Defenders of Wildlife Condemns Endangered Species Listing Moratorium

Washington, DC – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the U.S. Congress have "engineered a phony budget shortfall" that FWS claims will prevent it from considering new species for protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), according to Defenders of Wildlife President Rodger Schlickeisen. An internal memorandum from FWS Director Jamie Clark ordered the service’s field offices to immediately stop work on any new endangered species listings through September 30, 2001, citing budget pressures.

"The FWS has the money available to do what they must under the law, but Congress and the Service engineered a phony budget shortfall to try to shirk some of those duties. There are wildlife species in dire trouble right now that don’t have time for these budget gymnastics. Animals such as the wolverine, the cerulean warbler, wolves in the southern Rocky Mountains, the New England cottontail rabbit, and other species are the real losers in this bureaucratic game, along with the hundreds of thousands of Americans who’ve fought to protect them," said Schlickeisen.

The FWS claims that lawsuits over designation of "critical habitat" for endangered species have left it without the resources to consider new species for listing as "endangered" or "threatened." In its budget request for FY2000, however, the FWS asked for a low cap of $1,000,000 on activities to designate critical habitat, despite existing and potential court orders that would require FWS to significantly exceed that amount. Furthermore, the Service has a budget of more than $122 million for work on overall ESA issues, much of which should be available to do the core work of listing species.

"FWS is crying crocodile tears about short budgets, but they have been trying to contort their way out of the clear requirements of the law for quite a while now. After the courts began rejecting FWS’ budget excuses, the agency asked a compliant Congress to tie its own hands," said William Snape, Defenders of Wildlife vice president for law and litigation.

Snape noted that this policy could have a disastrous effect on four petitions on individual species for which Defenders of Wildlife is currently seeking listing under the ESA: the wolverine, the cerulean warbler, the New England cottontail rabbit, and the gray wolf in the southern Rockies.

With a storied reputation for tenacity and independence, the wolverine has been reduced from a historic range that stretched from Maine to Washington and along the Rocky Mountains to Arizona, now down to populations in probably only Idaho and Montana, with sightings of individuals in a few other states such as Minnesota. The wolverine is highly susceptible to habitat fragmentation by forest road-building and logging operations, and capture in leg-hold traps. Because of their small population size and shrinking habitat, wolverines are extremely vulnerable to extinction, but are afforded no protection by the federal government. Defenders of Wildlife has joined regional grassroots groups to seek ESA listing for this rare carnivore.

In late October, Defenders of Wildlife joined 27 other conservation groups in a petition to protect the cerulean warbler, one of Appalachia’s most striking songbirds. Since 1966, the cerulean warbler’s population has shrunk by more than 70 percent, making it one of the fastest disappearing songbirds in the United States. Habitat loss is the primary reason for the disappearance of the cerulean warbler, with commercial logging and mountaintop removal coal mining as the main culprits. The species and its habitat are currently not protected, which biologists predict will lead to extinction of the species in the near future.

The New England cottontail was once so abundant in the Northeast that it was an important food source during the Great Depression, but it has become one of the most critically endangered, but as yet unprotected, species in the region. Habitat loss and competitive pressure from the Eastern cottontail, imported to the region by hunters, have pushed the species to the brink of extinction. Defenders of Wildlife joined in August of this year with the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, Conservation Action Project, and Endangered Small Animals Conservation Fund in a petition to FWS for listing of the species under the ESA.

While return of the gray wolf to Yellowstone National Park is one of the proudest achievements of the FWS, the species is still confined to less than 4 percent of its historical range. Defenders of Wildlife has identified substantial tracts of excellent habitat in that former range, and believes that restoration of the gray wolf to those places is essential for the real recovery of the species. Defenders of Wildlife petitioned the FWS earlier this month to designate the southern Rocky Mountains as a "Distinct Population Segment" of the gray wolf, which would lead to reintroduction of the species in appropriate areas in Colorado and Utah, along with parts of Wyoming, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Under the policy outlined in FWS Director Clark’s memo, the Service would not act at all on any of these petitions, putting each of the species in question at severe risk of further decline or even extinction.

Defenders of Wildlife is a leading nonprofit conservation organization recognized as one of the nation’s most progressive advocates for wildlife and its habitat. With more than 400,000 members and supporters, Defenders of Wildlife is an effective leader on endangered species issues. To stay current on hot topics in wildlife conservation, subscribe to DENlines, Defenders of Wildlife’s electronic update and action alert network.