Bush Admin Moves Toward Dropping Murrelet Protections

Marbled Murrelet Fact Sheet

5-Year Status Review Scientific Findings

· The Washington, Oregon, and California murrelet population is a
distinct population from the murrelet populations in Canada and Alaska, due
to major differences in habitat ownership and management in Canada and the
United States.
· The Pacific Northwest populations also are considered distinct
populations because each likely has a suite of different behavioral,
ecological, and genetic characteristics that have developed under very
different ecological conditions within these 3 global marine ecosystems.
The genetic characteristics of murrelets in California are significantly
different than Alaskan murrelet genetics.
· 91% of marbled murrelet habitat is on federal lands.
· Continued declines in murrelet population in Washington, Oregon, and
California due to loss of nesting habitat from logging and urbanization are
predicted.
· Models indicate that murrelet populations are declining more rapidly
than previously understood, and may disappear from the Pacific Northwest
within 100 years if more habitat is not protected.
· In California, predicted probability of extinction is 100% within the
next 40 years.
· Murrelets will not recover until there is significant improvement in
the amount and distribution of suitable nesting habitat.
· Protection of nesting habitat on Federal land could be severely
compromised if the Northwest Forest Plan is altered.

History of Endangered Species Act Protections

· The marbled murrelet is a small, elusive seabird that nests mainly in
old-growth forests along the Pacific coast.

· In 1992, after many years of study and public comment, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service listed the Washington, Oregon, and California
population of marbled murrelets as ³threatened;² the Service designated
critical habitat for the bird in 1996. A district court found that ³[t]he
principal factor affecting the murrelet population through this tri-state
area is the loss of old-growth and mature forests as a result of commercial
timber harvest.² In short, where coastal old-growth forests have been
destroyed, the murrelet has disappeared.

· In 2002, the timber industry lobbying group, American Forest Resource
Council, filed a lawsuit to force the Service to undertake a review of the
murrelet¹s status and to void its critical habitat designation.

· The independent status review report was completed in March 2004 and
determined that the murrelet population are declining more rapidly than
previously and require federal protection.
· Scientists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Portland, Oregon
agreed with the assessment in April, but were reversed by officials in
Washington DC.

Canadian Protections

· There is currently no management plan for murrelets in Canada.
· Only 1% of lands in British Columbia are publically owned and
managed.
· Under forest practice rules for the remaining lands, logging
companies are responsible for identifying the habitat needs of murrelets and
documenting impacts. Protection for endangered species habitat, including
marbled murrelets, cannot reduce prescribed logging levels by more than 1%.
Since logging levels are based on economic factors, any habitat protected
during one year could be logged when economic conditions change.




Ecology and Conservation

· The murrelet is a small, long-lived (up to 25 years), diving seabird
about the size of a robin.
· Once called ³the enigma of the Pacific,² the marbled murrelet was the
last bird in the United State to have its nesting site discovered. This was
in 1974 by a tree-trimmer high up on a Douglas fir tree in California. To
this day, it is extremely rare to see an occupied murrelet nest.
· Murrelets make their nests in natural depressions of large,
moss-covered old-growth tree limbs. In fact, for the most part they don¹t
actually build ³nests,² but simply deposit their individual eggs in these
mossy depressions.
· Murrelets only come off the water at dawn or dusk, and fly up to 60
miles an hour, making sighting a challenge to land-based observers.
· Females lay only one egg per year.
· During incubation, the female and male take turns sitting on the egg
for 24-hour shifts.
· Both parents share responsibility for bringing fish from the ocean
back to the chick¹s nest in the old-growth forest.
· Parents stay with their newly hatched chick just one to two days,
then leave the chick entirely alone, returning only to feed it.
· Murrelet pairs return to the same forest grove each year and
sometimes nest repeatedly in the same tree.
· A murrelet chick's first flight is critical. It must make it all the
way to the ocean or hope to crash land in or near a stream that will then
carry it to the ocean.
· In addition to old-growth logging, marbled murrelets are threatened
by oil spills and fishing nets, especially from gillnet fishery operations.
· Murrelets are counted at-sea, and they are scarce or absent offshore
of areas where most of the old-growth forests have been logged.

For more information:
· Download 5-year scientific status review at:
http://www.ecosystem.org/projects.html. Scroll down to ³Wildlife.²
· For information on murrelet ecology, or the content of the Status
Review, contact the following panelist: Kim Nelson, Oregon State University
Wildlife Biologist, at 541-737-1962; Tom Hamer, Hamer Environmental, 360-
422-6510; and Vicki Friesen, Queens University, 613- 533-6160.
· For information on the murrelets in California, call Esther Burkett,
California Department of Fish and Game, 916-654-4273.