Endangered Species Protections Sought for Wilson’s Phalarope
Center for Biological Diversity: Migratory Shorebird Faces Extinction Threat From Imminent Collapse of the Great Salt Lake The Center for Biological Diversity, a coalition of scientists and conservation groups, has filed a legal petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking Endangered Species Act protections for Wilson's phalarope, an inland shorebird that relies heavily on saline lakes in the Great Basin as critical stopovers on their migratory path to South America. The species is threatened with extinction due to the imminent collapse of these lakes, including the Great Salt Lake in Utah and Lake Abert in Oregon. The petition urges the Ufish Fish and Water Service to protect these saline lakes across the West. Wilson's Phalaropes have seen significant declines since the 1980s due to habitat destruction, water diversions and drought. The Great Salt lake, which is Utah's lifeblood, fell to its lowest level in recorded history in 2022, could eliminate the most important site for Wilson’s phalalarores in North America.
ที่ตีพิมพ์ : เมื่อ เดือนที่แล้ว โดย Center for Biological Diversity ใน Science
SALT LAKE CITY— The Center for Biological Diversity, leading a diverse coalition of scientists and conservation groups, filed a legal petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today seeking protections for Wilson’s phalarope under the Endangered Species Act.
Wilson’s phalaropes are inland shorebirds that rely on saline lakes in the Great Basin as critical stopovers along their migratory path to South America. The species is threatened with extinction because of the imminent collapse of these lakes, including the Great Salt Lake in Utah and Lake Abert in Oregon.
“This petition on behalf of the Wilson’s phalarope is an act of love,” said author Terry Tempest Williams. “It is our wild promise to the future of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem, understanding that our lives and the lives of Wilson’s phalarope are one — intrinsically bound to the health of our inland sea. This is a threshold moment. The survival of Great Salt Lake can no longer be seen as a local issue or a state issue but a global one — with the phalarope’s epic migration from Argentina to Utah and back again signaling (as the brine shrimp and brine flies do) the interdependence of all life. By invoking the Endangered Species Act and listing the Wilson’s phalarope as a threatened species, we can change this story of a lake in retreat to a lake being restored in the name of all lives, both human and wild, that our Mother Lake sustains.”
“Great Salt Lake is Utah’s lifeblood, and as we watch its collapse we’re also seeing the demise of Wilson’s phalarope and other migratory birds that rely on it,” said Deeda Seed, senior Utah campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The fate of Wilson’s phalarope is intimately linked to the fate of all of us living here in Utah. We need to safeguard saline lakes across the West so we can protect the people and wildlife that rely on them.”
Wilson’s phalarope spends the spring and early summer at lake habitats across North America, breeding on the northern plains. Before making the 4,000-mile journey to overwinter in South America, they stop at saline lakes like the Great Salt Lake to feed on abundant invertebrates including flies and brine shrimp, storing energy for their hemispheric flight. Up to 60% of the global population uses the Great Salt Lake each summer.
Wilson’s phalarope populations have fallen approximately 70% since the 1980s because of extensive habitat destruction, water diversions and persistent drought.
“After five years of intensively researching Wilson’s phalaropes, it is clear to me that these birds are experiencing rapid and severe habitat loss at every stage of their life cycle and migration — from Great Basin saline lakes to the saline lagoons of the high Andes,” said Ryan Carle, science director at Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge and lead author on the petition. “Because of this historic habitat loss, we’ve already seen major declines in Wilson’s phalarope populations. Now their most critically important remaining habitats are teetering on the brink of collapse. To prevent the extinction of Wilson’s phalaropes, we must save Great Salt Lake. Time is running out for the species, and we need action now.”
Because of water diversions primarily for agriculture, the Great Salt Lake fell to its lowest level in recorded history in 2022, temporarily becoming too salty for invertebrates to successfully reproduce and survive. If the lake fell permanently to such low levels or below, it would eliminate the most important site for Wilson’s phalaropes in North America.
Over the past five years, the state of Utah has worked to increase flows to the Great Salt Lake. However, those efforts have yet to make a measurable difference because of the substantial legal and cultural obstacles to changing water law and management. River flow to the lake needs to increase by approximately 1 million acre-feet (325 billion gallons) per year to fill the lake to a healthy level over the next 10 years. If not for the record-breaking snow year in 2023, the lake’s food web would have already collapsed.
“Saline lakes are in decline around the world — no one has cracked the code on how to restore them,” said Ben Abbott, Ph.D., associate professor of aquatic ecology at Brigham Young University. “Rescuing Great Salt Lake is going to take sustained focus from the state and federal government, and this petition will bring more resources and stakeholders to the table. I believe our community is going to succeed, but we need all the help we can get.”
In addition to threatening wildlife, the desiccation of the Great Salt Lake is a major public health hazard. Dust blowing from the exposed lakebed pollutes air for more than 2.8 million people along the Wasatch Front. Other than the particulate matter of the dust itself, the exposed lake sediment contains a number of different toxic chemicals and heavy metals including arsenic, mercury, lead and cadmium.
"The Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 with overwhelming bipartisan support. Even 50 years ago it was recognized that preserving the biodiversity and iconic species of the natural world was synonymous with protecting an environment that human life depends on as well,” said Brian Moench, M.D., president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment. “If we allow these birds and their habitat to disappear, we’ll be endangering life along the Wasatch Front for humans as well.”
Mono Lake in California’s eastern Sierra is also an essential Great Basin saline lake staging site for Wilson’s phalaropes’ fall migration. The Mono Lake Committee, one of today’s co-petitioners, achieved a state-mandated public trust lake level requirement to protect Mono Lake in 1994, addressing decades of excessive tributary stream diversions to Los Angeles that lowered the lake 45 vertical feet and doubled the lake’s salinity. State and federal funding supported urban water efficiencies and replacement local water supplies for the city.
However, after 30 years Mono Lake remains chronically below its mandated healthy level, causing some of the worst particulate-matter air quality violations in the country and impairing the productivity of the flies and shrimp that Wilson’s phalaropes rely on to survive.
“Thanks to citizen action that stopped the destruction of Mono Lake, we can still see tens of thousands of phalaropes winging in graceful formations among Mono Lake’s tufa towers and feasting on the lake’s flies and shrimp,” said Geoffrey McQuilkin, executive director of the Mono Lake Committee. “As we work to implement the lake’s landmark protections, the presence of phalaropes shows we can make a difference. Their epic migratory journeys are inspiration to protect saline lakes across North and South America.”
The co-petitioners are the Center for Biological Diversity; Ryan Carle and Kyriana Tarr of Oikonos Ecosystem Services; Ben Abbott, Ph.D., of Brigham Young University; Ron Larson, Ph.D., retired Fish and Wildlife Service biologist; Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment; Utah Youth for Environmental Solutions; Mono Lake Committee; Nathan Van Schmidt, Ph.D.; and Terry Tempest Williams, author and writer-in-residence at Harvard Divinity School.
หัวข้อ: Wildlife