Listing actions

Endangered Species Bulletin, July-August, 2002

In addition, we are working in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group, with a Landowner Incentives Program grant and matching funds from the Conservancy, to provide financial assistance to private property owners who are willing to conserve listed and proposed species. This money has helped fund the removal of golden eagles from the island. We are also investigating the feasibility of reintroducing bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), which historically nested on the islands. Bald eagles are territorial and, if reestablished, could keep golden eagles away from the islands. Bald eagles feed primarily on marine mammals and fish and would not be a threat to the foxes. The bald eagle population on the islands was eliminated by DDT poisoning in the early 1960s.

Proposed Delisting Rule

Two Guam Birds On January 25, we proposed to remove two birds native to the Mariana Islands of the western Pacific Ocean from the list of threatened and endangered species, the Mariana mallard (Anasplatyrynchos oustaleti) and the Guam broadbill (Myiagra freycineli). Both species are now believed to be extinct.

The Mariana mallard was known only from the islands of Guam, Tinian, and Saipan. It was probably never abundant due to limited habitat availability; there have never been extensive freshwater marshes or swamps in the Mariana Archipelago. The last confirmed sighting of a Mariana mallard was in 1979. Its reduction in range and eventual extinction has been attributed to habitat loss and hunting, especially during, and immediately after, World War II. After intensive and systematic searches carried out from 1983 through 1989, investigators concluded that the Mariana mallard was extinct.

Like the Mariana mallard, the Guam broadbill also was probably never abundant. As its name indicates, it was endemic to the island of Guam. By the time the Guam broadbill was listed as endangered in 1984, its population was already critically low. In fact, there have been no confirmed sightings of this bird since 1984. The main cause for its decline was predation by the normative brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis), which was accidentally introduced to Guam shortly after World War II. This voracious predator has decimated Guam's other native forest birds. The Guam broadbill was presumed by 1985 to be extinct.

Final Listing Rules

Golden Sedge (Carex lutea) On January 23, we listed the golden sedge, a perennial in the family Cyperaceae, as an endangered species. This plant has yellowish green, grass-like leaves, and its fertile stems may reach three feet (0.9 meter) or more in height and produce many yellow flowers. Biologists have located only eight populations within coastal savannas in Onslow and Pender counties, North Carolina. Most are small, with three populations composed of fewer than 50 individual plants.

Little of the species' coastal plain habitat remains. Historically, wildfires controlled undergrowth and kept coastal grasslands and surrounding longleaf pine forests relatively open. These fires are suppressed now, making the habitat less favorable for the golden sedge and numerous other species of plants and animals. Drainage ditching, mining, bulldozing, and road-building also have harmed the species in the past, and they continue to pose a threat. Logging, if done with care, does not harm the plants.