Posted by
moneymaker
531 days ago
(http://www.foxnews.com)
Category: Science Discovery Environment |
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposed critical habitat designation is a response to a 2005 lawsuit. Environmentalists claim in the suit the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep couldn't recover because their habitat wasn't protected as required under the Endangered Species Act.
Wednesday's proposal should end the argument, federal officials said.
"The whole purpose of the act isn't just to put species on the list," said Lisa Belenky, an attorney with the San Francisco-based Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the lawsuit. "This is a good first step, because by preserving habitat, you're able to bring the species back from extinction."
The bighorns live much of the year atop the Sierra Nevada's granite peaks, where they forage for sagebrush and grasses. Before the turn of the century, thousands of wild bighorns lived in the high Sierra.
But predatory mountain lions and genetic problems caused by inbreeding have caused the population to crash. Only about 100 were alive as recently as 1998, a year before the Fish and Wildlife Service listed the sheep as endangered.
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