SAVING America's 1,000 Most Endangered SPECIES
In recognition that 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity, the Center has launched a campaign to protect the 1,000 most imperiled species in the United States by winning them a spot on the endangered list, obtaining critical habitat protections, and ensuring timely development of a recovery plan during the Obama administration.
There’s no better tool for saving these 1,000 species than the Endangered Species Act. Research published by the Center found that the longer species have been listed under the Act, the more likely they are to be recovering; species with designated critical habitat are twice as likely to be recovering as those without critical habitat; and species with recovery plans are more likely to be recovering than those without plans.
Adding Species to the Endangered List
Victories So Far
● In 2010, in response to a 2004 petition and two lawsuits by the Center, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized listing for 48 plants, insects, and birds from the island of Kauai, with designation of critical habitat.
● In 2007, the Center successfully pushed for a threatened listing for the polar bear — the only species listed during Dirk Kempthorne’s tenure as interior secretary. Since then, the Center has led the Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider decisions to deny protection to the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, American wolverine, Mexican garter snake, Montana fluvial Arctic grayling, Gunnison sage grouse, roundtail chub, Hermes copper butterfly, and Thorne’s hairstreak butterfly. To date, the agency has determined that the trout, chub, and garter snake warrant protection.
Ongoing Projects
● We’re in court in Washington, D.C. to force listing decisions on 249 “candidate” species that are officially recognized as deserving protection but have been “precluded” from receiving it, including the Pacific fisher, the elfin woods warbler, the Oregon spotted frog, and the white fringeless orchid. Some of these species have been waiting for protection for more than 30 years. Many species have gone extinct languishing on the candidate list.
● In February 2010, we filed four lawsuits against the Fish and Wildlife Service for long delays in granting federal protection to 93 species, including the California golden trout, the black-footed albatross, the dusky tree vole, 32 Pacific Northwest mollusks, and many others struggling to survive. Scientific petitions have been filed to grant these species the federal safeguards they need, but because of bureaucratic foot-dragging from the past and now current administration, they’ve been waiting for protection, in some cases, for decades.
● In the spring, the Center will be filing a 2,500-page petition to add 550 southeastern aquatic species to the endangered species list. The southeastern United States is a global hotspot for aquatic biological diversity, containing an unparalleled richness of fauna. Unfortunately, much of this aquatic diversity is at high risk of extinction. More than 70 percent of mussels, 48 percent of crayfish, and 28 percent of fishes are considered endangered, threatened, or of special concern by the American Fisheries Society. The Center’s petition will call attention to the severity and scale of the problem of biodiversity loss in Southeast rivers and streams and will eventually provide protection to hundreds of species across the Southeast.
Stopping Premature Removal From the Endangered List
Victories So Far
● In 2009, the Center and allies restored protection for wolves in the Great Lakes; now we’re poised to restore protection for wolves and grizzly bears in the northern Rocky Mountains. Also in 2009 we successfully stopped a plan to remove protections for the marbled murrelet before they were even proposed.
Ongoing Projects
● The Center is actively working to restore protections to the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl and West Virginia northern flying squirrel and to stop the removal of protection for the Delmarva Peninsula fox squirrel.
Obtaining Critical Habitat Protection
Victories So Far
● In 2009, the Center had tremendous success securing protections for species, obtaining new or additional critical habitat protections for 43 species, including more than 25 million acres for the Canada lynx, as well as millions of acres combined for the California red-legged frog, western snowy plover, Riverside fairy shrimp, and others.
Ongoing Projects
● Because of the Center’s work, 128 million acres were proposed as critical habitat for the polar bear in 2009. The Center is actively working to ensure that all of these acres are protected in the final designation.
● The Center is actively working to obtain new or additional critical habitat protections for a number of species, including the loggerhead sea turtle, Florida panther, southwestern willow flycatcher, Cape sable seaside sparrow, San Bernardino kangaroo rat, and many others.
Obtaining Recovery Plans
Victories So Far
● The Center successfully forced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to propose a recovery plan for the jaguar in the United States and is poised to force the agency to redo a flawed recovery plan for the northern spotted owl.
Ongoing Projects
● The Center has petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a recovery plan for the Mexican gray wolf and is pushing the agency to develop a comprehensive plan for restoring wolves to other areas of their historic range and helping them recover there — including the Northeast, southern Rocky Mountains, Cascade Mountains, and Sierra Nevada — and helping them recover there.
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