Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy
A few days ago, I noted that if the Bush Administration really wanted to amend the Endangered Species Act’s implementing regulations, it first needed to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement analyzing the changes under the National Environmental Policy Act. The...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy
The Bush Administration just announced that it was “reopening” the comment period on its proposal to strip Endangered Species Act protections from wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains. Wolves were put back on the endangered species list earlier this year,...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy
One other thing it’s worth noting about the Bush Administration’s rush to get its Endangered Species Act rule changes to the White House by early November: it may be illegal. There are two legal requirements the Fish and Wildlife Service...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy
Remember those proposed rules that would weaken the Endangered Species Act? You know, the ones that generated hundreds of thousands of comments from concerned citizens? Well, it looks like the Bush Administration isn’t going let the pesky task of actually...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Green Enterprise , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
EBay should be given some props today for their decision to ban the sale of ivory products, starting in January. The intent of the ban is to reduce the demand for illegally harvested elephant ivory. Despite a ban on...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy
On Friday, the National Marine Fisheries Service officially listed the Cook Inlet beluga whale as an endangered species. Cook Inlet belugas are a genetically unique and geographically isolated population of whales that live Alaska’s Cook Inlet, near Anchorage. Their population...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Today’s wildlife news is a mix of the encouraging and the daunting. One the one hand, polar bear conservation took a modest but important step forward yesterday, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to designate “critical habitat” for...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Reviving the World's Oceans , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy
On Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Winter v. NRDC, a case concerning the devastating environmental effects that the use of high-intensity active sonar can have on marine life, particularly small, deep-diving, whales. The Court could consider...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy
The last few months have been heady ones for wolf advocates. First, a federal judge in Montana issued a preliminary injunction restoring the gray wolf population in the Northern Rocky Mountains to the endangered species list; a move which...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Two interesting polar bear items caught my attention this week. First, last night BBC’s Science in Action had a fascinating piece on tests of polar bear hearing thresholds (that is, what is the spectrum of sound that polar bears can...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy
As we speak, California Senator Barbara Boxer is presiding over a hearing on the "Bush Administration Environmental Record at Department of Interior and Environmental Protection Agency." Scheduled to speak were Robert Meyers, the Principal Deputy Assistant of the EPA, and Lyle...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
Over at Planet Gore, the gremlins are hard at work trying to make the case that yesterday’s announcement that summer Arctic sea ice minimums are only the second lowest on record is actually a good thing. According to Edward John...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy
Reflecting a bit on today’s news that the federal government intends, at least for now, to give up on its push to strip northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves of federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, it’s important not to...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy
The AP is reporting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will voluntarily withdraw its ill-conceived and illegal regulation stripping Northern Rocky Mountains gray wolves of their protections under the Endangered Species Act. If the government does withdraw its wolf...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy
In case you hadn’t heard, on Friday the Bush Administration officially announced that is will extend the comment period on its proposal to change the Endangered Species Act’s “consultation” requirements by 30-days. The new deadline for submitting comments is now...
