Critical lynx habitat

The lynx needs your help

Please attend this public meeting and support the designation of “Critical Habitat” for lynx in northeastern Washington and northern Idaho! If you cannot make the meeting please keep reading and comment by April 28. Thanks to The Lands Council for requesting this meeting, and sorry for the late notice, but the details of this meeting were just announced.

Background The Canada Lynx—a rare and beautiful wild cat of our northern forests—is barely hanging on. After years of effort by Friends of the Clearwater and other supporters, they were finally protected as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act in the Year 2000. Yet protections are still lacking on the ground, where it matters most to lynx. Critical Habitat is the best tool we have to identify and protect habitat needed to restore lynx. A previous Critical Habitat proposal was ruined by a senior official in the Bush Administration who resigned last spring. Please write a comment supportive of a much stronger designation that includes all of the lands needed to save the lynx, including the Clearwater, Nez Perce, and Idaho Panhandle National Forests!

The Meeting Wednesday, April 16 6:30 to 8:00 pm Oxford Suites in the Valley 15015 E Indiana Ave Spokane, WA Directions: From Interstate 90, take the Sullivan Road Exit (291B) to Indiana Ave, which parallels I-90 just to the north, and follow signs to Spokane Valley Mall. This meeting is informal and informational, not a formal hearing. Please come out to learn some more about Lynx and Critical Habitat designation, meet others working to protect lynx and their habitat, and submit your comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help ensure the designation is adequate to restore lynx in the Northwest and other areas of the lower-48 states!

Suggested Comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Support of Lynx Critical Habitat

1. Thank you for proposing a much-improved Critical Habitat designation for lynx. I strongly support Critical Habitat designation, since it is the best means available to protect lynx habitat. I support including key lynx areas on public land, regardless of other regulations in place on those lands. I also support including key lynx areas on private land, since many of these areas are the most threatened by development.

2. The proposal should designate all areas of habitat needed to support a recovered lynx population, not just those areas used by lynx in their current Threatened condition. This includes all areas of habitat that are currently occupied, and other areas of suitable lynx habitat, including areas needed to connect currently isolated lynx populations.

3. Please strengthen the proposed Critical Habitat designation in the following areas: (a) include suitable lynx habitat in the Kettle River Range (including the Wedge), and Selkirk Mountains (Little Pend Oreille and Salmo-Priest areas); (b) include lynx habitat in the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado and adjacent states; and (c) include areas to connect these lynx populations in Wyoming, Idaho, and southwestern Montana.

How Else You Can Help the Lynx Written comments on the Critical Habitat proposal will be accepted until April 28, 2008 at the addresses below.

Please look out for an upcoming Defenders of Wildlife alert!

Mail comments to: Division of Policy and Directives Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 222, Arlington, VA 22203

Or submit your comments electronically through the federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov (under "comments or submission" add the keyword "lynx").

For more information, including maps please visit More lynx info

Thank you for helping restore the majestic lynx!