Attacks on endangered species lurking around the corner

A (seemingly) modest proposal

Late Friday, the Senate Interior and Environment Appropriations subcommittee released a draft of their 2012 funding proposal for federal programs that provide clean air and water and protect endangered species. Missing from the proposal are the pernicious anti-wildlife provisions attached to the companion bill already approved by the House this past summer.

Read our report on pending ESA attacks.

If only it would stay that way.

Unfortunately, subcommittee chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and ranking member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are signaling that the proposal is merely a starting point for what are likely to become some very nasty negotiations. In fact, the funding bill may never come up for a vote for fear that members on both sides of the aisle will try to tack on amendments and exceptions to flout environmental laws for short-term political gain. (read more on E&E News, subscription only).

But avoiding public debate over the controversial provisions won’t be enough to keep anti-wildlife voices at bay. Several senators are already advancing legislation to rollback protections for particular animals in particular areas (e.g., grizzlies in Idaho, prairie dogs in Utah). And any bill that clears the Senate will need to be reconciled with the House version, which has more anti-ESA riders attached to it than any other appropriations bill in recent history.

As we documented in our comprehensive report on more than a dozen attacks on endangered species protections, some members of Congress have not been shy about doing the bidding of their corporate backers. A small handful of the most adamant anti-wildlife legislators have taken a combined total of nearly $6 million from the oil and gas and agribusiness industries. In exchange, these politicians are peddling provisions that would prohibit protections for animals on the brink of extinction, make it easier to poison our waterways with toxic pesticides, and reverse decades of work to restore imperiled wolves.

Anti-ESA hearing shows Congress’s true colors

The assault on America’s native wildlife and natural resources is far from over. Just last week, the House science oversight subcommittee held a hearing titled, “The Endangered Species Act: Reviewing the Nexus of Science and Policy.” The committee invited a series of experts to testify about the Act, most of whom used the opportunity to criticize our nation’s pre-eminent wildlife conservation law for being ineffective or inimical to economic development and private property rights.

Humpback whales are among the hundreds of species that are making a comeback because of the success of the Endangered Species Act..

What these supposed experts failed to mention is that the Endangered Species Act has successfully saved 99 percent of protected species from disappearing. Only about 10 species have gone extinct in the United States out of nearly 2,000 since the Act went into effect in 1973, and many of those species were already well beyond the point of no return.

In less than four decades, the Endangered Species Act has halted the decline and even restored hundreds of species, including iconic American animals like the bald eagle, grizzly bear and gray wolf. Amazingly, it has done so while the United States added about 100 million people to its roll call and created the highest standard of living in human history.

A fight we cannot lose

Preventing plants and animals from going extinct is a daunting challenge and the stakes are high. The world’s top biologists estimate that we are currently losing species 10,000 times faster than the normal rate. Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson has predicted that half of all species worldwide will go extinct in the next century at the current rate.

With that incredible loss of biodiversity as the backdrop, we should be doing everything in our power to protect all forms of life on the planet, beginning with the ones right here in our backyard. Slashing funding for wildlife and making it easier for businesses to bulldoze prime wildlife habitat is clearly a step in the wrong direction.

In the coming weeks and months, Defenders will be confronting Congress with a simple message: the fight to protect America’s endangered species is one we simply cannot afford to lose. We will need the help of all wildlife supporters to make sure our elected representatives hear us loud and clear.

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