For Immediate Release: October 2, 2008

Contact:
, American Bird Conservancy, 202-234-7181, ext. 216

Agency Initiates Process to Delist Threatened Marbled Murrelet

Move Threatens Rapidly Declining Species and Its Old Growth Forest Habitat

(Washington, D.C.) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced it is initiating a 90-day review to determine whether the threatened Marbled Murrelet should be delisted under the Endangered Species Act. The agency’s proposal is based on the assumption, discredited by a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report, that the murrelet’s population in Washington, Oregon and northern California is not distinct from other murrelet populations in British Columbia and Alaska.

Marbled Murrelet. Photo: USFWS

“This species should be listed range-wide, rather than removed from the list,” said Steve Holmer, spokesperson for American Bird Conservancy. “We hope that when the agency reviews the science showing a drastic population decline in all its distinct population segments, they will come to the same conclusion.”

A report released in 2007 by USGS shows dramatic declines in numbers of the Marbled Murrelet and supports the continued listing of the species as a distinct population segment. The timber industry’s petition to delist the species claims that, because there are larger populations of Marbled Murrelets in British Columbia and Alaska, there is no need to protect the birds in the Pacific Northwest. The petition disputes scientists’ contentions that the Canadian and Alaskan murrelet populations are distinct from those living in the Pacific Northwest.

The USGS report not only upheld the genetic distinctness of the three populations, but showed that populations of the murrelet are plunging in Alaska and Canada as well, with an overall decline of approximately 70% over the last 25 years—from more than one million birds to about 350,000 in 2007. The USGS report is available on the web at http://pubs.water.usgs.gov/ofr20061387.

“The Marbled Murrelet is a very special seabird that is in serious trouble,” said Holmer. “The most recent status review of the murrelet concluded that if the current trend of a 4-7% annual decline continues, the species will be extinct in Washington, Oregon, and California outside of the Puget Sound area within the next 100 years.”

Unique in its family for its nesting habits, the Marbled Murrelet builds its nest in the tops of old growth trees or more rarely on the ground in coastal forests from the Aleutians and the southern coast of Alaska south to northern California. The bird flies at high speeds, sometimes allowing the air to rush through its feathers, producing a jet-plane-like sound. The species is on the U.S. WatchList, a list of birds of conservation concern developed by scientists from American Bird Conservancy.

Today’s move, published in the Federal Register http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-22735.htm, was prompted by a petition from the American Forest Resource Council and the Carpenters Industrial Council which represent companies and workers in the forest products industry. The primary threat facing the Marbled Murrelet continues to be the loss of its old growth forest nesting areas.

According to the Forest Service, in total, approximately 2% of murrelet habitat on federal lands was lost between 1996 and 2006 primarily due to fire, and 12% was lost on nonfederal lands primarily due to timber harvest. There is also concern about the rapid loss of murrelet habitat under FWS approved Habitat Conservation Plans. From 1992 - 2003 an estimated 226,000 acres of murrelet habitat were lost.

The murrelet is also threatened by the proposed Western Oregon Plan Revision whose preferred action alternative will substantially reduce murrelet populations over the next 50 years by reducing habitat. An estimated 600 murrelet sites would be lost under the preferred alternative. Also, a FWS proposal is pending to remove 254,000 acres of Critical Habitat for the Marbled Murrelet.
This is the timber industry’s second attempt to delist the murrelet. In February of this year, a federal judge ruled that the agency should keep the Marbled Murrelet listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

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