Preserving Critical Lynx Habitat

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Preserving Critical Lynx Habitat

• Brandon Anderson

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Lynx

• Medium sized cats, usually 30-35 inches long and
  weigh 18-23 pounds
• They have tufted ears, black-tipped tails, furry
  feet and long legs for traveling through snow
• Highly specialized snowshoe hare predators
• Listed in 2000 as a threatened species

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Historical Range

• The lynx was once located in 21 states in the
  U.S. within the boreal forests of the Northeast,
  Great Lakes, Northern Rocky Mountains, Southern
  Rocky Mountains and Cascade Mountains

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Current Range

• Due to over trapping in the 80s, lynx
  populations have dropped drastically
• Lynx are currently found in only 4 states,
  Washington, Montana, Colorado and Maine
• Less than 1,000 lynx remain in the U.S.

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What is being done?

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed to
  establish a critical habitat for the Canada lynx
• 26, 935 square miles of total land area
• 10, 633 in Maine
• 3,546 in Minnesota
• 10, 760 in the Northern Rockies
• 1,996 in Washington

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What is a critical habitat?

• Critical habitat is defined in the Endangered
  Species Act
• Identifies geographic areas containing features
  essential for the conservation of a threatened or
  endangered species and may require special
  management considerations or protection
• ESA requires consideration of economic and other
  relevant impacts

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What features should a critical habitat have?

• Boreal forest landscapes of sufficient size and
  overlapping several lynx ranges
• Presence of snowshoe hares to support breeding
  lynx populations
• Good winter snow conditions
• Sites for denning with coarse woody debris

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How much would it cost?

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated costs
  for the designation and related conservation
  actions at 175 million to 889 million over the
  next 20 years

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Areas designated as critical habitat

• 1,841 square miles designated as critical habitat
  for the lynx
• 317 square miles in Voyagers National Park,
  Minnesota
• 1,389 square miles in Glacier National Park,
  Montana
• 135 square miles in North Cascade National park,
  Washington

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Why were some areas left out?

• Due to extensive peer review, public comment, and
  biological information received during public
  comment period
• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reevaluated
  their proposal of critical habitat and excluded
  lands with existing lynx management plans as well
  as others

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Lynx Conservation and Assessment Strategy

• Developed by the Forest Service, Fish and
  Wildlife Service, National Park Service and the
  BLM
• Helping to revise Land and Resource Management
  Plans to provide for lynx conservation
• Helped provide information for the revisions of
  the proposed critical habitat

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Preserving lynx populations

• It is essential for landowners to cooperate and
  continued funding for research on lynx, snowshoe
  hare and lynx habitat relationship
• Along with conservation benefits resulting from
  critical habitat designation, this cooperation
  will help to preserve lynx populations

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How did people get involved?

• The proposal was open to public comments via
  email or mail
• There were also public hearings where people
  could voice their opinions

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How can we get involved?

• With the estimated costs of designating and
  conserving critical habitats one way in which we
  can help is by donating money to the U.S. Fish
  and Wildlife Service
• We could also get involved in the research and
  study of lynx and snowshoe hare populations and
  relationships of habitat

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Questions?