A5
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2020
US declines protection upgrades
for the northern spotted owl
By MONICA SAMAYOA
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo
Scientists estimate the monarch butterfl y population in the eastern U.S. has fallen about 80%
since the mid-1990s, while the drop-off in the western U.S. has been even steeper.
US to delay seeking protection
for the monarch butterfl y
By JOHN FLESHER
Associated Press
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.
— Federal offi cials on Tues-
day declared the monarch but-
terfl y “a candidate” for threat-
ened or endangered status, but
said no action would be taken
for several years because of
the many other species await-
ing that designation.
Environmentalists
said
delaying that long could spell
disaster for the beloved black-
and-orange butterfl y, once a
common sight in backyard
gardens, meadows and other
landscapes now seeing its
population dwindling.
The monarch’s status will
be reviewed annually, said
Charlie Wooley, head of the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice’s Great Lakes regional
offi ce. Emergency action
could be taken earlier, but
plans now call for propos-
ing to list the monarch under
the Endangered Species Act
in 2024 unless its situation
improves enough to make the
step unnecessary.
The proposal would be
followed by another year for
public comment and devel-
opment of a fi nal rule. List-
ing would provide a number
of legal protections, includ-
ing a requirement that fed-
eral agencies consider effects
on the butterfl y or its habitat
before allowing highway con-
struction and other potentially
damaging activities.
Scientists estimate the
monarch population in the
eastern U.S. has fallen about
80% since the mid-1990s,
while the drop-off in the west-
ern U.S. has been even steeper.
“We conducted an inten-
sive, thorough review using
a rigorous, transparent sci-
ence-based process and found
that the monarch meets list-
ing criteria under the Endan-
gered Species Act,” Aurelia
Skipwith, director of the Fish
and Wildlife Service, said
in a statement. “However,
before we can propose list-
ing, we must focus resources
on our higher-priority listing
actions.”
Scientists will continue
monitoring the butterfl y’s
numbers and the effectiveness
of what Wooley described as
perhaps the most widespread
grassroots campaign ever
waged to save an imperiled
animal.
Since 2014, when envi-
ronmental groups petitioned
to list the monarch, school
groups, garden clubs, gov-
ernment agencies and oth-
ers around the nation have
restored about 5.6 million
acres of milkweed plants on
which monarchs depend,
Wooley said. They lay eggs
on the leaves, which caterpil-
lars eat, while adults gather
nectar from the fl owers.
The volunteer effort “has
been phenomenal to see,” he
said. “It has made a differ-
ence in the long-term survival
of monarchs and helped other
pollinators that are potentially
in trouble.”
‘MONARCHS ARE
TOO IMPORTANT
FOR US TO JUST
PLANT FLOWERS
ON ROADSIDES
AND HOPE FOR
THE BEST.’
Tierra Curry | a senior
scientist at the Center for
Biological Diversity
But advocacy groups say
it has compensated for only
a small fraction of the esti-
mated 165 million acres of
monarch habitat — an area
the size of Texas — lost in
the past 20 years to devel-
opment or herbicide applica-
tions in cropland.
“Monarchs are too import-
ant for us to just plant fl ow-
ers on roadsides and hope for
the best,” said Tierra Curry,
a senior scientist at the Cen-
ter for Biological Diversity.
“They need the comprehen-
sive protection that comes
only from the Endangered
Species Act, which would
save them and so many other
beleaguered pollinators that
share their habitat.”
The monarch’s plight
is part of what the United
Nations describes as a
worldwide crisis threatening
1 million species — one of
every eight on Earth — with
extinction because of climate
change, development and
pollution.
Even so, the Trump
administration has listed
only 25 species — fewer
SEVENDAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TODAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
than any since the act took
effect in 1973. The Obama
administration added 360.
Trump’s team also has
weakened protections for
endangered and threat-
ened species in its push for
deregulation. Among other
changes, it limited consid-
eration of climate change’s
effects on animals when
evaluating whether they
should be listed.
Global warming is one
of the biggest dangers to
the monarch. It contributes
to lengthening droughts and
worsening storms that kill
many during their annual
migration.
About 90% of the world’s
monarchs live in North
America. Scientists mea-
sure their abundance by the
size of the areas they occupy
in Mexico and California,
where they cluster during
winter after fl ying thousands
of miles from as far away as
Canada.
The Fish and Wildlife
Service estimates the larger
eastern population declined
from about 384 million in
1996 to a low of 14 million
in 2013 before rebounding
somewhat, reaching about
60 million last year.
But the California-based
western group dropped from
about 1.2 million in 1997 to
fewer than 30,000 in 2019.
Preliminary survey results
this fall have turned up only
about 2,000, said Lori Nord-
strom, the Fish and Wildlife
Service’s assistant regional
director.
While such grim pros-
pects qualify the monarch
for listing, offi cials said the
law allows delays when the
agency has limited resources
and must focus on high-
er-priority cases under
consideration.
Species ahead in line
might be worse off, or courts
might have set deadlines for
decisions on them.
The Great Lakes offi ce,
which is handling the mon-
arch case, is considering nine
others with higher-priority
status. They include the little
brown bat, the plains spot-
ted skunk, the Illinois cho-
rus frog, the golden-winged
warbler, Blanding’s turtle,
the Mammoth Springs cray-
fi sh, two freshwater mus-
sels and a plant called Hall’s
bulrush.
SUNDAY
MONDAY
The U.S Fish and Wild-
life Service ruled against
upgrading the iconic north-
ern spotted owl’s protection
status Monday under the
Endangered Species Act.
The agency said the spe-
cies’ continued decline war-
rants a reclassifi cation from
“threatened” to “endan-
gered’’ but it elected against
taking that step because it
considers other listed spe-
cies to be higher priorities.
According to the service,
the decision was based on
a scientifi c report that was
peer-reviewed by academic
and industry experts. The
service said a status change
would not result in any addi-
tional regulatory restrictions
under the Endangered Spe-
cies Act — nor would it
impact the actions taken to
conserve the species.
“Ongoing research tells
us that northern spotted
owls are in danger of dis-
appearing in large parts of
their range,” Robyn Thor-
son, regional director for the
service’s Columbia-Pacifi c
Northwest region said.
Habitat
conservation
measures on federal lands
have been working well,
Thorson said, but compe-
tition from the non-native
barred owl has severely
impacted
spotted
owl
populations.
The northern spotted owl
was fi rst listed as threatened
in 1990, which led to log-
ging restrictions and paved
the way for the Northwest
Forest Plan, which reduced
logging on national forests
and other federal forests by
more than 80%.
In 2012, conservation
group Environmental Pro-
tection Information Cen-
ter fi led a petition request-
ing the uplist of the species
to endangered. Three years
later the service found the
petition presented substan-
tial information and the sta-
tus change may be war-
ranted for the species after a
fi ve-year status review.
Don Ryan/AP Photo
A northern spotted owl fl ies after an elusive mouse jumping
off the end of a stick in the Deschutes National Forest near
Camp Sherman.
‘ONGOING RESEARCH TELLS US
THAT NORTHERN SPOTTED OWLS
ARE IN DANGER OF DISAPPEARING
IN LARGE PARTS OF THEIR RANGE.’
Robyn Thorson, regional director for the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service’s Columbia-Pacifi c Northwest region
CLATSOP
POWER
EQUIPMENT , INC.
SALES • SERVICE • RENTALS
34912 HWY 101 BUS • ASTORIA
503-325-0792 • 1-800-220-0792
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
REGIONAL FORECAST
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Seattle
49 42
51 45
A little morning Downpours in
rain
the p.m.
54 47
52 41
50 40
50 35
48 36
Rain in the
afternoon
Cloudy, rain
possible
Cloudy, rain
possible
Showers
possible
Showers
possible
Aberdeen
Olympia
50/45
50/44
Wenatchee
Tacoma
Moses
Lake
UNDER THE SKY
TODAY'S TIDES
Astoria through Tuesday
Tonight’s Sky: The waxing cres-
cent moon will be near Jupiter
and Saturn. A must see!
Astoria / Port Docks
Temperatures
High/low ................................ 52/43
Normal high/low .................. 48/36
Record high .................. 62 in 1980
Record low .................... 24 in 1965
Precipitation
Tuesday ................................... 0.16”
Month to date ........................ 2.19”
Normal month to date ......... 4.96”
Year to date .......................... 58.54”
Normal year to date ........... 62.58”
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020
Time
High (ft.) Time Low (ft.)
3:25 a.m.
2:28 p.m.
7.9 8:54 a.m. 3.3
9.2 9:42 p.m. -0.7
Cape Disappointment
3:02 a.m.
2:04 p.m.
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
Hammond
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today .................. 7:53 a.m.
Sunset tonight ............... 4:31 p.m.
Moonrise today ........... 10:52 a.m.
Moonset today .............. 7:54 p.m.
First
Full
Last
New
3:14 a.m.
2:19 p.m.
Warrenton
3:20 a.m.
2:23 p.m.
Knappa
4:02 a.m.
3:05 p.m.
Depoe Bay
Dec 21 Dec 29 Jan 6 Jan 12
2:17 a.m.
1:17 p.m.
7.9 7:57 a.m. 3.6
9.4 8:47 p.m. -1.0
8.1 8:22 a.m. 3.3
9.5 9:07 p.m. -1.1
8.3 8:38 a.m. 3.3
9.6 9:26 p.m. -0.6
8.1 9:55 a.m. 2.8
9.4 10:43 p.m. -0.6
8.0 7:28 a.m. 3.6
9.6 8:19 p.m. -1.2
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Honolulu
Houston
Los Angeles
Miami
New York City
Phoenix
San Francisco
Wash., DC
Fri.
Hi/Lo/W
46/29/pc
32/20/sn
36/26/c
60/39/s
45/25/c
83/73/sh
58/39/s
65/48/pc
82/55/pc
30/23/sn
66/42/pc
58/44/pc
41/30/pc
52/28/s
31/14/pc
38/35/c
61/45/pc
35/17/pc
83/73/pc
66/57/pc
66/47/s
72/63/s
32/19/pc
64/41/s
58/43/pc
41/27/pc
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy,
c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms,
r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice.
41/32
Kennewick Walla Walla
46/36 Lewiston
52/36
47/36
Hermiston
The Dalles 52/35
Enterprise
Pendleton 42/34
48/36
50/38
La Grande
42/33
49/41
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Hi/Lo/W
Pullman
47/30
49/42
Salem
40/30
Yakima 44/31
Longview
49/42 Portland
49/43
Spokane
39/31
50/41
49/40
Astoria
ALMANAC
for nearly a decade,” Shan-
non said. “Being on this list
doesn’t guarantee that at
some point in the future it
will be listed.”
Under the “warranted but
precluded” fi nding, the ser-
vice will reevaluate the peti-
tion on an annual basis until
a proposal or withdrawal is
published.
Shannon said they are
hopeful under a Biden
administration that they rec-
ognize a need for action and
urgency for the list of spe-
cies that warrant protections.
“The species really isn’t
doing well,” he said. “The
loss of even one or two of
these owls really is devastat-
ing to the species as a whole.
One or two owls can be the
difference of extinction or
survival at this point.”
The service will continue
to review and evaluate any
new information regarding
the northern spotted owl.
In addition to the loss of
habitat following decades
of logging old-growth for-
ests, the northern spotted
owl faces threats of habitat
loss from wildfi res and from
the barred owls — that have
increased in the northern
spotted owl’s known geo-
graphical region.
Ryan Shannon, a staff
attorney for the Center for
Biological Diversity, said
the Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice decision is egregious
and that placing the owl
on its “warranted but pre-
cluded” status could mean
the status changed for the
northern spotted owl could
take years or not happen at
all.
“An example of this
locally would be this year’s
fi nding that the red tree
vole does not warrant list-
ing. The red tree vole has
already been on the war-
ranted but precluded list
Corvallis
48/38
Albany
48/39
John Day
Eugene
Bend
50/39
43/28
39/26
Ontario
43/26
Caldwell
Burns
38/22
41/25
Medford
43/34
Klamath Falls
37/20
City
Baker City
Brookings
Ilwaco
Newberg
Newport
Today
Hi/Lo/W
42/26/sf
49/39/c
50/42/r
49/40/r
49/42/r
Fri.
Hi/Lo/W
38/27/c
50/45/pc
50/44/sh
48/44/sh
50/46/sh
City
North Bend
Roseburg
Seaside
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Today
Hi/Lo/W
52/39/r
47/38/r
49/41/r
49/39/r
50/40/r
Fri.
Hi/Lo/W
52/45/c
48/43/c
49/43/sh
50/42/c
48/42/sh