Bush Administration to eviscerate ESA

[mrcota]

The Bush administration yesterday issued a draft proposal that would eviscerate the Endangered Species Act. It would allow the Secretary of the Interior (for land areas) and the Secretary of Commerce (for marine areas) to simply bypass the laws protecting endangered species and their habitats by allowing them to make a determination on their own as to whether the actions of the administration are harmful to endangered species and their habitats.
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Here is a link to a story on this:
Bush Administration Proposes Draft Regulations Gutting Protections for Nation's Endangered Species
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Although the story does not make reference to this, in the draft, it states that consultations are not needed by any federal agencies before they act. In other words, the Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce do not need to consult with the experts that they had to consult with in the past before making decisions; they can simply can make their own uninformed decisions (which would be based on the desires of the masters that bankrolled their administration's election campaign, of course).
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Here is a recent release that came up while I was writing this:
Bush Administration takes aim at Endangered Species Act - Defenders of Wildlife
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This states what I had mentioned above:

Washington, D.C. – Yesterday’s announcement by the Bush Administration regarding changes to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was a last-ditch effort by a near-extinct administration to impose the same fate on America’s endangered species.
The so-called “narrow revisions” are just wide enough to ensure that agencies can go ahead with projects without being subject to checks and balances, or consultation. This calculated and political decision leaves America’s most threatened species at the mercy of a wholly inadequate review process, with no requirement for a scientific understanding of the impact on affected species. In fact, many of the agencies now required to determine the impact of an action on a species do not even have biologists on staff.

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Yet another story on the topic:
Endangered Species Act: Who needs laws?
with a paragraph that comes straight to the point:

The logic behind the would-be rules works this way: Say the Department of Transportation wants to fund a highway. That agency would decide - without the help of scientists, say, at the National Marine Fisheries Service - that the project meets ESA standards....
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The real reason for this maneuver is that the Bush administration is an endangered species, of sorts. This is an attempt to change a federal law by regulation, knowing that the clock is ticking quickly. Or too slowly, depending on your perspective.

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Here is the draft: http://www.nwf.org/nwfwebadmin/binar...SAChanges1.pdf
Please read it very carefully. It is skillfully written so you may not actually see what they are trying to do.
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One day after the draft was issued, it has already started in the hope that Bush administration can override the law:
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1,600,000 acres of protected habitat in the Pacific northwest was earmarked to be slashed. Here is the link to the story:
Feds Slash Protections for Owl Habitat : Earthjustice: Environmental Law
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The ESA (Endangered Species Act) has brought many species back from the brink of extinction. Some great examples of herps that it has rescued from probable extinction in the US are the American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) and the American Crocodile (Crocodylus actus), the latter of which has just recently recovered to the point that it was taken off of the ESA protected list. These habitats that protect the endangered species also are habitat for many sympatric species- including herps.
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I guess after they finished taking away so many of the people's freedoms over there, they think it is time to work on the animals and nature.
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Michael

[morti]

Wow... That is terrible and i hope that it doesn't go through. I am highly in favor of protecting endangered species.

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[KrokadilyanGuy3]

I'm not surprised.

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[-KB-]

The site that I work at, which is the largest refinery in the US, has strict rules about wildlife. We are currently expanding a crude unit, which will continue for the next 4 years. My point to this post, is that if a bird builds a nest and lays eggs at ANY place in the expansion, work in that area shuts down until the eggs hatch and the birds leave the nest. If the bird happens to lay eggs in a nest built on a piece of equipment, that equipment is out of service until the baby birds leave the nest. We also have lots of gators out there on the site. We consider ourselves to be on their territory, so if they do not get out of harms way on their own, the wildlife people relocate them back across the street to the canal that they came from. We have a zero tolerance policy for messing with any kind of wildlife, And I have said my piece about snakes, to which I was told that they have not had a problem with them. They assured me that venomous or not, the snakes would be treated with the same respect any other wildlife would be treated with. I am thankful, that no matter what the laws say, I can still be proud to work where I do, and that the people in management at that site have a respect for wildlife.
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So if it is like that at Motiva, why can't it be like that everywhere else? What gives us (humans) the right to disreguard all other life forms? Its truely sickening.
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Sorry if my post didn't make sense...I know I am rambling, this is just very upsetting.

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[Stigma]

u work for the oil man kobi?!?!?!? i hate u!!! hehehe just kidding


but can u talk them into sharin some of that new found wealth with the rest of us...i could sure use it...


edit: i dunno what i was sayin when i said "new wealth" i guess the oil co. arent new to wealth...but either way...they should share!!

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[-KB-]

HA! I pay the same thing you do for gas. We don't determine price...unfortunately.

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[Icicle]

I will read the above links some time tomorrow when I'm not too tired to read.
The ESA act has shut the doors of many logging companies out here in the Pacific northwest.
As in my line of work when timber companies shut down so does the work.
I only hope they can get there act together, and put an end to it all.
They want to complain that the Coho Salmon are not coming back in the numbers they want but they won't do any thing about the seals and sea lions that eat them.
Just let nature take its coarse with out interfering with it.
Just my two cents

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[Adrya]

WHAT THE HECK!!!


Ditto, Morti.. Ditto..

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[Hartsock]

Thing is, this isn't something that can just be easily fixed...once a species is gone it is gone. We can't do something carelessly and then say in 20 years, "oops, my bad". We can't pull new animals out of our butts.

ON A SIDE NOTE: Adrya, that is the best avatar picture of you yet!!!!

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[Adrya]

Originally Posted by HARTSOCK

Thing is, this isn't something that can just be easily fixed...once a species is gone it is gone. We can't do something carelessly and then say in 20 years, "oops, my bad". We can't pull new animals out of our butts.

ON A SIDE NOTE: Adrya, that is the best avatar picture of you yet!!!!

I completely agree. It's so infuriating to even think about what the heck they're trying to do. How can they just put aside the importance of saving endangered wildlife, or even wildlife in general? There are so many key species that depend on other species to survive, many of which are endangered. All life on this earth today is the last 1% of all life that has ever existed, we can't just let more species die out because of these careless administrations.

[thanks, Scott!]

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[RowingMunkeyCU]

Agreed. If anything the ESA needs to be tightened. There should be none of these 'buy-out' tactics where these megacorporations are allowed to bulldoze endangered species for a small fine (ie - Gopher Tortoises). And heck, if our government is determined to police the world, why not actually do something good and control the overfishing and pollution of all the South-East Asian nations (including Japan) that are decimating the population of so much wildlife.

Once they're gone, they're gone for good.

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[Oroborous]

Who gave them the right to do that? I've been hearing a lot about this lately and it just boils my blood. Goes to show you money and profit come before science and conservation. I can't wait till that scum is out of the white house...it's been way too long.

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[KrokadilyanGuy3]

Originally Posted by Icicle

I will read the above links some time tomorrow when I'm not too tired to read.
The ESA act has shut the doors of many logging companies out here in the Pacific northwest.
As in my line of work when timber companies shut down so does the work.
I only hope they can get there act together, and put an end to it all.
They want to complain that the Coho Salmon are not coming back in the numbers they want but they won't do any thing about the seals and sea lions that eat them.
Just let nature take its coarse with out interfering with it.
Just my two cents

So, are you for or against?
Since your job is on the line, I'd say against, but since you say you think nature should hold it's own, I think you're for. But I'm not sure.

Either way, people do not hold their own as part of nature. We are Us and nature is wild life. That's how man has percieved it as such for at least as I have been alive.
So in that line, telling ourselves we need to have the ESA intact is contributing the fact that we can actually seperate ourselves, while not telling seals to leave the fish alone because they are part of nature; letting it run it's course.

Now in the books, we are a part of nature. The problem with that, is that it's in our nature to have everything. No one is ever truely happy. We want this and then that and then want that back again but keep this as well. Without control, we'd screw ourselves over so bad because at the end of the day, money is the only thing that matters. Even if it means we wipe out all of the west coast trees and off countless numbers of species.

No matter how you look at it though, we are letting nature go on it's way. It's in our nature to control and own everything, so with regulations at play it's our nature to play those. To take, that is also our nature.

Ditching the ESA would be rediculous.

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[toker]

Lets stay on topic here, who you are or are not going to vote for hardly has any relevance to this thread.

Politics is one of the things restricted in the TOS, lets make this less about who and more about how to stop it or help it, which ever side your on.

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	TOS Term of Service - the rules for participating on redtailboa.net

[toker]

As for my take on it, I think there should be some type of protection for Protected critters. The problem is enforcement. You will always have people doing what they want, no matter who says its bad.

Personally I don't think there is any government program immune from review or redesign.

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[Icicle]

Originally Posted by KrokadilyanGuy3

So, are you for or against?
Since your job is on the line, I'd say against, but since you say you think nature should hold it's own, I think you're for. But I'm not sure.

Ditching the ESA would be rediculous.

To me I kinda have mixed feelings about the ESA.
In one hand I think they have too much red tape to cut though,
But on the other hand they did limit on where to cut timber to save the Birds.

I also believe there should be speical rules in place to keep one speices alive.
It is like you either have to many predators and not enough prey, or you have too much prey and not enough predators. If they could work out in numbers or any other way to make a balanced system I would be happy.
However there is a fine line and even a finer line when it come to point of wiping out an entire speices.

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