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Endangered Caribou saved by a court ruling
28/Sep/2006: In an effort to protect the endangered American reindeer (Rangier tarandus), know as Caribou in North America, a U.S district court judge, banned snowmobiles (also known as snow scooters or snow machines) in 470 square miles of national forest in northern Idaho.
Judge Robert H. Whaley, in a ruling, banned these vehicles throughout the Caribou recovery zone in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, until the forest service develops a comprehensive winter recreation strategy, which should consider the impact of snowmobiles on the natural habitat of the caribou.
The judge said in his ruling that the court is choosing an overprotective approach in this issue, in an attempt to protect a few dozen caribou at the threshold of extinction. Estimates of the reindeer population in the national forest land in Idaho showed that only three dozen animals are living in herds, in this region.
The judge also cited aerial photographs of this region, which showed snowmobile tracks crisscrossing the caribou routes to very important feeding areas. Lichens serve as a main food for caribou in the winter, even though they eat leaves, grasses and sedges.
Earlier, environmental groups in the region sought a ban on snowmobiles to protect this critically endangered species, as noisy snow vehicles scare caribou away from their feeding grounds in winter. Moreover the tracks left by the snowmobiles allow wolves and bears to move easily in the snow and hunt down the caribou, which relies heavily on the protection given by the thick snow that hinders the swift movement of predators.
People who oppose the ban say that the caribou population in this area was already decimated by logging and climate change and only a few caribou have been spotted in this region in last few years.
The ban does not cover the state-owned land, east of Priest Lake, which stretches for hundreds of miles and it offers a slim chance for allowing limited snowmobiling in the caribou recovery area. The judge gave a week’s time to the forest service and the environmental groups, to develop a new proposal for a trail-specific approach in this region.
K Siva
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