SEATTLE – What if states had the resources to prevent animals from ending up on the Endangered Species list?

A bill introduced in Congress aims to do just that. Known as the Recovering America's Wildlife Act, it would fund states' wildlife management efforts before species are in dire need of help.

The co-sponsors – Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska and Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan – say about 12,000 species nationwide could benefit from this approach.

Dave Werntz, science and conservation director for Conservation Northwest, says managing wildlife before it's on the brink gives officials much more flexibility.

"For instance, smaller populations are at much greater risk of environmental events, factors that are affecting inbreeding and so forth,” he points out. “So, if you are able to take actions before a species is close to the edge of extinction, you're just going to have a lot more options to work with."

Werntz says Washington state management plans have helped species such as the fisher and sharp-tailed grouse.

The $1.3 billion in funding for the bill would come from an existing tax paid by energy and resource industries for the right to develop on federal lands that generates $10 billion annually.

It would raise money for Washington state's conservation efforts from $1 million to about $26.5 million.

Collin O'Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, maintains addressing problems before using the Endangered Species list is a smarter way to preserve wildlife.

He notes representatives from both sides of the aisle have voiced support.

"There's obviously an intrinsic value and responsibility to save these species,” he states. “But from an economic point of view, if we have a solution that's going to reduce regulatory uncertainty and really bolster the economy overall, that could be a home run."

The bill lays out a plan to provide 75 percent of the funding for preservation programs, and only requires states to pay one-quarter of the cost.






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HELENA, Mont. -- To honor the Biden administration's steps toward greater ties with tribal nations, conservation groups are calling on it to list the gray wolf as an endangered species again.

More than 60 groups want the federal government to manage the species alongside tribal nations.

The gray wolf was delisted during the Trump administration.

Rain, author of "The Wolf Treaty" and director of the film "Family," which explores the ancient connection between human beings and wolves, said the delisting under President Donald Trump was illegal because the administration did not consult tribal nations.

"People need to understand that government-to-government consultation from federal agencies to tribes is not optional. It is mandated. It is the law," Rain asserted.

Rain is concerned President Joe Biden's nominee to head the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Martha Williams -- who served as head of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks until 2020 -- has not recognized the requirement as fact. The Trump administration argued protections were no longer needed because gray wolves have successfully recovered.

Last week, the Biden administration held the White House Tribal Nations Summit for the first time since 2016. At the meeting, Biden released a memorandum of understanding on Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Federal Decision-Making.

Rain pointed out the administration can look to "The Wolf Treaty" as an embodiment of this knowledge. It has been signed by more than 700 tribal and first nations in both the U.S. and Canada.

"'The Wolf Treaty' has been described as a blueprint for 21st-century wolf management, and 'The Wolf Treaty' itself is heavily based upon indigenous traditional ecological knowledge," Rain added.

In Montana, new wolf-hunting regulations could reduce the wolf population by 85%. There are about 1,200 gray wolves in Montana, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

GOLETA, Calif. - The western monarch butterfly appears to be pulling back from the edge of extinction - with more than 100,000 counted so far in the 25th annual Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count.

This week, more than 100 butterfly enthusiasts are creeping around groves early each morning, counting the iconic orange-and-black western monarch, and they're finding large clusters from Los Angeles to Santa Cruz.

Emma Pelton, a Xerces Society conservation biologist, said it's unclear if the rebound is because of natural variability or something else.

"They move and migrate over such large areas that it's hard to know exactly what weather conditions or environmental factors affected things in any one spot," she said, "but we think this is a good example of resiliency."

People who spot a large cluster of monarchs are encouraged to report it on the app iNaturalist, so scientists can go check it out. Gardeners also can help the species by reducing pesticide use and by planting the butterflies' favorite flowering bushes, such as native narrow-leaf milkweed and other flowers that bloom year-round.

While it's good news that the numbers are up, Pelton cautioned that they still are dangerously low - representing more than a 90% drop from the number of monarchs that overwintered in California in the 1980s.

"We would really like to see 500,000 butterflies," she said. "We'd like to see a million butterflies, which is more of the historic size that we saw in the '90s, not that long ago."

The Biden administration's new infrastructure bill, passed last week, dedicates $10 million over five years for projects to benefit monarchs by planting native flowers, adopting pollinator-friendly land-management practices, and removing non-native vegetation.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Wildlife advocates are taking the U.S. Forest Service to court over a plan to eliminate prairie dogs from the Thunder Basin National Grassland.

Erik Molvar, executive director of the Western Watersheds Project, one of the groups filing suit in federal court last week, said Thunder Basin is one of the last remaining landscapes with a prairie dog complex large enough to bring the black-footed ferret back from the brink of extinction.

"The Forest Service shouldn't be poisoning a designated sensitive species that they are supposed to be prioritizing for conservation," Molvar asserted. "And they have a legal obligation to foster the reintroduction of black-footed ferrets, because the Thunder Basin is one of the best remaining candidate sites for black-footed ferret reintroduction."

Black-footed ferrets rely exclusively on prairie dogs for food and habitat. The legal battle is over an amendment to a plan which scraps protections and allows for poisoning and sport-shooting prairie dogs, widely viewed as pests by livestock producers.

Molvar noted the livestock industry has worked to eliminate any species it views as endangering their profits, including wolves, grizzly bears and mountain lions. He added Thunder Basin lands are owned by all Americans, and protecting native wildlife should be the baseline for agencies charged with managing those assets.

"You ought to have commercial enterprises co-existing with the native wildlife as a cost of doing business on the public lands," Molvar contended. "Because Americans have a strong interest in native wildlife."

Prairie dogs are a keystone species in the region. Their engineering skills in building tunnels create habitat for burrowing owls, swift foxes and many other native species. Molvar argued the stakes for keeping species such as the black-footed ferret from going extinct are far-reaching, pointing to advice from wildlife-management pioneer Aldo Leopold.

"The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts," Molvar emphasized. "Meaning that you shouldn't drive any species extinct because you're not really sure how that species fits into the health of the remainder of the ecosystem that makes human life possible on this planet."