When it comes to the federal Endangered Species Act, the species most threatened these days, critics say, is the law itself.
A string of rule changes and policy decisions is drawing protests and lawsuits from conservation groups.
“The Bush administration in its final hours is trying to change the way the Endangered Species Act operates,” said Jayson Rylander, an attorney with Defenders of Wildlife in Washington, D.C.
Among the animals that would be affected are the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse and the Gunnison prairie dog in Colorado, and the wolverine in Montana.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Department of the Interior officials, who oversee the law, say the proposed changes are in response to court rulings and an effort to streamline the program.
“The goal is always to use all the tools available to protect endangered species,” said Bridget Fahey, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Western regional endangered-species chief.
Bush administration initiatives are:
• A Department of the Interior Solicitor’s ruling that endangered species be evaluated only in the parts of their range where they now exist and protecting species only in the part of the range where they are most threatened.
• Removing healthy populations of wolves in the Northern Rockies and northern Midwest from protection even though the overall species is still endangered.
• Refusing to list wolverines because there are healthy populations in Canada.
• Proposing the end to required consultations by federal agencies — such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — with the agencies that oversee whether their projects would jeopardize wildlife.
As a result of the solicitor’s decision, the Fish and Wildlife Service decided to protect the Colorado population of the Preble’s mouse but not the Wyoming population.
“This approach makes it harder to protect the Preble’s,” said Erin Robertson, senior biologist with the Center for Native Ecosystems.
The Fish and Wildlife Service’s Fahey said the approach reflects court decisions that species should be protected where they are most at risk.
“Once that is done, all the options are on the table — reintroduction, proactive management, consideration of the historic range,” Fahey said.
Still, policy aims to limit regulations only where they are needed, Fahey said.
The service also ruled that only mountain populations of Gunnison prairie dogs would be protected because they were more susceptible to plague than prairie populations.
A coalition of conservation groups — including the Center for Native Ecosystems — has filed a notice of intent to sue over the policy.
Legal action already has been taken against the Fish and Wildlife Service concerning wolves and wolverines.
In July, a Montana federal district court put the Northern Rocky Mountain gray-wolf population back on the endangered list, ruling there were insufficient protections for the animals.
In September, a Washington, D.C., federal court rejected the service’s effort to delist a gray-wolf population in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, saying that splitting the population was not supported by the language of the act.
The Fish and Wildlife Service also is being sued by the environmental-law group Earthjustice for not listing the wolverine because the American population is “not discrete” from the larger Canadian one.
“The administration is willing to turn the Lower 48 states into a sacrifice zone because the species live in Canada,” Earthjustice attorney Tim Presto said.
While each of these decisions has moved to limit the range of particular animals, the proposed consulting rule could radically change the act’s entire operation.
It would let other federal agencies overseeing projects — such as dams, natural-gas depots or communications towers — decide whether their activities jeopardize endangered species.
Under the present rules, all agencies must consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service.
When the rule was put in place, many agencies did not have the expertise to assess the biological impact of a project, said Kaush Arha, a Department of the Interior official overseeing wildlife and parks.
“Now, each agency has developed the capacity to protect critters,” Arha said. “The consultation requirement has created a bottleneck.”
Still, it was the wildlife agencies that intervened in a Federal Communications Commission cell-tower project to protect birds and in a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gas-terminal project to safeguard whales.
“Agencies are always looking to push their projects and agendas,” said Bob Davis, a Defenders of Wildlife biologist.
Davis held the same post as Arha in the Clinton administration.
He added: “The goal of the Endangered Species Act was for someone to speak for those species.”
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com
Species listed as endangered
255 under President Reagan
231 under President George H.W. Bush
521 under President Clinton
80 under President George W. Bush
Source: Center for Biological Diversity
