Feds to consider Tinian monarch as endangered

A rare Tinian bird that lives in a forest where the U.S. military plans to construct live-fire ranges moved closer to “endangered” status on Friday, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared further review of the species was warranted after years of clamor from environmentalists concerned with the growing threat of military presence.

The Service has included the Tinian monarch on a list of dozens of species across the nation to undergo status review over the next year.

The Tinian monarch lives exclusively in Tinian’s forest.

The Service’s announcement on Friday comes two years after a petition filed by the Center of Biological Diversity to protect the bird with endangered status in 2013. It also comes nine months after the Center filed a notice to sue the Service in December last year, alleging that the Service had failed to meet a deadline to declare if the monarch “may warrant” protection.

“The one and only island these birds call home has a long history of habitat destruction,” said Tara Easter, a scientist with the Center in a statement. “With a rampant increase in military combat training in their forested habitat, Endangered Species Act protection is critical to prevent the loss of the Tinian monarch.”

That “military combat” the Center alludes to would be the grenade, mortar, and artillery training, among others, prescribed under the “CNMI Joint Military Training” project.

That expansive live-fire project—under its preferred training alternative—would displace about 7,200 Tinian monarchs, according to the project’s environmental impact documents.

Under all alternatives, the project would remove about 1,800 acres of forest home to native birds like the monarch.

Saipan Tribune pressed several Service officials on Friday to confirm if the status review was triggered by the expanding military activities as the Center claims, but this was not answered as of press time.

The Service was also asked to explain how a potential endangered or threatened status might impact consultations with military, but this was also not answered by the Service.

If listed under the Endangered Species Act, the Service would have to engage in talks with the U.S. military and permit a “take” of the monarch after a biological opinion on impacts is issued, and if the military project is approved and moves forward.

In their impact documents, the U.S. military has noted “significant” and “unavoidable” impacts to Tinian, resulting in the loss of coral reef and acres of native forest, among others.

“The Service was petitioned to review the Tinian monarch and we have completed that 90-day review,” Christine Ogura, acting public affairs officer and Service compliance monitoring coordinator, told Saipan Tribune in an email on Friday.

“Based on the initial assessment of the petition and the information it contained, the Service determined it warrants further review. The Service will begin a required 12-month status review to determine if listing is warranted,” Ogura said.

“To ensure this review is comprehensive, the Service will be requesting scientific and commercial data and other information from myriad sources,” she added.

Saipan Tribune learned that the announced status review is evidence that there exist critical habitat areas on Tinian for the Tinian monarch—making these areas inappropriate for live-fire training.

Only about 549 acres of native forest remain on Tinian, and the monarch has seen population decline by nearly 40 percent between 1996 and 2006, according to the Center.

The Federal Aviation Administration also has concerns with the bird, Saipan Tribune learned, as a special mitigation zone was created for the Tinian monarch in 1999 out of concerns of the impact of Tinian’s Westfield airport expansion.

That year, FAA designated 936 acres of forest within the military’s leaseback area as the “airport mitigation conservation area.” The revised leaseback agreement in 1999 turned Westfield into surplus property and no longer needed for defense-related purposes. However, some 10 years later, things are different as the live-fire project entails construction on the Westfield property as well as impact to the conservation area.

The Center believes that the destruction of this land does not comply with the requirements laid out in these earlier conservation agreements.

On Friday, the Center said the expanding military activities is threatening extinction to the Tinian monarch—a 7.5-inch, tan-faced bird with a gray head, chocolate-brown back and dark wings with white bars, that catches insects and nest in trees and has call sounds just like a squeaky dog toy.