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Fish and Wildlife Plan Meetings About Rare Falcon

Date
September 17, 2005
Contact
Associated Press
In This Release
Climate + Energy  
#KeepItInTheGround

Saturday, September 17, 2005
Fish and Wildlife Plan Meetings About Rare Falcon

The federal agency has acknowledged that designating a nonessential experimental population will change the bird’s status in the two states from endangered to threatened.
Contact: Associated Press

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to reintroduce the endangered northern aplomado falcon in New Mexico and has drafted a plan to evaluate a restoration program.

The agency has scheduled two public meetings next month to gather public comment on the plan and talk about bringing the falcons back to New Mexico. One meeting will be in Las Cruces on Oct. 11 and another will follow in Albuquerque two days later.

The proposal calls for up to 150 captive-raised birds to be released each year in New Mexico for 10 or more years until a self-sustaining population is established. The monitoring plan would keep track of the birds’ welfare.

The program would be part of a larger recovery effort already under way in Texas that Fish and Wildlife officials say has been successful.

Aplomado falcons found in New Mexico and Arizona would be considered a nonessential experimental population, something that concerns environmentalists.

The federal agency has acknowledged that designating a nonessential experimental population will change the bird’s status in the two states from endangered to threatened. While hunting would remain illegal, the downgraded designation would remove the bird’s protections from such activities as livestock grazing, recreation, oil and gas and military operations.

Environmental groups that have opposed the designation include WildEarth Guardians, the Chihuahuan Desert Conservation Alliance, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, Southwest Environmental Center, Southwest Public Employees for Environmental Protection and the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.

Some of the groups sued Fish and Wildlife earlier this year over critical habitat for the falcon, saying the agency hadn’t acted on a September 2002 petition to designate such habitat.

The groups argue the designation is necessary to protect areas like Otero Mesa – a Chihuahuan Desert grassland in southern New Mexico with potential habitat. The Bureau of Land Management, despite protests by the governor and environmentalists, decided to open part of the mesa for exploratory drilling.

In August, federal workers eating lunch on Otero Mesa spotted two aplomado falcons, marking the first sighting of the rare birds in years.

While environmentalists have said the birds were found in an area where the oil industry has expressed interest, a BLM spokesman said the agency wasn’t proposing drilling near where the falcons were seen.

The falcon was listed as endangered in 1986. No falcons have been spotted in Arizona since the 1940s, but sporadic sighting have been reported in New Mexico.

Other Contact
The agency has scheduled two public meetings next month to gather public comment on the plan and talk about bringing the falcons back to New Mexico. One meeting will be in Las Cruces on Oct. 11 and another will follow in Albuquerque two days later.