DNR takes step to complete marbled murrelet plan

The Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is looking for input on its plan to manage habitat for endangered marbled murrelets, a seabird that flies inland to nest in old, large conifers.

Officials from the DNR and US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) came to Cathlamet Tuesday to present their work to the public and begin gathering comments that will shape their actions.

In 1997, the DNR entered into a habitat conservation plan (HCP) with USFWS over management of the forest lands it manages in order to protect environment and also allow for harvest of timber. The agency manages trust timberlands for the benefit of several beneficiaries, including counties such as Wahkiakum, and other entities such as universities and schools.

However, little was known about the marbled murrelet, and since 1997, the agencies have been gathering information about its range and habits.

Now, the DNR is preparing to amend its plan for murrelet management and needs to go through a review process with USFWS. The agencies, said DNR Project Leader Kristen Ohlson-Kiehn, will gather input at several meetings in western Washington, sift through the input, return for more presentations and comment, and then prepare a draft environmental impact statement for formal consideration.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Wildlife Biologist Steve Desimone said the agency estimates the number of murrelets by counting birds at sea, knowing they return daily to their nests, and extrapolating population estimates from those counts. Between 2001 and 2010, the population has decreased 46 percent, he said.

The birds lay a single egg on a large, moss covered branch in old conifers and don't build nests. The adults take turns sitting on the egg and foraging for food. Nesting can occur as far as 50 miles from the coast.

He added that the population along the Washington, Oregon and California coasts is genetically distinct from Alaskan marbled murrelets.

Biologists attribute population decline to several factors, including 1. historic and ongoing loss of habitat; 2. predation by other birds on eggs and chicks; 3. changes in marine foraging conditions; 4. mortality as young birds leave the nest, and 5. the cumulative effects of all factors.

The DNR has a fiduciary responsibility to the trust beneficiaries, said Jennifer Arnold, marble murrelet outreach manager.

This mandate involves generating revenue and other benefits for the trusts while managing them impartially with respect to current and future beneficiaries.

The agency is also charged with providing forest conditions in strategic locations that minimize and mitigate incidental take of marbled murrelets as a result of forest management activities.

Wahkiakum County Commissioners Dan Cothren and Blair Brady offered a couple comments before the gathering broke up into small group discussions.

Wahkiakum has had over 25 percent of its timber trust tied up from harvest as the murrelet plan has developed. Revenue from the harvest of timber on the lands is an important part of the county's budget.

Cothren commented that Wahkiakum and Pacific counties are funding a consultant biologist's review of data and preparation of expert comments on the process.

Cothren also questioned the need for the planning process, for the bird is showing a steep decline in population and could be extinct in a few years.

The federal Endangered Species Act won't allow agencies to give up on the birds and their recovery plans, said Mark Ostwald of USFWS. The goal of the USFWS and the National Environmental Policy Act is to try to recover the species.

Cothren and Brady suggested the federal government should find a way to compensate trust beneficiaries for lands taken out of timber production and locked up for habitat.

The State of Washington is already starting to do this, they said, but the federal government bears some responsibility.

This might be a possibility, said Doug Zimmer, USFWS supervisor of information and education in the agency's Olympia office. The federal government would have to make a grant to the state, and the state would have to pass it on to counties and other beneficiaries.

"I can't guarantee that it's possible, but I think we can," Zimmer said. "That's the sort of thing we need to take back to the NEPA process."