Endangered Species Act Faces Extinction
Joseph Bateman
Issue date: 10/21/05 Section: News
Due to growing concerns about the rapid rate of plants and animals becoming or threatening to become extinct, the Endangered Species act was passed in 1973. The act has since become a landmark piece of legislation.
Currently, 1,300 plants and animal are under the protection of the act. This protection has lead to a success rate of 99 percent, making the act one of the most successful government programs of its kind.
Some of the animals saved from extinction because of the Endangered Species Act include the nation's symbol, the Bald Eagle. Other animals protected include the Grizzly Bear, Gray Wolf and the Sea Otter.
Despite the Endangered Species Act's resounding success, the act is currently being threatened. Richard Pombo, Chair of the House Resources Committee, has introduced and recently passed in the house by a 229 to 193 vote, a bill to undermine the very effective protections that have made the Endangered Species Act a success.
"This bill takes a wrecking ball to our nation's most important wildlife protection law," said Kierán Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity. "The Endangered Species Act is the safety net for America's imperiled plants and animals. The Republican dominated House of Representatives [have] ripped it apart, consigning God's creation to extinction."
One of the main problem's with Pombo's bill is the elimination of notation of habitat protection. The bill will eliminate all existing and future critical habitat protections, totaling nearly 200 million acres. Habitat protection has been one of the most successful provisions of the act leading species with protection to recover twice as fast as those without it.
Pombo's bill also goes on to gut the provisions which have made the Endangered Species Act so successful. The original act calls for all decisions to be based on the best available scientific information.
Instead, Pombo's bill would allow a political appointee, the Secretary of Interior, to best define what the best science is, with no public or scientific review. The Secretary could also over-rule what was set forth by the scientific community. This would eliminate the independent oversight which is commonly performed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to insure federal actions will not harm endangered species.
Pombo's bill will also make the recovery plan for a threatened species voluntary rather then implemented by law. This would allow federal agencies to ignore recovery plans and would allow states to remove individual species despite the species as a whole moving toward extinction.
In short, Pombo's bill takes all the provisions of the original Endangered Species act, which have been proved with a near perfect success rate, and replace them with new provisions which would favor large corporations and developers at the expense of the many threatened plants and animals.
The bill now moves on to the Senate, where passage is uncertain.
Currently, 1,300 plants and animal are under the protection of the act. This protection has lead to a success rate of 99 percent, making the act one of the most successful government programs of its kind.
Some of the animals saved from extinction because of the Endangered Species Act include the nation's symbol, the Bald Eagle. Other animals protected include the Grizzly Bear, Gray Wolf and the Sea Otter.
Despite the Endangered Species Act's resounding success, the act is currently being threatened. Richard Pombo, Chair of the House Resources Committee, has introduced and recently passed in the house by a 229 to 193 vote, a bill to undermine the very effective protections that have made the Endangered Species Act a success.
"This bill takes a wrecking ball to our nation's most important wildlife protection law," said Kierán Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity. "The Endangered Species Act is the safety net for America's imperiled plants and animals. The Republican dominated House of Representatives [have] ripped it apart, consigning God's creation to extinction."
One of the main problem's with Pombo's bill is the elimination of notation of habitat protection. The bill will eliminate all existing and future critical habitat protections, totaling nearly 200 million acres. Habitat protection has been one of the most successful provisions of the act leading species with protection to recover twice as fast as those without it.
Pombo's bill also goes on to gut the provisions which have made the Endangered Species Act so successful. The original act calls for all decisions to be based on the best available scientific information.
Instead, Pombo's bill would allow a political appointee, the Secretary of Interior, to best define what the best science is, with no public or scientific review. The Secretary could also over-rule what was set forth by the scientific community. This would eliminate the independent oversight which is commonly performed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to insure federal actions will not harm endangered species.
Pombo's bill will also make the recovery plan for a threatened species voluntary rather then implemented by law. This would allow federal agencies to ignore recovery plans and would allow states to remove individual species despite the species as a whole moving toward extinction.
In short, Pombo's bill takes all the provisions of the original Endangered Species act, which have been proved with a near perfect success rate, and replace them with new provisions which would favor large corporations and developers at the expense of the many threatened plants and animals.
The bill now moves on to the Senate, where passage is uncertain.