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Two groups sue to protect the mountain plover

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is being sued by two environmental groups for refusing to protect the mountain plover under the Endangered Species Act.

The Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and Forest Guardians have filed a federal suit in California with help from Jay Tuschton and Robin Cooley of the University of Denver Law Clinic.

The groups are accusing the Fish and Wildlife Service of abandoning a proposed rule that would have protected the species. The conservationists say the mountain plover was on track for listing in 2003, before being denied.

Forest Guardians and Biodiversity Conservation Alliance charge that the decision to deny the plover protection was caused by interference by President Bush's administration.

“The mountain plover case reflects a pattern of denying endangered species protection for purely political reasons,” said Lauren McCain, deserts and grasslands program director for Forest Guardians in Denver. “We've seen this with many other species, including the Gunnison’s prairie dog. Corporate lobbyists are currently dictating endangered species policy, not sound science.”

Mountain plovers are threatened by urban development and sprawl, agriculture, oil and gas development, and loss of prairie dog habitat, which is provides plover breeding habitat.

“The last mountain plover population in Utah went extinct recently in the midst of intense oil and gas development, proving that this rare bird warrants the protection of the Endangered Species Act,” Biodiversity's Erik Molvar said. “And elsewhere in its range, from the Powder River Basin to the Red Desert, key mountain plover habitats are increasingly being targeted for heavy-impact oil and gas projects.”

Ken Hamilton, the executive director for Wyoming Farm Bureau, said a recent survey in Colorado found more birds than expected — buttressing the notion that the species isn’t in trouble.