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Suit seeks protection of 681 Western species |
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Written by COLLEEN LUCCIOLI, Land Letter
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Monday, 31 March 2008 |
Fed up with the Bush administration's inactivity, an environmental group last week filed suit against the Fish and Wildlife Service in an effort to force protection of 681 Western plant and animal species under the Endangered Species Act.
WildEarth Guardians' suit is novel for many reasons. Unlike the single
species approach of most ESA-related lawsuits, this effort identifies a broad
range of species. Also, and perhaps more importantly, the group claims that the
681 species are drawn from NatureServe, a nonprofit conservation organization
whose stated mission is to provide the scientific basis for effective
conservation action and which FWS itself describes as
"authoritative."
"We decided to take a different route this time and take a source they
consider authoritative and put the burden back where it belongs -- back on the
Fish and Wildlife Service -- to explain to the American public why it's not
protecting these species," said Nicole Rosmarino, wildlife program
director for WildEarth Guardians.
Rosmarino explained that the process of pulling together scientific data to
substantiate a petition can be expensive and time-consuming. "We've been
banging our head against the wall," she said, referring to the
resource-intensive efforts. WildEarth Guardians contends that because it is
relying on NatureServe, the administration will not be able to dispute the
science or the sense of urgency the group sees behind acting on the species.
The lawsuit also points to how ESA implementation is increasingly propelled
by litigation, many environmentalists agree.
"The Bush administration is the only one in the 34-year history of the
Endangered Species Act not to list a single listing on its own initiative. All
listings have been a result of citizen petitions and citizen lawsuits,"
Rosmarino noted.
Since President Bush took office, 59 species were listed under ESA, all in
response to court orders. In comparison, 522 species were listed under former
President Clinton and 234 were listed under former President George H.W. Bush.
Though FWS officials have countered that the agency's resources are being
tied up in merely responding to the high volume of lawsuits from conservation
groups, Randy Sargent Neppl, wildlife conservation counsel for the National
Wildlife Federation, said, "The only reason we're filing so many lawsuits
is because they haven't been doing what they need to to protect endangered
species."
Noah Greenwald, science director for the Center for Biological Diversity,
said, "This administration often claims that they haven't listed more
because of a lack of resources. But actually, they have a higher budget for
listing endangered species than [former President] Clinton did. They have more money but they're
doing less with it."
Rosmarino also said, "Under the Bush administration, one of the biggest
threats facing species on the brink of extinction in the U.S. is the
very agency that is supposed to be protecting them -- the Fish and Wildlife
Service." Separately, she conceded, "We definitely had to litigate to
get listings in previous administrations," but she described the current
administration's approach to ESA as "unprecedented."
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Last Updated ( Monday, 31 March 2008 )
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