Obama's Interior Ken Salazar starting out worse than Bush on species protection

November 6, 3:55 PMSeattle Environmental Policy ExaminerJean Williams

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Oregon spotted frog is under attack by non-native toads and habitat destruction
USFWS photo public domain

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 A short time later, the effort to get protection for prairie dogs was withdrawn by the USFWS--as a result of “questionable” new data.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.