CE Week #9: “Endangered listings drop under Bush”
Policy changes make it tougher to designate need for protection
Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post
March 23, 2008
WASHINGTON – With little-noticed procedural and policy moves over several years, Bush administration officials have made it substantially more difficult to designate domestic animals and plants for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Controversies have occasionally flared over Interior Department officials who repeatedly overruled rank-and-file agency scientists’ recommendations to list new species, but internal documents also suggest that pervasive bureaucratic obstacles were erected to limit the number of species protected under one of the nation’s best-known environmental laws.
The documents show that personnel were barred from using information in agency files that might support new listings, and that senior officials regularly dismissed the advice of scientific advisers as President Bush’s appointees rejected or moved slowly on petitions to list imperiled plants and animals under the 35-year-old law. Officials also changed the way species are evaluated – by considering only their current range, not their historical range – and put decisions on other species in limbo by blocking citizen petitions that cause legal deadlines.
As a result, listings plummeted. During Bush’s more than seven years as president, his administration has placed 59 domestic species on the endangered list, almost the exact number that his father listed during each of his four years in office. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has not declared a single native species as threatened or endangered since he was appointed nearly two years ago.
In a sign of how contentious the issue has become, the advocacy group WildEarth Guardians filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking a court order to protect 681 Western species all at once, on the grounds that further delay would violate the law. Among the species cited are tiny snails, vibrant butterflies and a wide assortment of plants and other creatures.
“It’s an urgent situation, and something has to be done,” said Nicole Rosmarino, the group’s conservation director. “This roadblock to listing under the Bush administration is criminal.”
Developers, farmers and other business interests frequently resist decisions on listing because they require a complex regulatory process that can make it difficult to develop land that is home to protected species. Environmentalists have also sparred for years with federal officials over implementation of the law.
Nevertheless, former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton added an average of 58 and 62 species to the list each year, respectively.
One consequence is that the current president has the most emergency listings, which are issued when a species is on the very brink of extinction.
And some species have vanished. The Lake Sammamish kokanee, a landlocked sockeye salmon, went extinct in 2001 after being denied an emergency listing, and genetically pure Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits disappeared last year after Interior declined to protect critical habitat for the species.
Administration officials – who estimate that more than 280 domestic species should be on the list but have been “precluded” because of more pressing priorities – do not dispute that they have moved slowly, but they dispute the reasons.
Bush officials say they are struggling to cope with an onslaught of litigation, but internal documents and several court rulings have revealed steps the administration has taken to make it harder, and slower, to approve listings.
Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall said his agency, which decides on most proposed listings of endangered species and their critical habitat, has been hamstrung by a slew of lawsuits and has just begun to dig out. He told the House Appropriations interior subcommittee last month that his agency will make decisions about 71 species by Oct. 1 and an additional 21 species a year later.
“Lawsuits, starting in the early ’90s, have really driven things,” Hall said, adding that the administration has tried to keep species from declining to the point where they need to be listed. “I’m feeling pretty good we’re back on track to do the job the way it’s supposed to be done.”
In court cases, however, a number of judges have rejected decisions made by Hall’s agency and have criticized their slow pace. On March 5, a U.S. district judge in Phoenix ordered Interior to re-designate bald eagles in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert as threatened after the agency delisted the entire species last summer.
NC – Proof Read
My first thought was why are they making such a big deal about nothing. Bush is a lame duck right now. The least he could do is help endangered species, Congress isn’t going to let him do much more so what does it matter. Even if they aren’t endangered it still help them so they won’t be. I also have to add that his father George H.W. Bush and bill Clinton have added more species on the list than him. You never heard anyone complain then.
My second though as I was reading this was what the hell is he doing. And that’s it he’s trying to raise hell because no one likes him. He is making to harder for people to get building permits in area where these endangered species live because they would be killing them as they were building. President hire advisors for their opinion, not to hear what they have to say and totally go against it. Bush’s advisors told him that there was no need for half of the species on the list. He went against this and instead of looking at the species history he went with recent results, which showed nothing. I just like to ending saying he’s trying to go out with a bang and instead is shooting himself in the foot.
I think that it is pretty sad that certain animals are not making it on to the Endangered Species list. Through the Spring Break assignment I learned about the Endangered Species Act. The Endangered Species Act protects plants and animals that are threatened or endangered. The Act also makes it illegal for people to do harm to the wildlife. Not only that, but the government must make programs that will help conserve the wildlife.
If scientists that study the animals and plants say that certain species need to go on to the list then they should. The government cannot be a specialist on every single animal and so they need to listen to their resources and take the scientist’s advice. The Department of Interior is the government agency responsible for conserving wildlife. They are trying to protect animals and plants, but also want to limit the number of species that make it on to the list. President Bush has only placed 59 species on to the list while past presidents have doubled that. If the government continues to go against the scientists’ advice, they are going to allow many species to go extinct. I think the government just doesn’t want to spend their money on protecting these species and would rather spend their money on shipping washers to and from South Carolina.
I think it is ridiculous that Bush and officials in the administration have been creating these impediments to implementation of the Endangered Species Act. The whole activity seems somewhat backroom because of their denial and excuses. This is unfortunate, not only for the plants and animals that are now facing extinction and the need for an emergency listing, but also for Bush and his reputation. If he could have fessed up to these actions and given a reason, perhaps he may have seemed more justified but as it is, he just looks lazy and like a militant industrialist who doesn’t care for the suffering animals that also live in this world.
The Endangered Species Act, as the article states, has existed for over three decades and has been critical in the intervention of dying species. The order of animals and plants is especially relevent given the global warming phenomenon. Protecting the environment and its creatures must be a top priority because failure to do so has far reaching consequences for everybody that are not often realized.
If Bush employs the heirarchical model of running the executive, as it appears from this article, then perhaps he is not alone to fault for this. Each official beneath him may have some authority to operate of their own accord, but he is still not removed from blame because it should be his job to effectively monitor these actions and provide a model of his desired course.