It has now been one year since the US Dept of Interior has added any new species to the list of Endangered Species. During that time, the Hawaiian plant Haha, Cyanea eleeleensis, has become extinct. The last time that a year passed without such an addition was way back in 1981. For contrast, some 512 were added under the Clinton administration and 234 under the first Bush administration. To date, the current Bush administration has listed only 57 species. There are currently 279 potential candidates.
According to a report released today by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Bush administration has listed fewer species under the Endangered Species Act than any other administration since the law was enacted in 1973.
The Center for Biological Diversity has recently completed an extensive report. It is here, in pdf format.
“The Bush administration is systematically undermining the recovery of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, invertebrates and plants,” said William Snape, senior counsel with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Not only is it refusing to list species in need of protection, it is also ignoring or undercutting recovery plans at the request of its political supporters in industry.”
From the CBD report:
Designation of critical habitat provides important protection for endangered wildlife by demarking habitats necessary for their survival and recovery. The Bush administration has been forced to designate critical habitat for large numbers of species by court order. In nearly every case, the administration has overruled its own biologists and ignored the comments of peer reviewers and the public to reduce the area covered by designated critical habitat.
More contrast:
The Bush administration has completed fewer recovery plans than any administration since the Carter administration, to date only completing 100 plans compared to 577 plans completed under the Clinton administration and 174 under the first Bush administration.
And finally:
The consequences of delayed protection are severe, allowing species to decline, making recovery more costly and difficult, and in a number of cases resulting in species extinction. Indeed, at least 25 species have become extinct a�er being recognized as a candidate species.2 One of these extinctions was announced as recently as October 2006, when the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that there are “no extant wild individuals and there is no material in genetic storage” of the Hawaiian plant “Haha” (Cyanea eleeleensis) and thus that the species “appears to be extinct.”3
Go to the CBD link and read the whole thing.
Update: From ENS regarding the hearing before the house:
House Panel Spotlights Political Interference with Endangered Species
WASHINGTON, DC, May 10, 2007 (ENS) – Bush administration officials at the Interior Department have repeatedly manipulated science in order to weaken protections for endangered species, former agency officials and environmentalists told the House Resources Committee Wednesday.
The hearing prompted a key Democrat to call for the resignation of the department’s deputy secretary, who endured several hours of heated questioning from the committee.
“Under your leadership we have got negligence, incompetence and political hackery,” Representative Jay Inslee, a Washington Democrat, told Interior Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett. “It would be helpful to have your resignation because you refuse to recognize how sick this situation is,”
