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Prominent scientists question Interior's ESA guidance |
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A large group of prominent scientists is asking Interior Secretary Dirk
Kempthorne to withdraw legal guidance that would change how agencies
decide whether a species is endangered.
Harvard's Edward O. Wilson, Duke's Stuart Pimm and 36 other scientists
sent the letter Monday to Kempthorne and the House and Senate
committees with oversight of endangered species.
At issue is guidance issued last month that redefines when the
Fish and Wildlife Service would protect a species as "endangered" or
"threatened."
Interior Solicitor David Bernhardt issued the guidance that
recommends agencies focus on plants and animals most at risk in their
current locations, rather than throughout their historic range or in
other locations where species may be healthy.
The memo gets at the heart of the definition of an endangered
species: The Endangered Species Act requires protection of any species
in "danger of extinction throughout all or a portion of its range."
The scientists are concerned the opinion would reduce
protection to those plants and animals at risk of extinction, leaving
behind others and ruling out the expansion of species' current range.
"It is clear that Congress intended 'range' to be the historic
or former range of the animal," said John Vucetich, an ecology
professor at Michigan Technological University. "That makes the act
restorative and very powerful."
The letter states: "To side with this opinion is to side
against logic, the moral commitments of the American people, the
species that the Endangered Species Act is intended to protect and
congressional intent."
The guidance was written to respond to the department's losing
record in court on its previous interpretation of species' range. A
group of career Interior lawyers contributed to the guidance and all
signed onto the document.
"This will help us conserve species by allowing us to focus
limited resources on areas where they are actually in trouble, rather
than areas where they are not in trouble," Interior spokesman Hugh
Vickery said today.
Resignation fails to quell controversy
The resignation this week of Julie MacDonald, a high-ranking
Interior political appointee charged with ethics violations and
doctoring scientific information, failed to soothe environmentalists
and scientists who say the department has deeper-seeded problems with
political interference.
MacDonald, who oversaw the Fish and Wildlife Service and
endangered species, resigned Monday as deputy assistant secretary of
Fish, Wildlife and Parks (E&ENews PM, May 1).
Environmentalists applauded her departure but questioned
whether it would clean up what they see as a larger problem at
Interior. Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity called
MacDonald the "administration's attack dog, not its general."
"We welcome Julie MacDonald's resignation," said Francesca
Grifo of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "But she represents a much
larger problem of widespread political interference at federal
agencies."
MacDonald was the subject of a scathing report last month from
Interior's Office of Inspector General that found she had violated at
least two aspects of federal code. The report says she used her post to
intervene in endangered species listings and critical habitat decisions
and sent information to third parties so they could use it to challenge
the service in court.
ESA lawsuit
Environmentalists are also questioning if MacDonald or other
officials had a hand in a lawsuit by the timber industry that cited
draft regulatory ESA changes before they were leaked to the press.
Earthjustice filed a lawsuit Monday to intervene in the case against
Interior.
At issue is the American Forest Resource Council lawsuit in
early March aimed at forcing FWS to delist the marbled murrelet. Part
of the suit cited draft regulations that became public late that month.
"The Bush administration's draft regulations gutting the
Endangered Species Act haven't even been publicly proposed yet, but the
timber industry is already trying to strip the nation's wildlife of
protection," Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles said.
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