(CN) — The endangered Canada Lynx received good news Wednesday after a federal appeals court panel upheld restrictions on trapping in their core habitat in Minnesota.
In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit rejected an appeal from a coalition of animal trappers who argued that a federal judge's consent decree is procedurally unfair and that its new restrictions are unreasonable.
"When are consent decrees fair and reasonable? The district court thought this one, which requires Minnesota to take additional steps to protect Canadian lynx, qualifies. And although a coalition of animal trappers disagrees, we affirm," U.S. Circuit Judge David Stras, a Donald Trump appointee, wrote in the ruling.
The consent decree, ordered in February 2023, proposed a set of regulations designed to increase an ensnared lynx’s chance of survival and to curb future violations of the Endangered Species Act. Under it, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources agreed to put additional restrictions on snare and foothold traps in the "Lynx Management Zone" in the northeast region of the state within 40 days.
Stras wrote in the ruling that because negotiations over the consent decree lasted several months and involved significant input by experts on the matter, it appears to have been the product of a hard-fought, fair compromise.
U.S. Circuit Judges Lavenski Smith and Duane Benton, who were both appointed by George W. Bush, joined Stras on the panel.
The coalition of trappers intervened and asked the lower court to reject the decree. In their view, it was prejudicial, harmful and would eliminate all “meaningful snaring in the Lynx Management Zone.” They also argued that state law prevented Minnesota from adopting the new regulations in the way the consent decree proposed.
"These are legitimate concerns, but the district court reviewed the evidence and found that, notwithstanding the burden on trappers, each regulation would reduce the number of lynx killed. Even if a different interpretation of the evidence is possible, our job is to determine whether the consent decree’s terms find 'support [in] the record.' And here, they do," Stras wrote.
The judge added that federal agencies in Minnesota are allowed to adopt rules to permit or prohibit the taking of wild animals in order to protect a species. He noted that under Minnesota law, the state's commissioner of natural resources can bypass public comment and expedite emergency rule-making when data shows dwindling or expanding numbers require on-the-fly adjustments to what hunters are allowed.
“The court rightly rejected the trappers’ insistence on using indiscriminate neck snares where they could strangle and kill protected Canada lynx,” the Minneapolis-based carnivore conservation director for the Center of Biological Diversity, Collette Adkins, said.
“The ban on strangulation snares and other commonsense reforms that resulted from this litigation will prevent needless, agonizing deaths of these rare cats, as well as other unintended victims like dogs. Minnesota’s Northwoods are a safer place for wildlife, and I’m relieved," Adkins added.
For years, the Center for Biological Diversity has pressed Minnesota to do more to protect lynx from trappers, who sometimes “incidentally take” them while trying to catch legal game, largely to sell their furs.
The center filed its lawsuit in 2020 against the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, arguing that the state’s trapping and snaring laws allowed incidental bycatch of Canada lynx in violation of the Endangered Species Act. Trapping of Canada lynx, unless covered by a specific permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, constitutes an illegal take under the Endangered Species Act, even if it’s accidental.
Despite a Minnesota federal court ordering the state to better protect lynx from trapping in the cat's core habitat in response to a lawsuit filed by wildlife conservation groups in 2008, the species continued to decline due to getting caught in traps.
The Center said they fear the state’s current lynx population may be as low as 50.
Trapping, habitat destruction, climate change and other threats continue to harm the Canada lynx, according to the Center. Although once more widespread, lynx currently reside in small breeding populations in Minnesota, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Maine, with a reintroduced population also residing in Colorado.
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