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Environmental groups are criticizing the Obama
administration for what they say is a continuing backlog of plants
and animals in need of protection under the Endangered Species Act.


      The Fish and Wildlife Service says 251 species are candidates
for endangered species protection, four more than a similar review
last year found.


      Environmental groups say that shows the Obama administration has
done little to improve on what they consider a dismal record on
endangered species under President George W. Bush.
     

 Nearly two years after taking office, Obama has provided
Endangered Species Act protection to 51 plants and animals, an
average of 25 a year. By comparison, the Clinton administration
protected an average of 65 species per year, and the Bush
administration listed about eight species a year.


      "Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration is
failing to provide prompt protection to wildlife desperately in
need of protection," including the plains bison, sage grouse and
hundreds of other species, said Noah Greenwald, endangered species
program director at the Center for Biological Diversity, an
Arizona-based group that has filed lawsuits seeking greater
protection for those and other species.
    

  Greenwald said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has failed to
correct a longtime "culture of delay and foot-dragging" at the
Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the endangered species
program. The agency has been without a permanent director since
February, when former director Sam Hamilton died. All but one of
the service's eight regional directors are holdovers from the Bush
administration.


      Tom Strickland, assistant Interior secretary for fish, wildlife
and parks, acknowledged the growing backlog, but compared it to a
list of schools that need repair.


      "We know what we need to do. We don't have the resources to do
it all at once," he said.


      Many of the species listed as candidates for protection have
been waiting for such a designation for decades, including the
Oregon spotted frog, found in three West Coast states, and the
eastern massasauga rattlesnake, found in nine Midwest and Great
Lakes states. The frog has been a candidate for the endangered
species list since 1991, the snake since 1982.


      Bob Irvin, senior vice president for conservation at Defenders
of Wildlife, another environmental group, compared species on the
waiting list to patients in a crowded emergency room.


      "Species on the candidate list continue to deteriorate while
waiting for care," Irvin said. "The 251 species now under
consideration for federal protection are glaring reminders that we
can and should do more to safeguard our valuable natural
resources."


      Candidates for the endangered species list get no formal
protection. Officials say the designation raises awareness among
private landowners and federal land managers that the species need
help.


      Delays can have consequences. At least 24 species have gone
extinct after being designated as a candidate for protection,
including the Louisiana prairie vole, Tacoma pocket gopher, San
Gabriel Mountains blue butterfly, Sangre de Cristo peaclam from New
Mexico and numerous Hawaiian invertebrates.


      The federal government spent nearly $1.4 billion last year on
programs and land acquisition related to endangered species, up
from just under $1 billion the previous year. A total of 793 plants
and 578 animals are listed as threatened or endangered in the
United States, including 83 mammals and 139 species of fish.


      Strickland, who oversees the endangered species program, said it
was unfair to evaluate the program based on how many species are
listed each year. Some species are in greater danger than others,
he said.


      "We make judgments based on limited resources, but also the
peril with which the species is faced," Strickland said, noting
that several species have jumped onto the protected list when they
faced an imminent threat.


      Strickland, who also serves as Salazar's chief of staff, said
the Obama administration has taken steps to restore credibility to
the endangered species program, which he said had been damaged
under the previous administration.


      First, Salazar directed that listing decisions be based on
science rather than politics, in response to a scandal involving
Julie MacDonald, a former Bush official who was found to have
exerted improper political interference on range of endangered
species decisions.


      Second, the department reinstated a rule - dropped by the Bush
administration - requiring government agencies to consult with the
Fish and Wildlife Service on actions that could affect endangered
species.


      Damien Schiff, a lawyer for the Pacific Legal Foundation, a
California-based property rights group that calls the Endangered
Species Act a regulatory nightmare, said criticism of Obama by
conservation groups is overblown.


      "Goes to show that one can never satisfy the
environmentalists," he said.
      

Gallery

Environmental News

Environmental groups are criticizing the Obama
administration for what they say is a continuing backlog of plants
and animals in need of protection under the Endangered Species Act.


Critics say Obama slow to act on endangered species

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