By Laura Zuckerman
SALMON, Idaho, Aug 28 (Reuters) - A Native American tribe in
Idaho has been assigned the task of drafting a plan for saving a
tiny band of wild reindeer from extinction in a far corner of
the northern Rockies straddling the U.S.-Canadian border,
federal wildlife officials said on Friday.
A population of woodland caribou now numbering just 14 in
the remote Selkirk Mountains has been at the center of a
protracted fight among conservationists, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and groups promoting recreational use and
logging in the creatures' alpine habitat.
First listed as an endangered species in 1984, they are the
only wild reindeer of their kind left in the Lower 48 states,
though they are close cousins of caribou that roam northern
Alaska in large herds.
Under a rare agreement with the Fish and Wildlife Service,
the Kootenai Tribe of northern Idaho will receive $35,000 to
draft an updated recovery plan for the Selkirk caribou, which
rely on old-growth forests in elevations above 4,000 feet (1,200
meters) for a winter diet of lichens.
Possible recovery measures could range from restoration of
habitat fragmented by logging, wildfires and snowmobile trails
to control of wolves and other predators, said Kim Garner, chief
of recovery for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Boise.
The tribe's plan will receive input from a number of
entities, including state and federal wildlife officials and two
Idaho counties that have opposed habitat protections that would
curb recreational and commercial activities.
The Kootenai agreement comes after tribal members approached
U.S. wildlife managers to voice their interest in the reclusive
caribou's fate, Garner said.
Tribal Chairman Gary Aitken Jr. hailed the partnership as
one that "saves costs and achieves conservation more efficiently
and effectively." The tribe has until Aug. 17 to draft the
proposal.
A Fish and Wildlife Service proposal in March to downgrade
the status of the dwindling herd from endangered to threatened
drew opposition from conservation groups like the Center for
Biological Diversity.
Also in March a federal judge ruled the agency violated U.S.
law in 2012 by cutting the amount of public land designated as
critical reindeer habitat to 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares),
down from 375,000 acres (152,000 hectares), without sufficient
public notice and input.
The center's Noah Greenwald said the caribou face extinction
without stronger habitat safeguards and possible augmentation of
the herd. He also said he knew of no other instances of an
Indian tribe being put in charge of drafting a recovery plan for
an endangered species.
(Editing by Steve Gorman and Sandra Maler)