Published March 13, 2018 at
08:16PM
Bird no longer a threatened species
There’s good news and bad news
this week about the status of the iconic marbled murrelet.
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife
Commission announced the good news: The coastal bird has been relisted from
being a threatened species to an endangered one.
The bad? Circumstances that led
to the new listing.
Now the state will have to draft
survival guidelines and a management plan to ensure the seabird survives — and
thrives — in Oregon.
The murrelet was first listed as
a threatened species 23 years ago, and the petition to “uplist” the bird began
in 2016 by Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild, Coast Range Forest Watch, the
Center for Biological Diversity, the Audubon Society of Portland and the Oregon
Chapter of the Sierra Club.
The birds
Marbled murrelets are dove-sized
seabirds that range along the North American coast from southeastern Alaska to
Northern California. They forage in marine waters, usually within a few miles
of shore, dive for schooling fish such as sand lance, anchovy or herring, and
like puffins or murres, their close relatives, they are characterized by a
stubby bodies and wings. Unlike puffins or murres, they do not form breeding
colonies, nesting nowhere near rocky headlands or islands.
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