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The Queen Charlotte subspecies of the northern goshawk, with its legendary beauty and flying skill, is the rarest and most old-growth dependent of all North American goshawks, evolved to live in the lush coastal rainforests of Alaska and the Queen Charlotte and Vancouver islands. As the mature forests it needs fall to the chainsaw, so does this unique bird.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Not listed
PETITIONED: 1994; two listing denials struck down by federal judges; third listing decision expected late 2007
RANGE: The coastal rainforests of insular Alaska, the Queen Charlotte Islands, and Vancouver Island; may also be the subspecies in the Olympic Peninsula
THREATS: Old-growth logging and urban development
POPULATION TREND: The population is estimated to have declined from more than 1,200 breeding pairs to between 275 and 575 breeding pairs.
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SAVING THE QUEEN CHARLOTTE GOSHAWK
The Center first petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1994 to place the Queen Charlotte goshawk on the endangered species list and designate large swaths of critical habitat. By 1995, the bird was showing classic extinction dynamics: very high mortality rates correlated with very large home ranges correlated with heavily logged forests. Yet the Service bowed to timber-industry pressure and refused listing. The Center has been litigating to list the goshawk ever since.
That ongoing battle has dramatically increased protection for old-growth forests in Alaska and British Columbia. While barely considered in previous versions of the Tongass National Forest Land Management Plan, the goshawk became one of the centerpieces of the 1999 plan revision. In her book, Tongass: Pulp Politics and the Fight for the Alaskan Rain Forest, Kathie Durbin writes, “Suddenly the Forest Service/timber industry dominated plan was being critically reviewed through the lens of the Endangered Species Act.” The goshawk, she continues, was “ in the driver’s seat.”
In 2000, British Columbia classified the species as threatened under its Species at Risk Act , and in November 2007, the Fish and Wildlife Service determined that Canadian Queen Charlotte goshawks warrant protection as an endangered species. However, the agency also determined that the goshawk’s populations in British Columbia and southeast Alaska each constitute distinct population segments, allowing for separate listing decisions on the species in the two areas. Unfortunately, while goshawks on Vancouver Island were protected, the Service decided that the Alaskan population was sufficiently protected by the Tongass Land Management Plan and would not be listed. This decision failed to address whether the Queen Charlotte goshawk should be protected as a species endangered in all or a significant part of its range — not only leaving Alaskan goshawks out in the cold, but also directly violating the Endangered Species Act.
The Center strongly objects to the 2007 decision and will work to ensure that the goshawk is fully protected throughout its range — including Alaska, Washington, and Oregon. We are also seeking to realize a cross-border recovery plan and to see the goshawk’s critical habitat protected.
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Gentilis: An Occasional Review of Goshawk Research & Conservation Issues
Contact: Kierán Suckling
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