Green groups' report touts pro-ESA editorials, op-eds

E&E News
By Phil Taylor
February 19, 2014

Hundreds of newspapers, columnists and citizens registered support last year for the Endangered Species Act on its 40th anniversary, according to a report released today by environmental groups.

The report compiles more than 200 editorials, op-eds and articles from local, regional and national publications. It was sent today to lawmakers as Congress contemplates updates to the 1973 law.

The report features supportive op-eds by Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.), a leading author of the law, Jim Moran (D-Va.), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) and Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).

It also features numerous published op-eds from environmentalists at the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife, which co-authored the report with the Endangered Species Coalition.

"Given this broad public support for the Endangered Species Act and the importance of preventing species extinction, Congress must do everything in its power to protect and strengthen the Act, which for four decades has helped us to balance the nation's short-term economic needs with the best long-term environmental and economic interests of generations of Americans to come," said the 282-page report.

It comes weeks after House Republicans issued their own report calling for changes to how the Fish and Wildlife Service oversees species recovery and delisting, settlements with conservation groups, and cooperation with states, tribes and other stakeholders (Greenwire, Feb. 4).

Legislation to implement the proposals will be introduced in the next month, House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said.

"Strong support remains for conserving endangered species," Hastings said at a news conference earlier this month. "However, our findings show that there is room for improvements."

But Brett Hartl, endangered species policy director at CBD, said the outpouring of editorial support suggests most Americans would prefer that ESA be strengthened or left unaltered.

"Most Americans celebrate the fact that the Endangered Species Act has saved American alligators, gray whales and peregrine falcons from extinction," said Hartl. "The fact is, the act has a 99 percent success rate in preventing extinction for wildlife under its care and has helped protect millions of acres of wildlife habitat. It's hard to argue with that kind of success."

Critics of ESA argue that the law has only recovered a small percentage of species it has listed.

But CBD said scientists estimate at least 227 species would have likely gone extinct if not for the 1973 law.