Endangered Species Act - still threatened!

Hey! Did you write to your legislators about the Endangered Species Act yet? Well, here's a link that makes it easy to do so -- just put your information and zip and they send off the letter for you.

The new regulations would:

- Exempt thousands of federal activities from review under the Endangered Species Act;
- Eliminate checks and balances of independent oversight;
- Limit which effects can be considered harmful;
- Prevent consideration of a project's contribution to global warming;
- Set an inadequate 60-day deadline for wildlife experts to evaluate a project in the instances when they are invited to participate -- or else the project gets an automatic green light;
- Enable large-scale projects to pass without review by dividing them into hundreds of small projects.

Send a message to Kempthorne and members of Congress that these changes are unacceptable.

Step up & Speak!

Time to speak out against the proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act. Submit your opposing comments to the changes documented in FWS-R9-ES-2008-0093. They are not accepting e-mail or faxes -- but they do have an online form for accepting comments. You can make it short and sweet.

To recap, the proposed changes "eliminate the requirement for independent scientific reviews of any project that could harm an endangered species living on federal land. Instead, federal agencies would decide on their own whether the projects — including construction of highways and dams — pose a threat and then move ahead if they determine there is no problem. [...] The new regulations would overturn one of the act’s most fundamental provisions. Under current rules, federal agencies are required to submit their plans to either the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service." (Source: New York Times, 8/13/2008).

Save the Animals...

...not just the animals in your back yard. You'll all be happy to know that after knocking on a few doors, I did find the ball python's home. "Kittycat" likely fell off a windowsill while sunning herself and her human, Eric, was very happy to have her back (pictures coming soon!).

Other animals, however, are not so lucky. Our current government has plans to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act by taking away mandatory independent reviews and allowing states to decide for themselves if their plans for roads, dams or anything else threaten any endangered species habitat. This is such a short-sighted move.

Please use this handy form to contact your representatives to voice your support of the Endangered Species Act -- USPIRG already did the work, just edit the letter if you want to customize it, fill out your information and they will send it off to your legislative representatives.

Read more about the Endangered Species Act and the animals protected by this act. Sign up for notifications from your state public interest research group on USPIRG. Also check out the Endangered Species Coalition website for information.