U.S. wildlife officials have agreed to design a plan to protect the Canadian lynx habitat, under a legal settlement with environmentalists announced Tuesday.
The treaty could protect vast territories of the western United States, particularly Colorado, which is valued by this rare animal and love of snow.
A US federal agency, the US Fish and Wildlife Servicemust submit a protection plan before 2024, as part of a legal agreement reached with the two environmental organizations, Guardians of the Wild Earth at Wilderness Workshop.
The groups turned to the courts to enforce a previous decision that ruled that federal officials improperly excluded parts of Colorado, Montana and Wyoming in 2014, when nearly 105,000 square kilometers were designated. reviews for the long -term survival of the lynx.
Lynx are shy animals that hide in the forest. There is no reliable estimate of their population, but there are probably several hundred in the American Rockies.
They were added to the list of endangered animals underEndangered Species Act of the United States in 2000.
Leaders estimated, under the leadership of Donald Trump, that the lynx no longer needed federal government protection. President Joe Biden’s administration reversed that decision and promoted the protection of the lynx as an endangered species. This, however, had no effect on the territory he needed to survive.
Scientists warn that climate change could reverse the progress made in protecting the lynx, including melting its snowy habitat and reducing the presence of its favorite prey, the snowshoe hare.
Source: Radio-Canada
