A federal government promise to make endangered species listing decisions for more than 800 plants and animals within five years has prompted two more environmental groups to drop a lawsuit, clearing the way for work to avert extinctions.
“This is good news for us. It’s going to allow us to concentrate on conservation of species rather than litigation,” said Bridget Fahey, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s chief of endangered species decisions across eight Western states.
Attorneys for the Denver-based Rocky Mountain Wild and Laramie-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance on Monday dismissed a lawsuit, pending since 2004, that targeted the government’s practice of issuing “warranted but precluded” decisions.
Those decisions, increasingly common, ruled more than 200 species deserving of protection but left them in limbo due to lack of resources to implement conservation plans.
In the Rocky Mountain Region, nearly a dozen species are affected, including the wolverine, the greater sage grouse and the gunnison sage grouse.
The dismissal follows a government agreement in July with the Center for Biological Diversity, which had emerged as a prolific legal challenger. In May, Fish and Wildlife Service officials reached a similar deal with WildEarth Guardians that limits future legal action against the government.
Earlier this month, a federal judge approved the broader settlements, which require the government to decide on protections for more than 800 imperiled animal and plant species ranging from walrus to butterflies.
Consolidation of endangered species legal cases scattered in federal courts around the nation into a single court, run by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington D.C., led to the settlements to break legal logjams.
More than a dozen lawsuits targeted the government’s handling of “candidate species” for which scientists recommended protection but then could not move forward.
“We’re happy to support the plan … to fix the broken listing system at the Fish and Wildlife Service,” Rocky Mountain Wild attorney Matt Sandler said. “Many species in our region that have been stuck on the candidate list are in urgent need of Endangered Species Act protections, and we are encouraged to see the Service agree to a path forward.”
For years, federal biologists have devoted much of their time to addressing petitions filed by environmental activists. This entailed analyzing needs of species for which it was not yet decided whether protections were warranted.
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com
