{"id":160,"date":"2008-12-11T18:12:12","date_gmt":"2008-12-11T22:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=160"},"modified":"2008-12-11T18:12:12","modified_gmt":"2008-12-11T22:12:12","slug":"a-blow-to-endangered-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2008\/12\/11\/a-blow-to-endangered-species\/","title":{"rendered":"A blow to endangered species"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Today the Bush administration confirmed legislation changes that will eliminate the need for federal agencies to consult with scientists on projects that might cause harm to endangered species.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB122902557026499097.html?mod=googlenews_wsj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright img-fluid\" style=\"border: 2px solid black;margin: 10px;float: right\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/1\/15\/Sea_otter_cropped.jpg\/250px-Sea_otter_cropped.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"194\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S.\u00a0 Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service provided advice on whether government projects would pose a threat to endangered species. Today\u2019s rule change eliminated this scientific review process, giving full decision on the risk of a project to the Department of the Interior.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Today\u2019s ruling represents a major step backward in the protection of our nation\u2019s natural resources and the ecosystem services they provide.\u00a0 ESA released a statement in August denouncing the proposed legislation and encouraging public comment.\u00a0 Our president, Sunny Power, had this to say:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"text-align: left\"><p><span style=\"color: #000000\">The concept of independent scientific review has been in practice since the 18th century and is crucial to ensuring that ideas and proposed work are scientifically sound. This overhaul of the Endangered Species Act would place the fate of rare species in the hands of government stakeholders who are not qualified to assess the environmental impacts of their activities.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">The silver lining is that since this legislation is a rule, not an act, the new administration will have the power to overturn it.\u00a0 As scientists, our duty now is to ensure that this happens, and happens with speed.\u00a0 Here are some things you can do as an ecologist:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<strong> Write an editorial <\/strong>for your local newspaper about why this legislation undermines the protection of our natural resources.<br>\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>Send a letter <\/strong>to your <a href=\"https:\/\/writerep.house.gov\/writerep\/welcome.shtml\">representative <\/a>and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.senate.gov\/general\/contact_information\/senators_cfm.cfm\">senator<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.senate.gov\/general\/contact_information\/senators_cfm.cfm\">s<\/a> asking them to speak out against this legislation.<br>\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>Talk to your colleagues <\/strong>at your institution and across the country, and ask them to do the same.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today the Bush administration confirmed legislation changes that will eliminate the need for federal agencies to consult with scientists on projects that might cause harm to endangered species. Under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S.\u00a0 Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service provided advice on whether government projects would pose a threat to endangered species. Today\u2019s rule&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[63,70],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecology-in-policy","tag-endangered-species","tag-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}