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Unlike their relatives, pygmy rabbits seek food and shelter in tall, dense sagebrush plants, as found at Washington’s Sagebrush Flats. (Photo: Courtesy Rod Sayler, Washington State University)

Roberts, who last year became head of WDFW’s CBPR recovery effort, is working to save a rabbit as unusual as it is rare. It depends heavily on tall, dense sagebrush habitat for both food and shelter, digs burrows and weighs scarcely a pound, sometimes less. These traits are shared by all pygmy rabbits—those scattered in several western states as well as the disjunct Columbia Basin population [PDF map]. Other U.S. rabbit species prefer meadows or grasslands, where they scrape a simple depression in the soil, and are larger.

Unique approach for unique rabbit

Since October 2006, Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits have also had a unique Safe Harbor Agreement to encourage landowners to participate in recovery efforts and restore and maintain sagebrush habitat. Unlike any of the other five-dozen-plus Safe Harbors, it is neither a standard multi-landowner programmatic agreement, nor a single-landowner agreement, but a hybrid of the two.Officially known as a template Safe Harbor, it is designed to encompass multiple landowners, but without the permit holder who usually brings individual landowners under the Safe Harbor umbrella. Instead, each landowner completes a site plan that includes specific baseline conditions, spells out agreed-upon conservation measures and references the template agreement’s background biological information and administrative measures. The landowner then submits the site plan and a permit application to FWS for approval.

Landowners join recovery effort

WDFW assumes many permit holder responsibilities, including making contact with landowners, but declined the official role. Agency Ecological Restoration Specialist David Hays, who as Roberts’s predecessor participated in the template agreement’s creation and inception, says limited resources were one reason.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s David Hays in 2007 with a soon-to-be-released Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit. (Photo: Courtesy Rod Sayler, Washington State University)

He also notes that prospective enrollees preferred to work out Safe Harbor specifics directly with FWS. They liked Safe Harbor’s legal assurances that their Endangered Species Act legal responsibilities would not increase if the rabbit settled on their property. That gave the state the opportunity to survey for the rabbit on private land. “The tide turned,” Hays says. “People were willing to work with us.”Safe Harbor advocates see advantages and disadvantages to the template structure. Biologist Julie Moore, who is FWS’s national safe harbor coordinator, envisions wider use of the template structure as a practical solution when no entity is available to serve as permit holder. “It’s a mechanism that improves how we deliver Safe Harbor benefits, and it really will facilitate enrolling multiple landowners in an agreement designed to benefit a particular species by streamlining the application and analysis process.”Center for Conservation Incentives Director Michael Bean, who has worked on Safe Harbor policy and projects over the program’s entire lifetime, agrees that a template Safe Harbor can be helpful in such situations. Yet he notes that a template agreement does require individual landowners to undergo publication of a Federal Register notice and await a public comment period before they can enroll, a procedure bypassed by a programmatic agreement.Chris Warren, FWS’s Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit recovery coordinator, says that his agency expedites that step by batching applications. The first three landowner applications were published in the Federal Register along with the draft template agreement notice in August 2006, and 13 more in an April 2007 notice.When the agreement was launched, Hays notes, the state already had a private lands specialist on board who had worked in the area for over a decade. That experience enabled them to quickly identify landowners likely to enroll among area farmers and ranchers. The Nature Conservancy also enrolled properties it owns.

A full-sized Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit weighs scarcely a pound and sometimes less. (Photo: Courtesy Rod Sayler, Washington State University)

The last known wild CBPR population vanished in 2004, according to Warren. He says that the pygmy rabbits brought from Idaho for cross-breeding do not differ in appearance from the captive Columbia Basin rabbits and are not a separate subspecies, though comprehensive DNA studies have not been conducted. The goal is to restore a population of rabbits with a minimum of 75% CBPR ancestry, and Roberts said that today’s adult population is comprised of individuals with a minimum 50% CBPR genes, and the majority has greater than 75% CBPR genes.Washington State University has researched and raised CBPRs in captivity for several years. In 2007 it led an effort to reintroduce captive-bred animals to the wild. All 20 rabbits died, most within a month, although two were captured after dispersing too far.

Cautious hope for future

For now, reintroductions are on hold. “Juvenile mortality in the captive-bred population continues to be high and too variable to insure a viable captive population and a proportion for release,” says Roberts. “We are going to wait until the end of the 2008-breeding season to assess our options for 2009.”

A Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit depends heavily on sagebrush, which provides up to 99% of its winter food. (Photo: Courtesy Len Zeoli, Washington State University)

Though it didn’t return rabbits back in the wild for the long term, the 2007 reintroduction does offer some promise for eventual recovery. WSU Ph.D. candidate and researcher Len Zeoli discovered and photographed a young rabbit, born to one of three females that lived long enough to give birth after release. “Needless to say I was pretty excited. It was too small for a receiver when I first found it, and we don’t know how long it lived. It was seen again in late summer, and we went out to put a radio collar on, but it was never found again.”Later, Zeoli discovered a female digging a natal burrow to house a separate litter, further proof that captive-bred rabbits will reproduce in the wild. That’s good news for the rabbits and for the determined alliance of government agencies, researchers, Safe Harbor landowners and non-profit organizations working on the goal of restoring this unique animal of the Columbia Basin sagebrush.Margaret McMillan
Endangered Species Specialist
Center for Conservation Incentives
Environmental Defense Fund

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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While the full text of the conference report is not available, EDF cited the $4 billion in new outlays for conservation programs announced by conferees during a news conference this afternoon as an important step forward, but it is still insufficient to meet farmer demand.  Since enactment of the 2002 farm bill, $13.5 billion in requests for conservation assistance from almost half a million farmers and ranchers have gone unfunded.  

“The good news is that conference committee members recognized the need to boost conservation funding at a time when very high commodity prices are increasing pressure on our land, water, and important wildlife habitat,” said Sara Hopper, an attorney with EDF who was a staff member of the Senate Agriculture Committee during the 2002 farm bill.  “The bad news is that this new funding falls short of what’s needed to provide farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners with the resources they need to help us solve some of the nation’s biggest environmental problems.”

EDF also criticized the House-Senate conference committee for increasing, rather than decreasing, farm subsidies. 

“With crop prices and farm incomes at record levels, Congress missed a once-in-five-years opportunity to reduce farm subsidies,” Hopper said. “Instead, Congress has increased support levels for some crops, added new crops to the subsidy roll, and failed to make any significant reduction in direct payments.  Direct payments will cost over $5 billion a year for the next five years and mostly flow to producers of corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton and rice regardless of how high prices are or whether the farmer needs the assistance.” 

Both the House and Senate versions of the bill included a “Sodsaver” provision that would have barred crop insurance and some disaster payments to producers who plow up native grasslands in order to plant crops, but conference committee members gutted this provision during meetings that were not open to the public.

In a report issued last fall, the Government Accountability Office found that loss of grasslands — more than 25 million acres since 1982 — has been driven by the availability of crop insurance, disaster payments and other farm subsidies. 

“The conference committee’s decision to gut Sodsaver — while adding almost $4 billion in new subsidies for a new permanent disaster fund that will accelerate the conversion of grassland to intensive crop production — is a real disaster for the nation’s remaining native prairies,” concluded Hopper. “Add this to the pressures on grassland from high crop prices and you have a perfect storm for environmental destruction on the Great Plains.”

Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) – Has introduced legislation in the past that would limit global warming pollution from power plants; as a member of the Senate Republican leadership the question will be - does he help the Republican caucus move to a more responsible position?

Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) – A moderate Democrat with good environmental ratings from the League of Conservation Voters; represents state with one of the largest per-capita manufacturing industries in the country; he will look to balance economic and manufacturing interests in the bill.

Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) – Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee; has his own competing global warming legislation with Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA); is looked to by many moderate Democrats, particularly those with coal mining interests, as a leader on issue.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) – Senior Senator from South Carolina, a state vulnerable to hurricanes and coastal flooding; is one of Senator John McCain’s strongest allies in the Senate; supports nuclear power and will try to boost support for nuclear energy in the bill.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) – Freshman Senator from a state that is a traditional political bellwether for the country; has said that global warming is a serious threat and has promoted investments in alternative energy; her senior Senator, Kit Bond, is one of the Senate leading opponents against action to reduce global warming emissions; will look for ways to best balance her state’s rural and low-income interests in the bill.

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) – As Senate Majority Leader, he has scheduled floor time in early June to debate the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act; his leadership will be critical in bridging the differences between members.

Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) – First-term Senator from a state vulnerable to droughts and wildfires that could be made far worse by global warming; Colorado has abundant solar and wind energy resources, but also large coal and other fossil fuel reserves; Salazar has praised Colorado Governor Bill Ritter’s Climate Action Plan, which adopts aggressive greenhouse reduction goals; will be looking at various technology incentives and opportunities for agriculture in the bill to make sure that they work for Colorado.

Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) – Second-term Senator from a state renowned for its natural beauty and diverse geography; Oregon is part of the Western Climate Initiative to establish a regional approach to reducing global warming pollution; he continues to question the science behind global warming. Will he decide to represent the citizens of his state and join the call for real action?

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) – Fifth-term moderate Republican Senator from a political swing state with manufacturing and coal interests; has his own global warming legislation with Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM); if Senator Bingaman and Senator Specter will both work with constructively with Senators Lieberman and Warner on key areas of interest, it will send a strong signal to other undecided votes.

Senator John Sununu (R-NH) – First-term Senator from a state with big outdoor recreation and skiing industries that could be vulnerable to global warming; in 2005, New Hampshire joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative of nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states to limit global warming pollution; while Senator Sununu has supported a bill that would limit emissions from powerplants, he voted no on a comprehensive cap-and-trade bill in 2003; despite strong support for addressing climate change in the state, he has yet to endorse the Climate Security Act.

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