The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under President Obama have repeatedly refused protection to endangered species. Utah native plants such as Frisco Buckwheat, Ostler’s peppergrass, and Frisco clover are just three species that have been recently denied the Endangered Species Act protection. Instead, the plants have been determined “warranted but precluded” and placed on a list where they will wait along with 257 other “candidate” species for indefinite approval in order to receive the immediate protection they need to survive.
For many candidates this means extinction. On average the species on the candidate list have been waiting protection for 20 years, and at least 24 species have gone extinct while waiting.
To date the Obama administration has concluded 21 species to be “warranted but precluded”- far more than any other administration. In comparison to Bush and Clinton’s terms, Obama has done the least in any efforts to protect endangered species. In total President Obama has granted The Endangered Species act to only 58 species, whereas President Clinton protected 522 species, and President Bush protected 232 species under his administration.
Currently there is a lawsuit in Washington D.C., showing that continued delays in protecting candidate species are illegal because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is not making expeditious progress listing species as mandated by the Endangered Species Act.
Title: Obama Administration Denies Protection for Three More Endangered Species
Author: Tierra Curry
Source: CommonDreams.org
URL: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/02/22-14
Student Researcher: Ashley Nelson, Sonoma State University
Faulty Advisor: Caroline Christian, Sonoma State University