DENVER—The U.S. Forest Service has released a final environmental analysis and management plan for lynx in the southern Rockies.
The impact statement has been in the works for years and covers 14.6 million acres of national forest land in Colorado and southern Wyoming. About 7.5 million acres of that—high-altitude forest—is considered habitat for the long-haired, big-pawed cat.
Environmentalists criticized a draft environmental review released in 2006 because it allowed exemptions for logging and other activities they said would jeopardize the cat.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife has released more than 200 lynx from Canada and Alaska in the state since 1999 to restore the cat to Colorado.
The state’s native lynx disappeared in the early 1970s because of trapping, poisoning and development.
Jim Thinnes, a member of the Forest Service team that worked on the plan, said the final version released Wednesday isn’t significantly different from the draft. He said the intent is to manage vegetation to support snowshoe hares, the lynx’s primary prey.
At least 116 lynx kittens have been born in Colorado since the restoration began. State wildlife biologists say no newborn kittens have been found the last two years, possibly because of a decline in the number of hares.
The lynx management plan would allow some exceptions for logging and other activities in lynx habitat to reduce wildfire risk. The Forest Service said the final version was modified to give forest managers more flexibility in dealing with the bark-beetle infestation that has killed more than 1.5 million acres of pine trees in Colorado.
Josh Pollock of Denver-based Native Ecosystems said he had not seen the final plan but objected to the draft environmental impact statement because of “a whole bunch of exceptions” to protecting the habitat.
“The Forest Service is still trying to nibble away at these protections,” Pollock said.
The public has 45 days to appeal the plan.
The lynx was declared a threatened species in 2004 under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed designating 42,753 square miles in six states that could come under tighter federal oversight as critical habitat for lynx. The states are Maine, Minnesota, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming.
Colorado, at the southern tip of the cat’s historic territory, was left out of the proposal. Federal officials have said it’s not clear if the Colorado’s population will sustain itself.
The agency originally designated only 1,841 square miles in three states as critical lynx habitat but reconsidered after allegations that Julie MacDonald, a deputy assistant secretary of the interior, interfered in that and other decisions. She resigned.
