Background

Marbled Murrelet 5-Year Status Review

Marbled murrelet Photo by CA Dept. of Fish & Game

Politics Trumped Science

The marbled murrelet is a small, elusive seabird that nests mainly in old-growth forests along the Pacific coast. In 1992, after many years of study and public comment, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Washington, Oregon, and California population of marbled murrelets as threatened; the Service designated critical habitat for the bird in 1996. A district court found that "[t]he principal factor affecting the murrelet population through this tri-state area is the loss of old-growth and mature forests as a result of commercial timber harvest." In short, where coastal old-growth forests have been destroyed, the murrelet has disappeared.

Fast forward to 2002, when a timber industry lobbying group, American Forest Resource Council, filed a lawsuit to compel the Service to undertake a review of the murrelet's status and to void the designation of critical habitat. The timber group was unabashed about the reasons for its lawsuit: it wished to open the murrelet's scarce and fragile nesting areas to logging. Instead of defending against the lawsuit, the Service signed a settlement agreement with AFRC requiring that the status review be completed. Outside the courtroom, the Service also agreed with AFRC to contract out the scientific review to a private consulting firm -- the first time the Service has ever done so.

The independent status review report was completed in March 2004. Released to the public in early May, it finds that the murrelet population is still in decline and continues to need federal protection. That is not the answer AFRC wanted, and AFRC publicly questioned both the science and the integrity of the scientists. With the scientific review completed, the official Fish and Wildlife Service status review finding was the next step in the process. In April 2004, the Portland, Oregon regional office of the US Fish and Wildlife Service found that murrelets in Washington, Oregon, and California formed a distinct population segment from birds in Canada and Alaska that deserved protection under the Endangered Species Act. These draft conclusions were sent to Washington, D.C. to be finalized.

Astoundingly, Fish and Wildlife Service headquarters in Washington, DC disagreed with the regional office's distinct population segment determination and rewrote the status review's conclusion, stating that the tri-state murrelets do not qualify as a distinct population segment, because differences between birds in British Columbia and the lower 48 states are not significant enough to warrant separating the two groups.

Officials in DC also found that since Canada has a newly enacted (but very weak) species protection law, the differences in on-the-ground management between the US and Canada weren't big enough to warrant the US protecting its murrelets. Both of these conclusions fly in the face of the science, the regional office's determination, and the management facts on the ground. For now, the Endangered Species Act protects the marbled murrelet, but its future protection remains uncertain.

Findings of the Independent Status Review Report:

• 91% of marbled murrelet habitat is on federal lands.

• The report predicts continued murrelet population declines in Washington, Oregon, and California due to loss of nesting habitat from logging and urbanization.

• Population trend models cited in the report predict that marbled murrelets may disappear from all of their native Pacific Northwest range within 100 years.

• In California, predicted probability of extinction is 100% within the next 40 years.

• The report states: "The continued protection of nesting habitat on Federal land could be severely compromised if the Northwest Forest Plan is altered."

• The Washington, Oregon, and California murrelet population is a genetically Distinct Population Segment (DPS) from the murrelet populations that are faring better in Alaska.

• The report concludes: "It is unrealistic to expect that the species will recover before there is significant improvement in the amount and distribution of suitable nesting habitat."

Click here to learn more interesting facts about the marbled murrelet.

Click here to read the status review report for the marbled murrelet.