Listings drop under Bush administration
Posted on March 24th, 2008Since coming into power in 2001, Bush administration officials have made it substantially more difficult to list domestic animals and plants for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Greenwire: As a result, listings have plummeted. During Bush’s more than seven years in office, 59 domestic species have been placed on the endangered list. By comparison, Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton added an average of 58 and 62 species to the list each year, respectively.
The drop in endangered species designations has been caused in part by Interior Department officials overruling agency scientists’ recommendations for new listings. Internal documents also suggest that officials have constructed bureaucratic obstacles to limit the number of new listings, including barring personnel from using some agency information that might support new listings.
Some species have disappeared during Bush’s presidency, including a landlocked salmon denied an emergency listing and a species of pygmy rabbits denied habitat protection.
Advocacy groups are seeking legal action to combat the administration’s decisions. There have been 369 listing-related suits against Bush, compared with 184 against Clinton. WildEarth Guardians filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking a court order to protect 681 Western species all at once. “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.”
Administration officials estimate that more than 280 domestic species should be put on the list but have been “precluded” by other priorities. Officials do not argue that they have moved slowly — they say they are struggling to cope with an onslaught of litigation — but internal documents show that the administration has made it harder, and slower, to approve listings.
“Lawsuits, starting in the early ’90s, have really driven things,” said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall, adding that his 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” (Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post, March 23). – RB