Opinion ID: 3040620
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Significant Gap in the Range

Text: The Alliance also disputes the Service’s finding that a hypothetical loss of the entire Washington population would NORTHWEST ECOYSTEM ALLIANCE v. USFWS 1235 not cause a significant gap in the range of the taxon. For purposes of the “gap in the range” analysis, the term “significant” has “its ‘commonly understood meaning,’ which is ‘important.’ ” Nat’l Ass’n of Home Builders, 340 F.3d at 846 (citations omitted). The Service’s discussion of this factor is not a paragon of clarity. Nonetheless, the Service’s reasoning can be discerned with careful reading. See id. (the court may uphold agency decisions “of less than ideal clarity if the agency’s path may reasonably be discerned” (citation omitted)). At the outset, the Service noted that Washington gray squirrels constitute an isolated, peripheral population at the northern portion of the subspecies’ range. Final Finding, 68 Fed. Reg. at 34,636. As a general matter, peripheral populations often face ecological circumstances not found elsewhere in the taxon’s range, and may consequently develop distinctive morphological, behavioral, or genetic characteristics through adaptation to local conditions. The Service then considered whether the Washington population had developed such distinctive qualities. First, the Service considered evidence suggesting that Washington gray squirrels may be more shy and secretive — as they are rarely seen and often flee from human observers — than their counterparts in Oregon and California. Id. at 34,637. The Service found the evidence to be indeterminate. The Service noted that the evidence was anecdotal, and that there are no comparative studies on elusive behavior across the range of the species. The Service also cited evidence that secretive behavior was not unique to Washington squirrels, because similar behavior had also been observed among Oregon squirrels. The Service further stated that even if such behavior does indeed characterize Washington squirrels, there was no evidence that it was caused by adaptation to a peripheral habitat. In the Service’s view, behavioral differences, if any, could simply be attributable to the larger populations south of the Columbia River and their adaptability and proximity to urban areas. Id. 1236 NORTHWEST ECOYSTEM ALLIANCE v. USFWS The Service next considered evidence on morphology and home range size. A study of gray squirrels in Klickitat County, part of the South Cascades population, found them to be significantly larger in body dimension than elsewhere in the subspecies’ range. Id. at 34,637. The same study also found that the gray squirrels in Klickitat County had substantially larger home range size when compared with elsewhere in the subspecies’ range. The Service, however, declined to credit the results of the study. The Service noted that the study was based on a small sample size — which the record showed to be fewer than fifty squirrels — in a small area of Klickitat county. The Service further theorized that variations in measurement methods, rather than actual differences, might account for the observed results in home range size. Even if the results were accurate, the Service could discern no basis for attributing them to the peripheral location of Washington gray squirrels. The Service ultimately determined that, while a hypothetical loss of the Washington population would “represent a serious reduction in the species[’] range,” it would not be of biological and ecological significance to the taxon as a whole. Id. Put differently, the Service believed that any gap caused by the loss of the Washington population would not be significant because the population lacks biologically distinctive traits. The Alliance complains that the Service dismissed evidence purely on the basis of scientific uncertainty. The ESA instructs the Service to make its determinations “solely on the basis of the best scientific and commercial data available,” 16 U.S.C. § 1533(b)(1)(A), and the Service may not ignore evidence simply because it falls short of absolute scientific certainty. See Defenders of Wildlife v. Babbit, 958 F. Supp. 670, 679-80 (D.D.C. 1997) (Service applied wrong legal standard in dismissing scientific evidence because it was not “conclusive”); Center for Biological Diversity v. Lohn, 296 F. Supp. 2d 1223, 1236-40 (W.D. Wash. 2003) (NMFS was capricious NORTHWEST ECOYSTEM ALLIANCE v. USFWS 1237 and arbitrary in relying on outdated taxonomic classifications which the best available science showed to be incorrect). We are unpersuaded that the Service was justified in rejecting the secretive behavior evidence and Klickitat County study solely because they were anecdotal. Of course a rigorous, large-scale study of Washington gray squirrels’ behavior and morphology would be preferable, but in the absence of such a study, credible anecdotal evidence represents the “best scientific . . . data available” and cannot be ignored. Nevertheless, we hold that the Service did not arbitrarily and capriciously fail to find a significant gap on the basis of such data. Similarly shy and secretive behavior has been documented among Oregon squirrels, and the Klickitat County study was limited geographically to a subset of one of the three Washington habitats of the gray squirrel. While crediting the anecdotal evidence, the Service could have concluded that the extirpation of squirrels whose behavior is not unique and whose larger size is known to exist only in a single county would not create a significant gap in the taxon. The Alliance further challenges the Service’s determination that a “serious reduction” in the subspecies’ range does not amount to a “significant gap” due to the absence of biologically distinctive traits in the Washington population. See Final Finding, 68 Fed. Reg. at 34,637. The Alliance analogizes the “significant gap” factor in the DPS Policy to 16 U.S.C. § 1532(6), which defines an “endangered species” as a species that is “in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.” We have recognized that a species can be considered extinct throughout a significant portion of its range “if there are major geographical areas in which it is no longer viable but once was.” Defenders of Wildlife v. Norton, 258 F.3d 1136, 1145 (9th Cir. 2001). It does not follow that a serious reduction in the western gray squirrel’s geographic range similarly suffices to satisfy the “significant gap” factor. Unlike § 1532(6), the “significance” inquiry under the DPS Policy is not limited to geographic factors. On its face, the DPS Policy considers ecological, historical, and genetic fac1238 NORTHWEST ECOYSTEM ALLIANCE v. USFWS tors in addition to geography. Nothing in the DPS Policy or in the ESA limits the Service’s significant gap inquiry to geographic factors. [11] The Alliance counters that previous administrative applications of the DPS Policy have found “significant gaps” in the range of taxa solely on account of geographic factors. The Alliance asserts that the Service’s current refusal to do the same for Washington gray squirrels is arbitrary and capricious. See National Cable & Telecomm. Ass’n v. Brand X Internet Servs., 545 U.S. 967, 125 S. Ct. 2688, 2699 (2005) (“Unexplained inconsistency is, at most, a reason for holding an interpretation to be an arbitrary and capricious change from agency practice”). The Alliance cites four prior administrative decisions. Three actually considered biological factors as part of their “significant gap” analyses.11 Only one of the four relied solely on geography to find that the population’s extirpation would cause a significant gap.12 In practice, the 11 See Final Endangered Status for a Distinct Population Segment of Smalltooth Sawfish (Pristis pectinata) in the United States, 68 Fed. Reg. 15,674, 15,675-76 (Apr. 1, 2003) (finding that loss of U.S. smalltooth sawfish population would create a significant gap partly because the population “comprises an important component of the sawfishes’ remaining global biological diversity”); Final Rule to List the Columbia Basin Distinct Population Segment of the Pygmy Rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis) as Endangered, 68 Fed. Reg. 10,388, 10,397-98 (Mar. 5, 2003) (finding that loss of Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits would constitute a significant gap partly because the population is experiencing increased “directional selection” and “exhibiting genetic consequences of long-term isolation”); Final Endangered Status for a Distinct Population Segment of Anadromous Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) in the Gulf of Maine, 65 Fed. Reg. 69,459, 69,460 (Nov. 17, 2000) (finding that loss of the Gulf of Maine population of Atlantic salmon would “negatively affect the genetic resources of Atlantic salmon as a whole because it would contribute to further range reduction”). 12 Determination of Threatened Status for the Northern Population of the Copperbelly Water Snake, 62 Fed. Reg. 4183, 4184 (January 29, 1997) (“The loss of the peripheral, isolated, northern population [of copperbelly water snakes] is considered as significant as characterized under policy, as it would result in a significant reduction in the range of the taxon.”) . NORTHWEST ECOYSTEM ALLIANCE v. USFWS 1239 Service has regarded the “significant gap” inquiry as a flexible one, and has considered various non-geographic factors on different occasions. Here, the Service has articulated a reasonable basis — the Washington population’s lack of biologically and ecologically distinguishing features — for its conclusion that the loss of the population would not cause a significant gap. We cannot say that the Service’s analysis, which is in fact substantially more detailed than those cited by the Alliance, is an arbitrary and capricious departure from prior practice.