Earlier this year, President Obama made many environmental and conservation groups happy by reversing a Bush-era policy that allowed developers to break ground on new projects without any review of the impact to 
wildlife habitats.
The rules under the Endangered Species Act had previously been amended to allow executive approval without an independent assessment by the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"The work of scientists and experts in my administration, including right here in the Interior Department, will be respected," President Obama said.
"For more than three decades, the endangered species act has successfully protected our nation's most threatened wildlife."
"We should be looking for ways to improve it, not weaken it.”
But lately, Obama’s words have been ringing empty.
In a report released on November 6th, 2009 by the Fish and Wildlife Service, it was revealed that of the 249 species that are formal candidates for protection under the Endangered Species Act, only two have been approved so far by the Obama administration.
By comparison, President Bush averaged adding around ten new species a year to the protection list and 522 were added under Clinton: a rate of 65 species per year.
It doesn’t matter very much that Obama has reversed Bush-era policies if his administration is outright stalling new species from being listed. Many of these species are in danger of extinction in the immediate future: some of them may not be listed in time unless the administration makes some serious priority adjustments.
"Continued delays in protection of these 249 species is a failure of leadership by Interior Secretary Salazar,” said Noal Greenwald, Endangered Species Director for Center for Biological Diversity.
And that failure is placing these species at greater risk of extinction. The position of Chief of Conservation and Classification hasn’t even been filled yet, exemplifying the failure of the Obama administration to prioritize species conservation.
For more information, check out the Center for Biological Diversity website.
For a complete list of species in the White House report, please check here.
Photo courtesy everystockphoto.com
Comments
Not the wolves :(
Yes, the wolves :(
You should fact check before writing a story like this. A simple phone call could have clarified and corrected some key points.
All endangered species actions in the Endangered Species Program Candidate and Listing Programs are based on available resources. With limited resources and most of the workload driven by lawsuits, the Fish and Wildlife Service struggles to have enough resources to make discretionary actions. For the last decade, almost 100% of the endangered species listing budget was driven by litigation.
However, in the next year, we intend to fund listing determinations for about 60 species and finalize listing determinations for at least 50 species. This is SUBSTANTIAL progress in the listing and candidate program.
Also - the Chief of Conservation and Classification was filled.
Feel free to call the Fish and Wildlife Service next time to get both sides of the story and avoid the pitfalls of working solely with the Center for Biological Diversity.
Valerie - to my understanding of the article he is actually applauding the fact that Fish and Wildlife service are once again able to do independent reviews on endangered species and stall development projects. He appears to be unhappy with the fact that Ken Salazar has not actually sent any species to the USFWS for this review.
You may want to re-read it before jumping to conclusions.
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