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Imperiled Species
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Erin McCallum

Lynx Management and Policy

25 Million Acres Protected for Lynx!

In late Feb. 2009, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced its designation of critical habitat for the Canada lynx from Maine to Washington State. Read more below.

Since the 1990s Defenders of Wildlife and other conservation groups have been fighting the federal government to list the lynx under the Endangered Species Act. Finally, we prevailed in 2000 and the lynx was listed as a threatened species, but the Fish and Wildlife Service was still unwilling to designate the habitat that is critical to lynx survival. Designating critical habitat is meant to help federal and state resource agencies focus their conservation programs and actions on areas that are essential to lynx recovery.

In 2006, the FWS gave in to pressure from timber companies and land management agencies and announced their decision to only designate two western parks as critical habitat, despite scientific studies proving that numerous national forests and public lands are vital for the lynx’s survival. Defenders pursued legal action to force them to use sound science, instead of political judgements, to protect enough habitat for lynx.

On February 25, 2009, the FWS issued a new rule to designate critical habitat that was much better than its 2006 decision, since it reinserted key lynx habitat on our national forests and on private lands that were excluded due to meddling by Bush Administration officials in Washington. Yet the new rule still omits some important areas of lynx habitat, such as the entire southern Rocky Mountains region, and the Kettle Range in northeastern Washington. See the final lynx critical habitat maps.

Lynx supporters nationwide helped us expand the area designated as critical habitat for lynx more than 20 times what was initially proposed under the Bush Administration. While the new rule falls short in some key areas, our members and supporters can be proud that they helped create one of the largest critical habitat designations in the history of the Endangered Species Act, which significantly boosts our ability to protect the most important areas of lynx habitat in the lower 48.