The moose (Alces alces) is now on the top of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) list of special concern species. The DNR announced the new list this week. It is the first update since 1996.
For the first time since 1996 the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has updated its lists of endangered species, threatened species and species of special concern, and for the first time moose have landed on that list.
Since 2007 moose have been disappearing at an alarming rates in northern Minnesota, while all but disappearing from the northwestern part of the state.
Established nearly 30 years ago, the DNR’s list highlights plants and animals at risk from disappearing from the state.
In a statement released on Monday, August 19, Rich Baker, DNR endangered list coordinator, said, “The ultimate goal of putting a plant or animal on the list isn’t to put up walls around it; it’s to restore its health and get it back off the list. There are plenty of examples of that happening, and it doesn’t have to come at the expense of sustainable economic development.”
Some animals falling off the list include the grey wolf, bald eagle, and snapping turtle along with 15 plants and 11 other animals.
But the lynx, northern goshawk and boreal owl have been added to the special concern list. All in all the list has grown from 439 species of plants, birds, mammals, fish, invertebrates, moss, fungi, lichens, mollusks and insects to 591 species.
The reasons more plants and animals are in a state of decline is due to shrinking prairies, declining water quality, and fragmentation of northern forests, Baker said.
Under the DNR’s three tiers, an endangered species is one that is at great risk of extinction (in the state) while a threatened species is likely to become endangered in the near future unless appropriate steps are taken to save it, and a species of special concern is considered threatened but it is not seen at immediate risk.
The new list was compiled after five public hearings and an 86-day comment period and a review by an administrative law judge.
Of the 730 public comments the DNR received, more than half dealt with either keeping the wolf on the protected list or whether to allow a second wolf hunting season. The DNR has reduced the quota of wolves to be taken from 400 to 200 for 2014, but the Humane Society and several other organizations have asked the state to drop its wolf hunt and to put the wolf back on the endangered species list.
Under Minnesota law, it is illegal to take or possess an endangered or threatened species, and in the case of building roads or buildings that might affect or endanger a threatened species, a special permit must be obtained from the DNR.
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