ASSOCIATED PRESSHONOLULU — The Conservation Council of Hawaii went to federal court Wednesday on behalf of 17 species of imperiled Hawaiian forest birds. The council is seeking to compel the Interior Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to
ASSOCIATED PRESSHONOLULU — The Conservation Council of Hawaii went to
federal court Wednesday on behalf of 17 species of imperiled Hawaiian forest
birds.
The council is seeking to compel the Interior Department and the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take action on the group’s 1992 petition to
designate critical habitat for the birds.
The Earthjustice Legal Defense
Fund, which filed the lawsuit for the council, said the birds on Kaua’i, Maui,
Molokai and the Big Island were listed as endangered between 1967 and
1975.
The fund said the birds remain in peril from low population numbers
and loss or degradation of their habitat. It said some of the species may have
already gone extinct.
The list of birds includes the alala, or Hawaiian
crow, the Molokai thrush and the Hawaii creeper.
