The Green Group transition document has a number of concrete and thoughtful suggestions for US Fish & Wildlife Services (FWS) in the new administration.

Frankly, I’d be happy with a simple change of tone…

We’ve been focused on the Bush Administration’s absolute tone-deaf response to issues around the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for the last eight years. Under current leadership, the FWS has been directed towards an all-out assault on the ESA and its scientific focus.

 You see it in the last second rule changes.

 You see it in jokes they make with the press.

 You see it in the way they deal with public feedback.

So let’s just change the tone. Send the simple message, “Wildlife is OK.”

That one little change is a balance tipper. It allows a return to decisions based on science instead of politics. They are biologists. Naturalists. Conservationists. People who care about nature. They want to protect wildlife, not wage war on it.

That change allows FWS to start grappling with the issues that are going to be central to their work: investigate climate change impacts already being felt by our wild life and wild places, undoing some of the crazy rule changes that the administration is foisting on us as they sulk out the back door, drafting the recovery plans that are central to endangered species' population growth, revisit the process for listing endangered species and critical habitat, and increase ESA funding (because goodness knows there will be a lot going on in that arena to get caught up after the last 8 years).

There’s no way that the Service can do a 180 immediately.

And even when they do, I doubt NRDC will be in complete agreement with them on everything.

But if we are both focused on the idea that wildlife is OK---that science and the public interest are valuable in these decisions---it will be a lot easier to get at the important work that desperately needs doin’ to stave off the looming disasters brought on by climate change. We already see species like pikas, various pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, walrus, etc.), and whitebark pine trees struggling to deal with the changes. But if we can get back to the spirit that re-established wolves, California condors, and manatees I think we will be able to get this work done too.