MARBLED MURRELET STATUS AND ECOLOGY. The marbled murrelet was listed as a threatened species in Washington, Oregon, and California in 1992 under the federal ESA. The primary reasons for listing included extensive loss and fragmentation of old-growth forests that serve as nesting habitat for marbled murrelets and mortality in the marine environment caused by gillnets and oil spills (57 FR 45328 [Oct. 1, 1992]). In 1993, the Washington State Fish and Wildlife Commission listed the marbled murrelet as a threatened species in Washington. In 1997, Washington enacted State Forest Practices Rules to address impacts to marbled murrelets from timber management on non-federal lands. Due to ongoing population and habitat declines in Washington, the marbled murrelet was listed as an endangered species by the Washington State Fish and Wildlife Commission in 2016 (Xxxxxxxx 2016). Although threats such as gillnet mortality and loss of nesting habitat on federal lands have been reduced since 1992, the species continues to be classified as a threatened species in Washington, Oregon, and California under the federal ESA due to ongoing threats associated with nesting habitat loss and degradation of marine foraging habitat (USFWS 2019).
MARBLED MURRELET STATUS AND ECOLOGY. The murrelet was federally listed as a threatened species in Washington, Oregon, and northern California effective September 28, 1992 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1992a). The final rule designating critical habitat for the murrelet became effective on June 24, 1996 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1996). This designation was later revised and the final revised rule became effective on November 4, 2011 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2011b). Approximately 3,698,100 acres of federal, state, county, city, and private lands in Washington, Oregon, and California were designated as critical habitat. Of these, approximately 1,631,100 acres were designated in Washington (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1996). Most of these acres (78%) are federal lands, 21% are state lands, and the remaining areas are on private, county, and city lands. No murrelet critical habitat was designated on the LCT, but approximately 80% of the perimeter border is designated murrelet critical habitat. The species’ decline has largely been caused by extensive removal of late-successional and old-growth coastal forests which serve as the murrelet’s nesting habitat. Additional listing factors included high nest- site predation rates and human-induced mortality in the marine environment from gillnets and oil spills. The Marbled Murrelet Recovery Plan (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1997a) (Murrelet Recovery Plan) identified six Conservation Zones throughout the listed range of the species including two in western Washington: Puget Sound (Conservation Zone 1) and Western Washington Coast Range (Conservation Zone 2). The LCT is entirely included in Conservation Zone 1. Documented downward trends have been observed in Conservation Zone 1 and Conservation Zone 2, but not in other conservation zones (Xxxxxx et al. 2012). These declines coincide with reductions in the amount of nesting habitat since the beginning of at-sea monitoring in 2001 (Xxxxxxx et al. 2011). Conservation Zone 1 includes all the waters of Puget Sound and most waters of the Strait of Xxxx xx Xxxx south of the U.S.-Canadian border. It extends inland 55 miles from Puget Sound, including the north Cascade Mountains and the northern and eastern sections of the Olympic Peninsula. Conservation Zone 1 contains one of the larger murrelet populations in the species’ listed range and supports an estimated 41% of the murrelets in the coterminous United States (Xxxx et al. 2003). In Conservation Zone 1, higher densities of murrelets occur...
