The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today its Response to a Court-Ordered Remand on a petition to list the Queen Charlotte goshawk (Accipiter gentilis laingi) as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The Queen Charlotte goshawk is a comparatively small, dark subspecies of the northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) that nests and forages in coastal rainforests of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia.
In the Response, the Service determined that the subspecies? ranges in Alaska and British Columbia each qualify as distinct population segments and thus qualify for individual consideration under the Act. Based on greater current and anticipated habitat loss in Canada, the Service found that we have sufficient information about biological vulnerability and threats to the goshawk to support issuing a proposed rule to list the entire British Columbia distinct population segment as threatened or endangered. We find that the best available information on biological vulnerability and threats to the goshawk does not support listing the Alaska population as threatened or endangered at this time, in light of current conservation strategies being implemented by the Tongass National Forest, including designation of substantial areas of the forest in no-harvest status and use of goshawk standards and guidelines in those portions of the forest open to timber harvest.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was initially petitioned to list the Queen Charlotte goshawk as endangered in May of 1994. A series of legal challenges and court-ordered remands resulted between 1995 and 2004. In May of 2004, the District Court remanded the finding to the USFWS with instructions to evaluate whether Vancouver is a 'significant portion? of the subspecies? range (within the meaning of the Endangered Species Act's definition of ?endangered? or ?threatened?) and, if so, to determine whether the bird should be listed. Today's Response to a Court-Ordered Remand, which also determined that Vancouver qualifies as a significant portion of the subspecies? range, is in response to this District Court decision.
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million- acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 547 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices, and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign and Native American Tribal governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to State fish and wildlife agencies.
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