Bald eagles once again protected in Arizona
Federal judge orders return of endangered species protection
PHOENIX - The Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon have won a federal district court lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to continue Endangered Species Act protection for the desert-nesting bald eagle, found mostly in Arizona.
The victory resulted from a challenge of the FWS's 2006 rejection of an Oct. 6, 2004, Center and Maricopa Audubon petition to increase protection for the eagle and its habitat and from a challenge to the agency's nationwide effort to remove Endangered Species Act protection from all bald eagles.
On March 5, Federal District Judge Mary Murguia reversed the FWS's 2006 decision, calling it ''arbitrary and capricious, and contrary to law.'' She reinstated Endangered Species Act protection for the eagle and its habitat in Arizona and ordered the FWS to complete a re-evaluation of its 2006 decision within nine months.
Only about 50 breeding pairs of desert nesting bald eagles survive. They are reproductively, geographically, biologically and behaviorally distinct from all other bald eagle populations and occupy uniquely hot and dry habitat. Unique populations and their habitat qualify for Endangered Species Act protection with a designation as a ''distinct population segment.''
On Oct. 6, 2004, the Center and Maricopa filed a petition requesting increased protection for the bald eagle in Arizona. The petition was based on evidence of increasing threats to habitat and presentation of data from a previously suppressed Arizona Game and Fish Department study demonstrating the likely extinction of nesting bald eagles from Arizona within the next 57 and 82 years.
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Increasing habitat threats represent the gravest risk to nesting eagles in Arizona, mostly because of increasing groundwater pumping drying up streamside nesting habitat. The Endangered Species Act is the only law that protects the habitat of imperiled wildlife.
On Aug. 30, 2006, FWS rejected the petition. This rejection did not take place because of new scientific data or studies.
On Jan. 4, 2007, the Center and Maricopa Audubon filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the rejection of the petition. FWS responded July 9, 2007, with nationwide removal of Endangered Species Act protection for bald eagles, including the desert-nesting bald eagle in Arizona.
''On July 18, 2006, FWS scientists and officials from the FWS Arizona Field Office, the Southwest Regional Office in New Mexico, and the Listing Branch Office of the Division of Conservation & Classification in Washington, D.C., participated in a telephone conference call,'' Murguia said in her March 5 order. ''[...] It appears that FWS participants in the July 18, 2006, conference call received 'marching orders' and were directed to find an analysis that fit with a negative 90-day finding on the DPS status of the desert bald eagle. These facts cause the court to have no confidence in the objectivity of the agency's decision making process in its Aug. 30, 2006, 90-day finding.''
''Bush administration officials removed bald eagle habitat protection to benefit their developer friends who seek to divert stream flow critical for eagles. This court victory has given Arizona's desert-nesting bald eagle a stay of execution. We now have additional time to make protection for our bald eagle and its habitat permanent,'' said Dr. Robin Silver, founder and board member of the Center for Biological Diversity and vice president of Maricopa Audubon.
The San Carlos Apache Tribe, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Tonto Apache Tribe, Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation and Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community joined the lawsuit. Attorneys Dan Rohlf of Lewis & Clark Law School Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center Justin Augustine of the Center, and Howard Shanker represented the Center and Maricopa Audubon in this case.
