Abhishek Bhatnagar - August 27th, 2008 in News 0 votes Vote Up! Vote Down!

The National Wildlife Federation of the United States has acquired a leaked document that predicts a significant weakening of the Endangered Species Act. The Bush Administration (here onwards BA) is apparently trying to get a bill passed that would enable corporations to bypass most of the security checks currently in place, before engaging in activities like logging or mining. John Kostyack, Executive Director of Wildlife Conservation and Global Warming at the National Wildlife Federation, believes the bill is intentionally timed to coincide with the election campaigns, so that a distracted public wouldn’t create a nuisance.

“I have been working on the Endangered Species Act for 15 years and have never seen such a sneaky attack. To suggest that our nation’s most important wildlife law could be gutted after a mere 30 day written comment period is the height of arrogance and disrespect for wildlife science. Elected officials have been saying no to proposals like this for 15 years,” says Kostyack.

Passed in 1973 under President Nixon, the stated purpose of the ESA is to protect critically endangered species from extinction as a “consequence of economic growth and development untendered by adequate concern and conservation” and also the “the ecosystems upon which they depend.” According to Wikipedia, the creation of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) was helped by the ESA. CITES has since been indispensable in enforcing the protection of endangered species.

Even though the ESA only protects species that are officially listed as “threatened” or “endangered”, over sixteen species have been de-listed since it’s inception. Another twenty three have been down-listed from “endangered” to “threatened”. Though it is believed that the latter twenty three recovered due to a ban on DDT, the ESA was certainly a helping hand.

According to the NWF news article, the current proposal attempts to:

• Eliminate informal consultations. Currently, federal agencies seeking to carry out, fund or permit an action must enter into either formal or informal consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service if the action is found to have any affect whatsoever on a listed species. The Bush Administration wants to significantly reduce informal consultations by allowing proponents of federal projects to decide unilaterally whether projects have adverse effects on listed species. This would eliminate the ability of the Service to review projects and employ its expert scientific judgment about what is needed to protect species and habitats unless an agency requests an informal consultation.

• Reduce the number of formal consultations. These are the in-depth reviews that lead to the preparation of a biological opinion, in which the Service determines whether a project will jeopardize listed species or adversely modify its critical habitat and, if so, how the project must be modified to avoid harm. The proposed changes eliminate the requirement for formal consultation any time that an agency unilaterally determines that a project will have no adverse effect on listed species.

• Avoid or minimize consultations based on “Lack of Causation” arguments. Under this rule, agencies could avoid consultation if they determine their action will have only a “marginal” impact on a listed species, ignoring the fact that the cumulative effect of “marginal” piecemeal destruction of habitat quantity and quality is one of the main causes of species decline and extinction. “This could mean death by a thousand cuts for many threatened and endangered species,” said Kostyack.

• Impose an arbitrary deadline on the consultation process. Perhaps most outrageously, the Administration proposes to impose a 60-day deadline on the Service to respond to an agency’s request for consultation and, if this deadline is not met, to allow the project to go forward regardless of the impacts of the project on listed species. “The creation of an arbitrary deadline could enable even the most harmful projects to escape Endangered Species Act scrutiny,” said Kostyack.

The iconic Bald Eagle, the Whooping Crane, the Peregrine Falcon, the Gray Wolf, the Gray Whale and the Grizzly bear among many others have seen their populations rise thanks to the ESA. In the previous years, the BA has also tried to lift the ban on logging of Giant Sequoias in California. These trees, the most massive forms of life on Earth, are of legendary legacy and would have been a long-term loss if a federal court judge had not raised his voice. Many of us are also aware of another bill the BA is currently trying to pass, which would allow offshore drilling off the coasts of Alaska straight into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In 2006, they already succeeded in increasing the area of the Gulf of Mexico that was legalized for drilling.

Needless to say, this administration has done more than it’s share of damage to the world, but getting bills like these blocked would help leave a slightly-less devastating legacy. I’m not an American, but if you are and have voting power, contact Karla Raettig, raettigk@nwf.org, 202-797-6869 or 202-674-3174
Aislinn Maestas, maestas@nwf.org, 202-797-6624 of the FWA to raise your voice. You can read more about the leaked document at the FWA’s website @ http://www.nwf.org/news/story.cfm?pageId=B37BC419-15C5-5FE8-B007DAC35C60F339.

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Tags: bill, bush administration, conservation, endangered species, endangered species act, george bush, science, species, wildlife