Lynx critical habitat comment period reopens, analysis available

Readers,

I just got this post about the lynx critical habitat study. Please check it out. At the last Lutsen town meeting, County Commissioner Bruce Martinson showed maps of the critical habitat territory which includes virtually all county land, both public and private. He told residents that the report concludes there would be zero economic impact to the county by restricting future development in these areas.
The comment period closes again on October 11, 2006. In the previous comment period, some townships wrote stating that due to the small (less than nine percent) amount of private land in the county, restricting private development would be a great economic hardship. These comments were ignored, in a similar manner to the comments by most county communities that allowing limited commercial trout fishing in Lake Superior would be beneficial to our economy and would honor our history.
Please take the time to check out this website, read the report and look at the maps:
http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/species/mammals/lynx/criticalhabitat.htm.

Sincerely, True

From: Lori_Nordstrom@fws.gov [mailto:Lori_Nordstrom@fws.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 4:57 PM
Subject: lynx economic analysis coming soon

FYI -
The draft economic analysis and NEPA document for the lynx critical habitat
will be available for public comment starting Sept. 11, 2006. On Sept 11 a notice of the availability of these documents will be published in the Federal Register and we will make the documents available on our website http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/species/mammals/lynx/criticalhabitat.htm.

The comment period will be open for 30 days (by my count it will close October 11, 2006). We are working under a court-ordered deadline to have a final critical habitat designation by Nov 1, 2006.

Lori Nordstrom

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Lori H. Nordstrom
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
585 Shepard Way
Helena, MT 59601
phone: 406/449-5225 ext. 208
fax: 406/449-5339
email: lori_nordstrom@fws.gov