Pygmy Rabbit Recovery Comments
by Jeff P. Koenings
USFWS - WDFW Safe Harbor Agreement Signing Ceremony
Dick and Bev Mayer Farm, Sagebrush Flats
Douglas County, Washington

October 24, 2006

I would like to thank Dick and Bev Mayer for letting us enjoy this view of Sagebrush Flat from their farm. I really appreciate the hospitality of the Mayer's which is typical of the reception we get when visiting Eastern Washington.

And it's good to meet USFWS Regional Director Ren Lohoefener, another original Midwesterner, out here on the prairie especially for such an important event. I certainly appreciate his acknowledgement of the state's work to keep the Columbian Basin pygmy rabbit from slipping into extinction.

The state listed the species as state endangered 13 years ago and have been working to improve pygmy rabbit numbers ever since with Washington State University, Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, the Oregon Zoo, the Nature Conservancy and landowners here and throughout the species range.

There are three main ingredients to make pygmy rabbit restoration a reality.

The first is the science that guides our management decisions/actions. For example, how many populations are necessary to ensure the survival of the species? Or how do we work through the tough genetics issues that the residual rabbits present us? Or how will the rabbits respond to a reintroduction experiment and how will we declare a success? We can and will answer such questions because extinction is not an option for us.

The second is the rules of the road and the responsibilities of the parties in working together. Part of these are the rules of law in the Endangered Species Act, but these can be tough to understand and even tougher to implement. One solution is a Safe Harbor Agreement that Ren and I are signing today. It helps clear the way for private landowners to help in the recovery of the rabbits without fearing further restrictions because of unintended impacts to the bunnies.

My staff was grateful to be joined in the pygmy rabbit recovery effort by their professional colleagues in the USFWS, whose collective work has brought us here today to this signing ceremony.

The importance of this agreement cannot be overstated.

Neither can be the third ingredient in success. That third ingredient is trust. Trust in the fairness of the approach which can be wrapped up in being a 'good neighbor.' We will be releasing rabbits on departmental lands, but those animals may stray onto our neighbor's properties. Good neighbors do not put their neighbors in harms way for doing the right thing. Inadvertently harming a rabbit while farming should not be a risk to the farmer or the farm.

Those of us who have been in the natural resource government service for some time realize that all of the rules and regulations and laws and best available science in the world don't mean a thing if the citizens and private landowners who live and make a living on the land are not part of the deal.

Your interest, your consent, your participation is key to recovery.

Safe Harbor Agreements provide an honest vehicle for all of us to work together. We're asking for you to voluntarily "implement conservation measures," as the paper work reads. That's allowing us to survey your land for pygmy rabbits or habitat. Allowing us to capture pygmy rabbits, if needed. Helping us monitor pygmy rabbit activity. And reporting injured or dead pygmy rabbits while notifying us of land use changes you'd like to make.

In exchange, the federal government holds you harmless for any "accidental take" of a pygmy rabbit that might happen when you're harvesting wheat or grazing cattle or going about your other land use activities.

As others have described it, it's a "liability insurance policy" for you, and for us who are charged with the responsibility of managing this native species of wildlife. I can't think of a better example of cooperation in this business.

I know this is just the beginning in that we collectively have a lot more work to do before there's a sustainable population of pygmy rabbits out here. But I am confident that by working together in the spirit of being 'good neighbors' we'll get there.

It's Washington's way of working together to move forward.

Thank you for being here today.

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