Judge sets 2018 deadline for effort to save lynx

Created: 06/25/2014 6:21 PM KAALtv.com
By: MATTHEW BROWN

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday set a 2018 deadline for the government to complete a long-delayed recovery plan for imperiled Canada lynx in the Lower 48 states.

Wildlife advocates had asked U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy to push the government into faster action on the snow-loving big cats, which were added to the list of threatened species in 2000.

But after federal officials said budget issues and competing priorities were slowing their work, Molloy indicated Wednesday in an order that he was reluctant to second-guess them. He said the January 2018 deadline proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was reasonable.

"It will not disrupt the Service's other recovery work, but will also set a date certain by which the Service will be required to take action," the judge wrote.

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