The Canada lynx, a snow-dependent wildcat, could soon see new protections in the Western U.S. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last week a finalized recovery plan for the species and is proposing new critical habitat designations.
While lynx are primarily found in Canada and Alaska, small populations are also found in patches of the Mountain West, Midwest and Northeast. The species has been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 2000, and as snow-dependent creatures, are particularly sensitive to climate change.
The USFWS announcement comes after years of legal action by environmental groups, which sued the agency for failing to develop a recovery plan in the two decades after listing. The groups also challenged the decision by USFWS to exclude the Southern Rocky Mountains from the map of critical lynx habitat areas and a 2017 proposal to remove Endangered Species Act protections for lynx…