[CPEO-MEF] NATURAL RESOURCES: "Emails Reveal Navy's Intent to Break Law, Threatening Endangered Wildlife, " Pacific Northwest

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Exclusive: Emails Reveal Navy's Intent to Break Law, Threatening Endangered Wildlife

By Dahr Jamail
Truth out 
May 9, 2016


When it comes to getting its way with war-gaming in the Pacific Northwest, nobody is better at the concept of "distributed lethality" than the US Navy. In 2015, the Navy introduced this concept "that promised to add more fire power to all manner of Navy vessels and operate them in a way that would spread thin enemy defenses." The Navy seems determined to move forward with planned military activities like increasing jet dogfighting, electromagnetic warfare training and other actions, regardless of how many animals it kills. Internal emails show how the Navy has been working to manipulate the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) biologists into bending the law, then proceeded to break the law, whilst the consultations between the two entities are ongoing.

An anonymous Navy source leaked several internal emails to Truthout that reveal how the Navy is trying to redefine "harm" to wildlife, in a way that would allow the Navy a potentially far greater rate of "takes" to marbled murrelets and other endangered and/or threatened species. A "take" is defined by the Endangered Species Act as to "harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect" any threatened or endangered species. Marbled murrelets are secretive diving seabirds that nest in old-growth forests, which makes them vulnerable to both jet noise and sonar.
…

For the entire article, see
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35954-exclusive-emails-reveal-navy-s-intent-to-break-law-threatening-endangered-wildlife

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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