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Petition to List the Black-Backed Woodpecker (Picoides Arcticus) As Threatened Or Endangered Under the Federal Endangered Species Act

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Petition to List the Black-Backed Woodpecker (Picoides Arcticus) As Threatened Or Endangered Under the Federal Endangered Species Act BEFORE THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR PETITION TO LIST THE BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER (PICOIDES ARCTICUS) AS THREATENED OR ENDANGERED UNDER THE FEDERAL ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT The Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) Photo by Monica Bond 2 May 2012 2 May 2012 Mr. Ken Salazar, Secretary Mr. Dan Ashe, Director U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1849 C Street, NW 1849 C Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20240 Washington, D.C. 20240 RE: PETITION TO LIST THE OREGON/CALIFORNIA AND BLACK HILLS POPULATIONS OF THE BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER (Picoides arcticus) AS THREATENED OR ENDANGERED SPECIES AND TO DESIGNATE CRITICAL HABITAT CONCURRENT WITH LISTING Dear Mr. Salazar and Mr. Ashe: Pursuant to Section 4(b) of the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”), 16 U.S.C. §1533(b), Section 553(3) of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 553(e), and 50 C.F.R. § 424.14(a), the John Muir Project of the Earth Island Institute, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, and the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance hereby petition the Secretary of the Interior, through the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“USFWS”), to list the Oregon-Cascades/California and Black Hills (South Dakota, and a portion of Wyoming) populations of the Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) as a threatened or endangered species and to designate critical habitat to ensure its survival and recovery. USFWS has jurisdiction over this petition. This petition sets in motion a specific process, placing definite response requirements on USFWS. Specifically, USFWS must issue an initial finding as to whether the petition “presents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted.” 16 U.S.C. §1533(b)(3)(A). USFWS must make this initial finding “[t]o the maximum extent practicable, within 90 days after receiving the petition.” Id. Petitioners need not demonstrate that listing is warranted, rather, Petitioners must only present information demonstrating that such listing may be warranted. While Petitioner believes that the best available science demonstrates that listing the two populations of the Black-backed Woodpecker as endangered is in fact warranted, there can be no reasonable dispute that the available information indicates that listing the species as either threatened or endangered may be warranted. As such, USFWS must promptly make a positive initial finding on the petition and commence a status review as required by 16 U.S.C. § 1533(b)(3)(B). The term “species” is defined broadly under the ESA to include “any subspecies of fish or wildlife or plants and any distinct population segment of any species of vertebrate fish or wildlife which interbreeds when mature.” 16 U.S.C. § 1532 (16). A Distinct Population Segment (“DPS”) of a vertebrate species can be protected as a “species” 2 under the ESA even though it has not formally been described as a separate “species” or “subspecies” in the scientific literature. A species may be composed of several DPSs, some or all of which warrant listing under the ESA. As described in this petition, the small, isolated Oregon-Cascades/California and Black Hills populations of the Black- backed Woodpecker were each recently recognized in the scientific literature as genetically distinct from the larger, contiguous, northern boreal population, and in both cases this genetic distinction is sufficiently large that it is consistent with distinction at the level of subspecies (Pierson et al. 2010). Therefore, we request that the Oregon- Cascades/California and Black Hills populations be considered subspecies eligible for listing under the ESA. In the event USFWS does not recognize the taxonomic validity of these Black-backed Woodpecker subspecies as described in this petition, we request that USFWS evaluate whether the Oregon-Cascades/California and Black Hills populations of the Black-backed Woodpecker constitute DPSs of the Black-backed Woodpecker species. This petition demonstrates that the Oregon-Cascades/California and Black Hills populations of Black-backed Woodpeckers clearly warrant listing under the ESA based on the factors specified in the statute. As discussed in this petition, the Oregon- Cascades/California (hereafter “Oregon/California”) and Black Hills populations are small—less than 1,000 pairs and about 400 pairs, respectively—and both are threatened by aggressive landscape-level thinning and post-fire logging, fire suppression, habitat loss and population declines since the 19th century, an utter lack of protection for suitable habitat under federal and state laws and regulations, and other factors. In both populations, most of the suitable habitat created by natural disturbance exists outside of protected lands (e.g., Wilderness, Inventoried Roadless Areas, and National Parks), where it is subject to removal through logging. We look forward to the Service’s response to this petition and processing of it pursuant to the procedures and timelines established under the ESA. Petitioners: The Center for Biological Diversity works through science, law, and policy to secure a future for all species, great or small, hovering on the brink of extinction. The Center has over 42,000 members throughout California and the United States. The Center and its members are concerned with the conservation of endangered species, including the Black-backed Woodpecker, and the effective implementation of the ESA. The John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute, Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, and Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, and their members, have worked to protect the Black-backed Woodpecker and its habitat, and are also concerned with the effective implementation of the ESA. Failure to grant the requested petition will adversely affect the aesthetic, recreational, research and scientific interests of petitioning organizations and their members. 3 Chad Hanson, Ph.D. Karen Coulter John Muir Project of Earth Island Inst. Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project P.O. Box 697 27803 Williams Lane Cedar Ridge, CA 95924 Fossil, Oregon 97830 (530) 273-9290 (541) 385-9167 Justin Augustine Duane Short Center for Biological Diversity Biodiversity Conservation Alliance 351 California Street P.O. Box 1512 San Francisco, CA 94104 Laramie, WY 82073 (415) 436-9682 ext. 302 (307) 742-7978 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND INTRODUCTION…………………………………5 NATURAL HISTORY AND ECOLOGY……………………………………………..9 Description………………………………………………………………9 Taxonomy………………………………………………………………11 Range…………………………………………………………………...16 Land Management……………………………………………………...17 Habitat………………………………………………………………….18 Diet……………………………………………………………………..29 Life History and Demography……….…………………………………30 Status and Trend…………………..…………………………………....32 THE OREGON/CALIFORNIA AND BLACK HILLS POPULATIONS OF THE BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER WARRANT LISTING UNDER THE ESA…...45 THREATS………………………………………………………………………45 Destruction, Modification, or Curtailment of Habitat or Range……………45 Post-disturbance Salvage Logging……………………………………...57 Fire Suppression………………………………………………………...60 Thinning: Suppression of Natural Tree Mortality………………………65 Overutilization……………………………………………………………...67 Predation and Disease……………………………………………………....67 The Inadequacy of Existing Regulatory Mechanisms………………….......68 Other Natural or Anthropogenic Factors…………………………………...98 Inherent Vulnerability of Small Populations……………………………98 Ephemeral Nature of Habitat…………………………………………....99 Climate Change………………………………………………………...100 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………..102 REQUEST FOR CRITICAL HABITAT DESIGNATION…………………………...103 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE MANAGEMENT………………………………….103 REFERENCES…….…………………………………..………………………………104 APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………………115 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND INTRODUCTION “I believe it would be difficult to find a forest-bird species more restricted to a single vegetation cover type… than the Black-backed Woodpecker is to early post-fire conditions…” Dr. Richard Hutto (1995 at p. 1050) “The dramatic positive response of so many plant and animal species to severe fire and the absence of such responses to low-severity fire in conifer forests throughout the US West argue strongly against the idea that severe fires are unnatural. The biological uniqueness associated with severe fires could emerge only from a long evolutionary history between a severe-fire environment and the organisms that have become relatively restricted in distribution to such fires. The retention of those unique qualities associated with severely burned forest should, therefore, be of highest importance in management circles.” Dr. Richard Hutto (2006 at p. 987) “It is clear from our first year of monitoring three burned areas that post-fire habitat, especially high severity areas, are an important component of the Sierra Nevada ecosystem…post-fire areas are not black slates or catastrophic wastelands; they are a unique component of the ecosystem that supports a diverse and abundant avian community…” U.S. Forest Plumas Lassen Study 2009 Annual Report, p. 34 (research conducted by PRBO Conservation Science; report available at www.fs.fed.us/psw/programs/snrc/) An intensely1 burned forest of dense, fire-killed trees (snags), or a similar condition created by large areas of very high beetle mortality, known as “snag forest habitat”, is perhaps the most maligned, misunderstood, and imperiled habitat type in North America. The public’s perception of a snag forest is one of devastation, when actually it is an ecological treasure trove. Thousands of
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