July 29, 2016
CapitalPress.com
WDFW: Bald eagles soar, can come off state list
Peregrine falcons
doing well, too
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The bald eagle has made
an “incredible recovery,” ac-
cording to a Washington De-
partment of Fish and Wildlife
report, which recommends
removing the national bird
from the list of state-protected
species.
“It’s really exciting to
be able to celebrate a con-
servation success because
they are sometimes few and
far between,” said Hannah
Anderson, WDFW’s listing
and recovery section man-
ager.
A change in state status
wouldn’t lift federal restric-
tions on activities near nests.
The species would still be
protected by the Bald and
Golden Eagle Act.
The change in state status,
however, would highlight the
recovery in Washington of an
American icon.
WDFW’s report credits the
banning of some chemicals,
including DDT in 1972, for
the bird’s rebound. As apex
predators, bald eagles ingest
toxins absorbed by their prey.
Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
A Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife report has recom-
mended removing the bald eagle from the state’s endangered
species list. The bald eagle would still be protected by federal law.
“The bald eagle popu-
lation both in Washington
and throughout most of its
range has clearly recovered,”
states the report, released this
month. “The Washington pop-
ulation is robust and all indi-
cations are that the species
will continue to be an import-
ant and thriving part of our
state’s natural diversity for the
foreseeable future.”
WDFW is taking public
comment on the status of the
bald eagle and four other spe-
cies.
WDFW oficials also are
recommending that peregrine
falcons be removed from the
state-protected list and that
American white pelicans be
upgraded to threatened from
endangered. Both species are
protected by the federal Mi-
gratory Bird Treaty Act.
Also, WDFW oficials are
recommending the statuses
of the marbled murrelet and
the lynx be changed to endan-
gered from threatened. Both
species already are protected
by the federal Endangered
Species Act.
The bald eagle was listed
under the ESA in 1978 and
delisted in 2007. It’s still il-
legal to disturb bald eagles
except under circumstances
approved by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.
As of 2015, bald eagles
were known to have occu-
pied 1,334 sites in Washing-
ton, according to WDFW. It’s
unknown how many of those
sites have been recently occu-
pied.
DDT also was blamed for
a dramatic decline in the pop-
ulation of peregrine falcons
nationally. The falcons were
federally listed in 1970 and
delisted in 1999.
Washington’s population
of peregrine falcons has been
increasing since 1990, ac-
cording to WDFW. In 2009,
WDFW found peregrine fal-
cons occupying 108 sites, up
from 91 in 2006.
Washington’s only colony
of American white pelicans
nest on Badger Island in the
Columbia River, near the
Snake River junction.
The population has in-
creased substantially in the
last 30 years, according to
WDFW. Some 3,267 breeding
adults were counted in 2015.
Marbled murrelets were
federally listed in 1992 and
listed by the state in 1993.
Nevertheless, Washington’s
population has declined by
about 44 percent over the
past 15 years, according to
WDFW.
The report cites the loss of
forest habitat, decline in ish
prey and the bird’s low repro-
ductive rate for the decline.
WDFW estimates 54 lynx
are in western Okanogan
County, the only area in the
state with a lynx population.
The cat’s population has not
improved since it was listed
as a state-protected species in
1993 or federally in 2000, ac-
cording to WDFW.
Changing the status of
lynx to endangered from
threatened could focus more
attention on conservation ef-
forts, according to WDFW.
WDFW will take com-
ments on the proposed chang-
es until Oct. 10. Comments
may be submitted by email
to
TandEpubliccom@dfw.
wa.gov or by mail to Hannah
Anderson, Washington De-
partment of Fish and Wildlife,
600 Capitol Way N., Olym-
pia, WA 98501-1091.
The Fish and Wildlife
Commission is tentatively
scheduled to discuss the rec-
ommendations in November.
Washington lists 45 spe-
cies of ish and wildlife as
sensitive, threatened or en-
dangered.
“We care about main-
taining these populations
within our state,” Anderson
said.
Wyden: Obama administration well aware of opposition to monument
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.,
speaks to Malheur County resi-
dents during a July 21 town hall
meeting. Wyden said he has
made it clear to the Obama ad-
ministration that local residents
strongly oppose designating
a national monument in the
county.
ONTARIO, Ore. — The
Obama administration is well
aware of the strong local op-
position to a proposed na-
tional monument in Malheur
County, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
told Eastern Oregon residents
on July 21.
Malheur County residents
who asked Wyden during
an annual town hall meeting
whether he supports the pro-
posed national monument
said they didn’t receive a dei-
nite answer.
But Wyden did say several
times that the president knows
of the local opposition to the
proposed national monument
on 2.5 million acres in a part
of the county known as the
Owyhee Canyonlands.
“I have told the Obama
administration repeatedly ...
that there is very vigorous op-
position at the local level to
the monument,” the Oregon
Democrat said. “They would
have had no confusion about
what I’m telling them.”
Supporters want Obama to
use the Antiquities Act to de-
clare a national monument in
Malheur County.
Ranchers and others who
asked Wyden whether he sup-
ports the national monument
proposal being pushed by the
Oregon Natural Desert Asso-
ciation told Capital Press lat-
er they didn’t receive a clear
answer.
Malheur County Farm
Bureau President Jeana Hall
asked Wyden for a commit-
ment to “stand up for the peo-
ple of Oregon, not just here
in Malheur, and say that there
should not be a monument
designation.”
Julie Mackenzie, a Jor-
dan Valley rancher, asked
Wyden, “Are you for the
monument?”
Wyden said it’s his duty
to respect how Oregon resi-
dents vote on issues. Malheur
County residents voted 9-1
against the monument in a
special election in March. He
also said that while Malheur
County residents have voted
on the issue, the rest of Ore-
gon has not.
“I didn’t hear an answer,”
Hall told Capital Press later.
“I think I heard a ‘maybe’
somewhere in there.”
Mackenzie said she asked
the senator “a yes or no ques-
tion and he didn’t answer
it. It was just kind of a go-
ing around in circles type of
thing.”
Wyden Press Secretary
Hank Stern said he would let
the senator’s words during
the meeting speak for them-
selves but added, “I thought
he expressed himself pretty
clearly.”
11
Vandals use
ireworks to
spook goats
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Vandals recently set off
ireworks and took down part
of a fence in releasing about
240 goats near Issaquah,
Wash.
Craig Madsen, of Edwall,
Wash., contracts his goats
for weed and brush control
with the Issaquah Highlands
Homeowner
Association,
a village of roughly 1,000
homes about 20 miles east of
Seattle.
At about 10:45 p.m. July
17, Madsen was talking on
the phone with his wife, Sue
Lani Madsen, when he heard
ireworks. He checked on the
goats and found they has got-
ten outside the fence, so he
got his dog and rounded them
up. Several neighbors called
the Issaquah police.
Luckily, Madsen said,
most of the goats did not
wander into a nearby area
with landscaping and plants
that are poisonous to goats,
although one young goat ap-
peared to be recovering from
eating rhododendrons and
azaleas.
Most of the goats had wan-
dered into a wooded area and
were herded back into the
pen, Madsen said.
Someone had turned off
the electric fence by discon-
necting the energizer from the
battery and used the ireworks
to spook the animals, he said.
“They’d planned it,” he
said.
Madsen said a neighbor
noticed several teenagers try-
ing to steal a goat the next
night. She called the police
and the teenagers were spo-
ken to. Madsen doesn’t know
if those teenagers also set off
the ireworks the night before.
Madsen said it is rare for
anyone to hassle his goats.
“It does happen — I mean,
it’s rare,” he said.
Madsen blames most peo-
ple’s lack of a farming back-
ground in today’s society.
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