Endangered Pacific Island Bird to Receive Habitat Protection

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Settlement protects Rota bridled white-eye

 

September 8th, 2004

 

Contact Info:

David Henkin, Earthjustice, (808) 599-2436

Kieran Suckling, CBD, (520) 275-5960

 

 

Honolulu, HI-- Today, the Center for Biological Diversity,

represented by Earthjustice, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

reached a settlement that puts the Rota bridled white-eye, a forest-

dwelling bird found only on the western Pacific island of Rota in

the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a crucial step

closer to protection for its essential recovery habitat. In the

agreement, the Service conceded that its failure to map out and

protect the white-eye's critical habitat at the time it listed the

species as endangered in January 2004 violated the Endangered

Species Act. The Service agreed to come out with a proposed critical

habitat designation by September 7, 2005, and a final designation

decision by September 7, 2006.

 

" It's a shame that the Service refused to do anything to protect the

white-eye's essential recovery habitat for over twenty years, while

the bird's numbers declined by 90 percent, " said Kieran Suckling,

executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. " We hope

that it's not too late to save the white-eye and that, with the

Service's admission today that it violated the law, other imperiled

species will not suffer the same fate. "

 

Conservation groups petitioned the Department of Interior to put the

white-eye on the endangered list in 1980. The department agreed that

the species was declining and, in 1982, with 10,763 birds left in

the wild, identified the white-eye as a candidate for listing. The

species continued to decline unprotected for over two decades until

Earthjustice and the Center secured a series of court orders forcing

the Bush administration finally to list it as an endangered species

in January 2004. By this time, the wild population had declined to

just 1,092 birds.

 

In the final listing rule, the administration identified habitat

loss and degradation as primary causes of the species' dramatic

decline, yet refused to designate critical habitat. On May 20, 2004,

Earthjustice, representing the Center for Biological Diversity,

filed suit against the Bush administration to force it to obey the

law.

 

" This case vividly illustrates Congress's wisdom when it empowered

citizens to sue the Service for failing to comply with the

Endangered Species Act, " said Earthjustice attorney David Henkin,

who represented the Center. " Even though the Service knew that its

refusal to protect the white-eye's essential recovery habitat was

illegal, it would have gotten away with it, had concerned citizens

not stepped forward to uphold the law. "

 

" Critical habitat " consists of those areas that must be managed to

ensure the species recovers. Federal agencies may not carry out,

fund, or approve any actions that destroy or adversely modify

critical habitat. Since the restrictions are directed solely at

federal agencies, designation generally has little direct effect on

private landowners. However, critical habitat also performs an

important educational role, informing the public and local

governments about areas essential to species recovery.

 

Data submitted to Congress by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

show that species with critical habitat are twice as like to be

improving as species without it.

 

 

 

 

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