Score one for the whooping crane. And the grizzly bear. And the greenback cutthroat trout.
Those are among the endangered or threatened species that will benefit from an Obama administration decision last week reinstating a layer of protection removed in the waning days of the Bush presidency.
The announcement, made by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, means federal agencies must once again consult with wildlife experts before approving activities such as dam construction, mining, logging or road building.
We were dismayed last December to learn of the Bush administration decision to streamline the approval process by cutting out requirements that experts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service review sensitive projects.
The change made the consultation optional, and the Bush administration argued it was a relatively minimal policy shift.
As we said at the time, we’re in favor of simplifying burdensome government processes, but not by weakening laws that work.
After President Barack Obama took office, he put the rule change on hold so that it could be reviewed.
We were glad to see the policy change reversed. For more than two decades, federal government agencies were required to seek approval from wildlife experts, and there was no compelling reason to modify that process.
In fact, it seemed reasonable to believe that such “streamlining” ultimately would push endangered species questions into the court system where they assuredly would have taken longer to resolve.
Protecting the myriad of endangered and threatened plant and animal species is an important government function. Shortcuts in that process should never be taken in the name of expediency.
