Commissioners also concerned about possible trapping restrictions

Koochiching County commissioners strongly opposed a proposal by a federal agency that they believe would restrict outdoor recreation and development in the county.
Commissioners agreed to oppose the expansion of the critical habitat of the threatened species Canadian lynx, while concluding that the cats are not a threatened species in northern Minnesota and are not native to the area.
The habitat expansion is proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife. Agency biologist Phil Delphey discussed via phone the proposal with the board Tuesday.
Commissioners also stated that they will join other northern Minnesota counties to oppose the habitat expansion.
County commissioners are concerned that the expansion of the critical habitat would add restrictions to outdoor recreation, such as trapping, and development in the area, which would lead to economic hardship.
The federal agency has heard similar concerns about the expansion from other counties, according to Delphey.
The board questioned whether an order for the cessation of accidental trappings will have an impact on issuance of trapping permits in Minnesota and if the order cornered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife into proposing the habitat expansion.
Commissioners also questioned what the impact would be if a second federal agency controlled the county’s land, siting the experiences it has had with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on wetland issues in the county during the past year.
“We’re under siege,” Commissioner Mike Hanson said.
Threatened species
Canadian lynx, or as the commissioners joked, “cats with a bad hair day,” were common in northern Minnesota until the 1980s, when their numbers began to dwindle.
Minnesota banned lynx trapping in 1984. But their numbers did not rebound and the cat was gone from the state in 2000.
Canadian lynx was added to the threatened species list in 2000, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. They have begun to rebound and reproduction has been found in Minnesota for the last five years, according to Delphey. The Canadian lynx population numbers fluctuate based on snowshoe hare population numbers, which is the cats’ main prey.
Under the Endangered Species Act, lynx are protected in the lower 48 states. But Commissioner Chuck Lepper pointed out that it was “funny” that Canada doesn’t feel the Canadian lynx is threatened. The population travels over an international boundary, Delphey said, noting that the lynx are trapped legally in Canada.
When a species is listed as threatened, U.S. Fish and Wildlife is required to determine whether a critical habitat needs to be designated for the species. The federal agency determined in 2000 that it didn’t need to designate a habitat for the lynx, but a lawsuit was brought against the agency, and in 2006, it designated a critical habitat for the cats, Delphey said.
The critical habitat designation will remain until the Canadian lynx are delisted, according to Delphey. A draft of a recovery plan for the species is being drawn up currently. The recovery plan includes targets, such as eliminating threats to the species and population numbers, Delphey said.
Lepper said he believed the cats were not native to Koochiching County. Instead, he said, the population of Canadian lynx is growing, leading to the need for their habitat to expand into the county.
Lynx habitat is “good” and therefore there is no need for an expansion of a critical habitat, he said.
“How do you recover something that’s doing well?” Lepper asked, noting that recovery would mean getting rid of the lynx in the area since they are not native.

Accidental lynx trapping
U.S. District Judge Michael Davis earlier this month ordered the state to take action to ensure that no further accidental trapping or snaring kills Canadian lynx.
At least 13 lynx were injured or killed by trappers in the state between 2002 and 2005, according to Davis’s order. The accidental killings occur when a trap or snare is set for other species such a bobcat or a fox.
Minnesota banned lynx trapping in 1984.
Hanson said his constituents are “sick” about diminishing freedoms in outdoor recreation.
“I think this is a lot of B.S.,” Hanson said about Davis’s order. Hanson also wondered if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife was “backed into a corner” by the lawsuit.
The Minnesota DNR should favor trapping because it is sensible natural resource control, Hanson said He also pointed out that in one state, trapping has been ceased because of accidental lynx killings.
Delphey said the state is not discontinuing trapping. If precautions are taken while trapping, it is lawful and the state will continue to issue trapping permits, he said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife does not support anti-trapping laws, he stated.
Hanson said he believes if the proposal would have no impact, then the designation is not needed.
Koochiching County is “so used to getting slapped around like an ugly stepsister” by federal agencies that county officials are skeptical that their opinions will be taken into consideration.
Bullying counties “is not our intention,” Delphey said. He said previous expansions of the lynx’s critical habitat were driven by public comment.

Habitat impacts
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife is in a public comment period on its proposal to expand the Canadian lynx’s critical habitat across Koochiching, St. Louis, Lake and Cook counties.
In Koochiching County, the critical habitat now includes only Voyageurs National Park, which has been included since 2006.
The federal agency is proposing to expand the critical habitat to include the land east of Highway 53 in Koochiching County.
If the lynx were going to have a critical habitat, “have it in Ontario and not in Minnesota,” Hanson said.
Following the public comment period, U.S. Fish and Wildlife is expected to conduct an assessment of the economic impact the proposed expansion would have on the area. A second public comment period is expected to follow.
VNP has not experienced any impacts due to it being designated as a critical habitat, according to Delphey.
“How would we know?” Hanson said. Hunting and trapping are not allowed in the park, therefore the designation of VNP as a critical habitat means “very little to us,” Hanson said.
The critical habitat has already impacted development, according to Lepper. A U.S. Highway 53 task force had to modify a design in the creation of a four-lane highway between Virginia and Cook, Lepper said. The highway project included federal funding, and therefore the task force had to follow federal regulations for the critical habitat.
Commissioner Wade Pavleck said he has seen projects stopped by “flora and fauna” and fears the critical habitat designation will be “another tool used to impede development.” The population of Koochiching County is dwindling and the economy in rural Minnesota is hard to sustain, Pavleck pointed out.
Everyone wants to protect the environment and species, but Pavleck questioned if it was worth all of the hassle.
Local developer Bruce LaVigne said it was good to see the county understand the challenges of development in the county. More regulations are not needed because “developing is tough enough,” he told the county board. The critical habitat designation is “another disguise” to control the land, he said.

Federal bureaucracy
With two public comment periods, Pavleck called it “bureaucracy running wild here.”
There was validity in Pavleck’s comment, according to Delphey. The federal agency has faced criticism for overwhelming the public, he said.
Delphey noted that the critical habitat designation would only affect the actions of a federal agency and if a project were to involve a state or private agency, it would not have any regulatory impact.
That could change in the future, Lepper warned.
The Canadian lynx live mostly on upland areas as opposed to lowland and wetlands, Delphey said. The lynx travel through wetlands from their dens — which are in lowland — to the upland, so it would be ideal to keep wetlands for the cats.
The wetlands in the county are tied up because of federal and state rules, and now the uplands are going to be tied up by the critical habitat, Pavleck said.
“They’re going to bureaucrat us to death,” Pavleck said.