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Sierra Club Acts to Protect Endangered Canada Lynx

Case Updates:

May 29, 2009

On May 26, 2009, Sierra Club and its allies took action to protect the endangered Canada Lynx from the threats of global warming. The environmental groups filed a lawsuit in Montana against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), challenging the agency’s selection of designated lynx habitat in the Midwest.

In their legal challenge, Sierra Club, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Native Ecosystems Council and the Center for Native Ecosystems argued that the land area that FWS intends to designate as critical habitat for the lynx is not sufficient to protect the wild cat. In its habitat designation, the FWS failed to consider the impacts of global warming on the species and afforded no protection to the Southern Rockies of Colorado, a higher elevation lynx habitat that may be increasingly important for the cat’s survival as the climate warms.

As Bruce Hamilton, Sierra Club’s Deputy Executive Director, said, “[f]or the lynx to survive in a changing climate, the Fish and Wildlife Service must provide appropriate habitat and create wildlife corridors that will allow for migration as temperatures rise. The current designation fails to consider the effects of climate change on lynx habitat, and that is unacceptable.”

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