Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar’s appointment by President Obama has been controversial from the beginning. His record on environmental and wildlife preservation efforts, have been questioned by many conservationist groups. Salazar was praised for voiding oil and gas drilling leases on public land in Utah, but he was also criticized for what some biologists believe to be the premature delisting of gray wolves previously protected under the ESA.
For a Secretary of Interior to manage public lands without also managing its wild inhabitants is not altruistic or unbiased. The Secretary cannot pick and chose which environmental laws to follow and which ones to sweep under the rug, as did Gale Norton, when she was appointed Secretary of Interior by George W. Bush.
Ken Salazar once practiced as an environmental attorney prior to becoming Attorney General of Colorado. During his AG days, with considerable influence, while Norton was in office, Salazar threatened to sue the US Fish and Wildlife Service if they recommended the black-tailed prairie dog for protection as a “threatened” species under the ESA. A short time later, the effort to get protection for prairie dogs was withdrawn by the USFWS--as a result of “questionable” new data.
Now, Salazar has the unique power to protect endangered species and curb the onslaught of species extinction-- but has failed to do so.
In a report released on November 6th, 2009, by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the annual Candidate Notice of Review (CNOR) revealed a dismal record of the Obama administration for protecting species under the Endangered Species Act.
Currently, there are 249 species that are formal “candidates” awaiting federal listing. The process is so slow to get protection for critical species, they can easily go extinct before a proposal is made for protection--then and it takes a year to review and approve the proposal before any protective action can be taken.
"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.”
Salazar’s glacial action on species protection is reflected in the fact that he has only originated seven species proposals for ESA protection and only one species (a Hawaiian plant) has been granted ESA status. During the eight years of the Bush administration, his average was less than ten species per year. So far, Salazar is beating Bush’s record for species protection complacency.
By comparison, 522 species were protected under the Clinton administration, at an average rate of 65 per year.
The USFWS’s “top 40” most imperiled species have not even reached the proposal stage for ESA protection.
“Change, metamorphosis, transformation – however you say it, we heard Obama promise it, and the endangered animals and plants that make our country great urgently need it,” stated Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians in a Friday press release.
According to Rosmarino’s statement, in late April, WildEarth Guardians issued a report on the extreme imperilment of the Top 40 and outlined recommendations to President Obama and Secretary Salazar to address the listing backlog. Secretary Salazar has yet to implement any of the recommendations.
Each of the candidates, as stated by the Center for Biodiversity statement-- are given a priority number ranging from 1 to 12 based on their taxonomic rank (e.g. species, subspecies or population) and magnitude and immediacy of threats, with lower numbers indicating higher priority. The majority of candidates are rated as either priority 2 or 3, meaning they are in immediate danger of extinction.
A few of the species waiting for protection: Sonoyta mud turtle, Oregon spotted frog, flatwoods salamanders, white fringeless orchid, Pacific Hawaiian damselfly, and the re-listing of the Western Great Lakes grey wolves.
Prisident Obama promised an administration that would be guided by science, not stifled by politics. We are still waiting for his Interior Secretary to live up that pledge.
Meanwhile, with severe climate changes occurring every day around the globe, even newly discovered species stand a chance of going extinct before they are even categorized.
A complete list of species in the White House report
***Copyright Jean Williams 2009
Notations from WildEarth Guardians and Center for Biological Diversity.
Comments
Does anyone proof-read? You have good substance, but the form is atrocious - it looks like a high-schooler wrote it. Misplaced punctuation, spelling errors...ugh. It comes across as unprofessional. Don't just slap the copy up on the net - proof it first, alright?
Is that really the point? If thats the only thing you took from this article that you are obviously part of the greater problem!!!
What a headline....Obama record worse than Bush! Let's see Obama's been in office 10 months and has had a slew of crises to deal with. Your writers are comparing 10 months to 8 years of Bush. Shame! This is not thoughtful journalism.
This is a depressing story because of the misleading headline and content but the extraneous commas make it even more depressing. Journalism is nearly dead and collectively this country is becoming as stupid as a box of nails. It seems impossible for this nation to determine solutions for the complex problems we are facing when the posts people rely on for news would earn a "D" in a fifth-grade classroom.
Obama has been in office for about 10 months. Obama is being taxed with facing all sorts of dangers and issues. Bush had 8 years with only one issue (that he directly didn't cause). But you are determining that Obama's record is worse than Bush's????
The true lack of jugement presented in your article is stunning.
The delisting of the wolf was indeed stupid and should be reversed. But it is much too early in the Obama presidency to say he “is worse than Bush” on anything.
My concern is getting humans off the endangered list first. Health care reform is the most important issue facing Americans today. When a healthy familyof 4 , like my own, must pay 17% of their income towards health insurance something is wrong. Let's take on saving humans first then work our way to saving the animals.
There are 7 BILLION people on the Planet....that is too many for the earth to provide for, unless something is done to stop Human Overpopulatrion, there is little hope for any other species.
I suspect the three whiners about poor journalism here: asdf, Kathy Berg, and Miranda are all the same person using the incredibly unsophisticated comment thread Examiner utilizes, which doesn't even require an email address--to spam the author with complaints about a few minor issues.
I suspect this, because all of you had similar gripes and none of you bothered to capitalize the first letter of your proper name or acronym. Oh, those obnoxious people, who like to throw stones.
Brad, reforming healthcare and protecting the very important eco-systems and species of our planet--do not have to be mutually exclusive.
Cybexg--did you even read the article? The headline is very appropriate, because Obama appointed Ken Salazar as the Interior Secretary, who has control over which species get proposed for protection. The article slams Salazar for not doing so, because his record is on par with what Bush's Interior Secretary was doing.
The difference is that Bush didn't give a crap whether Kempthorne protected species or not, but Obama promised that his administration would govern based on science not politics. Evidently, someone forgot to give Salazar the memo.
People had their head in the clouds thinking obama could actually do any of the things he said he'd do. This should just be a wake up call for some of those dreaming one policy voters. The rest will soon figure out he'll deliver much of the same to them.
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