Nesting Murrelet, photo courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife
Today Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Audubon Society of Portland gave the State of Oregon and its forestry departments notice of their intent to file a lawsuit to protect the federally threatened marbled murrelet.
Marbled murrelets are rare seabirds that nest inland in big, old trees. The birds have large webbed feet and require big tree limbs upon which they can crash land and moss in which they can nest. Murrelet populations in the Pacific Northwest have been dwindling each year largely due to the loss of the mature and old-growth forests the birds require for nesting. The marbled murrelet was listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 1992.
Tillamook Forest thin
Oregon has a practice of playing fast and loose with the requirements for finding murrelets and their habitat, a practice that has resulted in significant logging of occupied murrelet habitat and fragmentation of the older forests upon which the birds rely. Couple this practice with the State’s recent decisions to increase logging on Oregon’s coastal state forests – the Tillamook, Clatsop, and Elliott – and the recipe spells disaster for murrelets.
As a result, the Crag Law Center is partnering with Eugene attorney Daniel Kruse and Cascadia Wildland’s staff attorney Nick Cady to represent the groups in a lawsuit against the state. As described in the notice letter, the State is violating the ESA by causing the “take” of marbled murrelets – i.e., by authorizing activities that are harming and harassing the birds and impacting their breeding.
Marbled Murrelet chick, photo courtesy of Peter Halasz
Read the murrelet_press_release and visit Cascadia Wildlands; the Center for Biological Diversity; and Audubon Society of Portland’s websites to learn more about this issue and marbled murrelets.
Here are some of the news articles talking about this matter:
The Oregonian
The Associated Press
OPB
Portland Tribune
The Register Guard
