Kyle scientist warns of heavy oil pressure on Great Plains wildlife

RAPID CITY – Speaking here on national Endangered Species Day, a Kyle biology teacher said the oil industry’s thrust to remove federal protection from the American burying beetle promotes hazardous pipeline construction and habitat destruction on the Great Plains.

Dan Snethen, former Science Department chair at Little Wound High School, spoke at the invitation of the Prairie Hills Audubon Society, Rapid City Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America, South Dakota Chapter of Citizen’s Climate Lobby, Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, Western Watersheds Project, and Dakota Rural Action.

The organizations advised listeners that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is taking comments until July 2 on its proposed beetle reclassification to “threatened,” a less protected status than its current “endangered” category.

“My concern is habitat pressure and fragmentation, which I believe the Keystone XL Pipeline will produce if they are allowed to build it,” Snethen told the Native Sun News Today.

The Canadian TC Energy Corp. is seeking federal, tribal and state approval to complete the pipeline through Nebraska, South Dakota and Montana. It plans to ship diluted bitumen, or dilbit, from the tar sands of Alberta to refineries and export facilities on the Gulf of Mexico.

Tribes of the Oceti Sakowin, together with indigenous and other organizations, including Dakota Rural Action, have tied up the permitting with legal red tape for a decade, arguing that it threatens treaty land and water with oil spills.

The Rosebud Sioux Tribal Utility Commission scheduled a public hearing on the proposed pipeline May 28 and 29, 2019. The tribe is among several that have sued U.S. President Donald Trump for illegally issuing a Presidential Permit.

The American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus) is the largest of the carrion beetles in North America. A fiery black-and-orange bug known as one of “nature’s undertakers,” it efficiently cleans up bird and animal carcasses by burying them, nesting and feeding on the hosts, then raising young on them underground.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the species as endangered in 1989. The agency claimed it was in danger of extinction, because viable populations could no longer be found in 90 percent of its former range.

Once occurring throughout 35 states east of the Rocky Mountains, it is now only in six, including the parts of South Dakota and Nebraska where the Keystone XL Pipeline is slated.

Snethen is the one who discovered the beetle populations in many South Dakota and Nebraska counties, including Tripp and Todd, which overlap tribal jurisdiction and are on the pipeline construction route.

“I want them to remain there,” he said of the bugs, noting that they are an “apex scavenger,” which plows nutrients back into the soil, covering rotting varmints with secretions that prevent spread of disease-causing bacteria.

The environmental impact statement for the pipeline says the megaproject “is likely to adversely affect” the American burying beetle along a 60-mile stretch in Nebraska, as well as along a 35-mile length of the route through Tripp County in South Dakota.

The installation would permanently affect 102 acres of beetle habitat in South Dakota and temporarily impact some 525. It would permanently impact some 170 acres in Nebraska and 285 acres temporarily, according to the environmental study.

The permanent impact would result from above-ground facilities, such as pump stations, and raised soil temperature in a 22-foot-wide corridor along the pipeline right of way. The temporary impact would result from construction and access roads.

However, the data is from 2010, so it’s outdated, Snethen said. South Dakota is only now embarking on a new study, in which he is participating. He explores and encounters beetle habitat, then traps, monitors and records beetles.

“If the classification is lowered to just a threat level, there will be almost no money for study to see if the species is being exterminated along with a bunch of other wildlife that live in the same habitat,” he said.

The impact statement notes that the beetle isn’t the only species other than humans that would be put to the test by the endeavor. The whooping crane, Western Prairie fringed orchid and small white lady’s slipper are among endangered species on the pipeline route.

“It’s going to be a big mess if they start running oil pipeline through fragile habits. It’s not a question of if there will be oil leaks. It’s a question of when,” Snethen said.

“A lot of these species need large tracts of land that are not compromised. If we disrupt this habitat, we’re just going to start losing other species,” he added.

The Independent Petroleum Association of America, American Stewards of Liberty, and the Osage Producers Association filed a federal court complaint against the U.S. Interior Department in September 2017 for failure to respond to their 2015 petition to delist the American burying beetle.

The species “should no longer be listed as threatened or endangered under the ESA” (Endangered Species Act), the petition said. In fact, it said, “The original listing was in error.”

Plaintiffs submitted, “There exists no evidence that Nicrophorus americanus is currently in danger of extinction.”

What’s more, they contended, “The known contemporary range, distribution, and abundance of Nicrophorus americanus has been expanding in recent decades due to the application of an increased and more effective survey effort and the implementation of multiple captive breeding and reintroduction efforts.”

They cited the cost to business of preventing pressure on the beetle population, noting the species “caused issues with the development of the Keystone XL Pipeline.”

On May 3, 2019, the agency responded with proposed rules for changing the beetle’s status to the category of threatened.

It agreed with oil industry advocates that the beetle “is not currently at risk of extinction and, therefore, does not meet the definition of endangered.”

Yet it stopped short of recommending full delisting, stating, “However, due to continued threats from increasing temperatures and ongoing land-use changes, we find that the American burying beetle is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all of its range.”

Snethen called the rules proposal “buckling under to pressure from oil.”  He warned, “If they allow oil companies to fracture existing habitat and expedite extermination of the beetles, then we’re going to be left with them only in Nebraska and South Dakota.”

To request a public hearing, write by June 17 to Jonna Polk, Field Supervisor, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oklahoma Ecological Services Field Office, 9014 East 21st St., Tulsa, OK 74129.

Call 918–382–4500 with questions on how to submit comments. TDD users call the Federal Relay Service at 800–877–8339.

(Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com)

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