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Wildlife conservation
"Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals "love" them. But those
who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives, love them more."
~ Edwin Way Teale, Circle of the Seasons, 1953
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Protection Denied Western Gray Squirrel
Last Call For A Native Squirrel
Conservation Northwest
http://www.conservationnw.org/wildlife-habitat/protection-denied-western-gray-squirrel/
Western gray squirrels will remain off the endangered species list even though
their populations face extinction in Washington State.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has refused to list the squirrel on the grounds that other western gray
squirrel populations in Oregon and California are stable. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in February 2007
confirmed the agency's determination and denied protection for western gray squirrels in Washington, despite
biologists' recommendations. As a result the western gray squirrel in Washington won't receive protection.
Together with other conservation organizations, Conservation Northwest had petitioned the federal agency to
gain Washington's squirrel endangered status as a "distinct population segment." Surveys last summer documented
fewer than 300 western gray squirrels in the state.
One of the three remaining Washington populations lives in south Puget Sound in rare oak-woodland prairie at
the site of the proposed Cross-Base Highway. The others reside in eastern Washington.
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