Charges of meddling at FWS lead to expanded lynx habitat

The Fish and Wildlife Service today announced a revised critical habitat designation for the Canada lynx that marks a twentyfold expansion over a Bush-era designation tainted by political meddling. The service set aside 39,000 square miles of forest in Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington. The decision reverses a 2006 designation that enraged environmentalists by declaring 1,841 square miles of habitat for the lynx. In 2007, FWS agreed to revisit the designation after it was determined that Julie MacDonald -- President George W. Bush's appointee as the Interior Department's deputy assistant secretary overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service -- had pressured federal biologists to reach industry-friendly conclusions. Critical habitat designations prohibit actions that would diminish the land's capacity to support their resident threatened or endangered species and are the chief implementation instrument of the Endangered Species Act, and logging is listed as the most threatening human activity throughout much of the lynx's habitat...NY Times

For perspective that's an area the size of Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware & Rhode Island combined, with about 3,000 square miles left over.