murrelet and the permit for incidental take of endangered species on state-managed forested trust lands. The Marbled Murrelet Coalition submitted the comment.
The marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) is a small Pacific seabird listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in California, Oregon and Washington. All population surveying efforts to date have concluded that the listed population exhibits a long-term downward trend. In the past decade, marbled murrelet populations have decreased by 27% throughout the listed population’s range with a more alarming 45% decline in the state of Washington. Threats to the marbled murrelet include loss of habitat from commercial timber harvest, nest predation, gill-net fishing operations, oil spills, and marine pollution. The USFWS is working with other federal, state, and tribal agencies and private landowners and university researchers to recover the marbled murrelet.
The Marbled Murrelet Coalition includes Conservation Northwest, Defenders of Wildlife, Olympic Forest Coalition, Seattle Audubon Society, Washington Environmental Council, and Washington Forest Law Center. The Coalition provided BNR with a Conservation Alternative using the best available science to chart a path to marbled murrelet recovery, and we will continue to press the Board of Natural Resources to fairly evaluate the Conservation Alternative along with the BNR’s preferred alternative to demonstrate which approach works best for murrelets and others that depend on State Trust Lands.
Washington Forest Law Center (WFLC) led the key scientific and policy portion of the comments, and Conservation Northwest and Washington Environmental Council led the economic impacts analysis. Experts Dr. Kara Whittaker, David Lank and Mike Ruth provided the science and geospatial analysis. Experts Ernie Niemi and Paula Swedeen provided economic analysis. Peter Goldman, WFLC, provided the legal analysis. See the full comment here. Thank you to all OFCO members and supporters who also submitted comments.
For more information on this threatened species, please visit the following USFWS websites:
http://www.fws.gov/arcata/es/birds/MM…
http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/pr…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwspac…