Obama Revamps Endangered Species Act, Ends State-by-State Classification
The Obama Administration just announced a new endangered species protection law, and it’s already generating controversy.
According to the AP, “The new policy would clarify that a plant or animal could be listed as threatened or endangered if threats occur in a ‘significant portion of its range,’ even if the threat crosses state lines and does not apply in the species’ entire range.”
Care2com reports that the new rule would replace Bush-era laws that allowed animals to be classified differently in neighboring states. Those laws led to the gray wolf massacre of 2009, when the states tried to lift protections for wolves in Idaho and Montana but leave them in place in Wyoming, where a state law allowed the predators to be shot on sight. The courts intervened and reinstated protections across the state, before Congress entered the dispute and tried to remove Idaho and Montana protections. Wyoming is currently deciding whether or not to lift protections on its gray wolves.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled that the Bush law was “At its heart a political solution that does not comply with the Endangered Species Act.”
The new rule should allow officials to act sooner to conserve declining species, according to Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe.
“This proposed interpretation will provide consistency and clarity for the services and our partners, while making more effective use of our resources and improving our ability to protect and recover species before they are on the brink of extinction,” Ashe said.
Others claim the rule will help give a legal definition to the biological question of what it means to be endangered.
But not everyone is thrilled with the changes. Noah Greenwald, at the Center for Biological Diversity, called the law “a recipe for extinction.” Greenwald notes that it still blocks protections for certain species like bison, which once blanketed the plains during Western expansion and now remain viable in only a few areas, including Yellowstone Park.
“We have no memory of the past,” said Greenwald, who studies endangered species at the Center. “...[A]ll of a sudden a species is doing fine. It’s lost 99 percent of its range like the bison, but we just put on the blinders.... Under the policy proposed today, a species could be absolutely gone or close to vanishing almost everywhere it’s always lived—but not qualify for protection because it can still be called secure on one tiny patch of land.”
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