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Thursday, July 27, 2006
Federal agency removes falcon from endangered list

”We will challenge the service’s decision to strip away vital habitat protections for wild aplomado falcons,” John Horning of WildEarth Guardians said
Contact: Staci Matlock Santa Fe New Mexican

When the first breeding pair of endangered northern aplomado falcons in half a century were spotted near Deming in 2002, biologists and the showy raptor’s fans were ecstatic.

Now, environmental groups are vowing to fight in federal court against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to remove the bird from the endangered species list at the same time the agency starts reintroducing captive-bred northern aplomado falcons in Southern New Mexico. They say the decision is premature, violates the Endangered Species Act and decreases protections for the raptor’s habitat.

The federal agency announced its final decision Wednesday to downlist the northern aplomado falcon to a “nonessential experimental species,” and reintroduce the birds in Southern New Mexico, saying it is the quickest way to re-establish the bird of prey that once roamed the state’s skies.

The agency is working with the nonprofit Peregrine Fund, based in Idaho, which plans to release up to 150 northern aplomado falcons a year over the next decade in Southern New Mexico, possibly beginning as early as mid-August. “I think we share the same goals as the environmental groups that want to recover the bird,” agency spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown said. “We just disagree on how. We think bringing in birds will help recover the birds more quickly.”

Environmentalists from the New Mexico Audubon Council, Sierra Club, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and WildEarth Guardians say the new federal decision fails to protect wild northern aplomado falcons spotted in Southern New Mexico in the last few years. They say the Endangered Species Act calls for wild populations to be kept separate from introduced species, and they’ll fight the new rule in federal court.

“We will challenge the service’s decision to strip away vital habitat protections for wild aplomado falcons,” John Horning of WildEarth Guardians said in a statement. “With more evidence than ever before for a wild falcon population existing in New Mexico, and escalating threats from oil and gas, the falcon desperately needs the safety net provided by the Endangered Species Act.”

According to biologists, the northern aplomado falcon once inhabited much of the Southwest, but populations began to decline in the early 1900s because of pesticide use, overgrazing by livestock and lack of fire to restore grasslands.

The last known northern aplomado breeding pair in the U.S. was seen in 1952 near Deming, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. The bird was placed on the federal endangered species list in 1986 and on the state endangered list in 1990.

Wild northern aplomado falcons were sighted in Luna County in 2000. More then two dozen northern aplomado sightings have been confirmed by independent and federal biologists in the last two years, probably migrating from Mexico. Environmental groups say most of them were on Otero Mesa land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and slated for oil and gas development.

The Peregrine Fund began successfully reintroducing northern aplomado falcons as experimental populations on private land in South and West Texas several years ago. In New Mexico, the bird will be reintroduced on both public and private land.

As a species on the endangered list, the northern aplomado falcon was given the highest protection under law, environmental groups say. Federal agencies were required to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service and follow the agency’s advice if a project was going to harm the bird’s habitat.

As a downlisted, “nonessential, experimental” bird, the northern aplomado falcon has fewer protections. Other agencies still will have to consult, Slown said, but aren’t obligated to follow Fish and Wildlife Service recommendations. Slown said the northern aplomado falcon still is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

The Fish and Wildlife Service says it doesn’t consider the few northern aplomado falcons seen in Luna County in the last few years a viable population.

Copyright 2006 New Mexican – Reprinted with permission