In my opinion, President Obama probably has a intellectual's warm spot in his heart as it relates to biological diversity and open space preservation,,,,,,However, his management style of delegating policy writing to Congress and other Federal Offices has not proven optimum and results-oriented.......In fact, in the two years Obama has held office, Endangered Species designations are just slightly up on an annual basis over the anemic record that former President George Bush generated.........Whether it be Endangered Species and Critical Habitat designation, balancing the budget or putting forth a plan for private sector job creation, the President(in my opinion) is too "Professorial" and not Action-oriented enough(selling his ideas with intensity to the electorate) in his leading the Country........... When you leave things in the hands of "fringe fanatics" like Nancy Pelosi............When you do not clean out the Bush era middle bureaucrats in the the Dept.'s of Interior and Agriculture, you get either narrow partisan suggestions or inaction/stall-mode execution of policy-------Both are bad for our wildlife and People

Wildlife at Risk Face Long Line at U.S. AgencyBy TODD WOODY

In February, the Obama administration declared the Pacific walrus to be at risk of extinction because its Arctic habitat was melting. But it declined to list the marine mammal as an endangered species, saying a backlog of other animals faced greater peril. Now, it turns out, the walrus is on a very long waiting list. The federal Fish and Wildlife Service is in emergency triage mode as it struggles with an avalanche of petitions and lawsuits over the endangered species list, the chief tool for protecting plants and animals facing extinction in the United States. Over the last four years, a few environmental groups have requested that more than 1,230 species be listed, compared with the previous 12 years in which annual requests averaged only 20 species.

Some environmental groups argue that vastly expanded listings are needed as evidence mounts that the world is entering an era of mass extinctions related to destruction of habitat, climate and other changes. Such threats require a focus on entire ecosystems, they say, rather than individual species. Fish and Wildlife Service officials say the barrage has paralyzed the listing process. Last month, the agency asked Congress to intervene and impose a limit on the number of species it must consider for protection, setting the stage for a showdown. "The many requests for species petitions has inundated the listing program's domestic species listing capabilities," the service wrote in its 2012 budget request. Already it faces a backlog of 254 species — including the yellow-billed loon, Gunnison's prairie dog and the North American wolverine. It says their protection is warranted but precluded by a lack of resources.

The Fish and Wildlife Service declined to make officials available for comment. But Gary Frazer, the agency's assistant director for endangered species, discussed the mass of filings in an interview last year. "These megapetitions are putting us in a difficult spot, and they're basically going to shut down our ability to list any candidates for the foreseeable future," Mr. Frazer said. "If all our resources are used responding to petitions, we don't have resources to put species on the endangered species list. It's not a happy situation." Two environmental groups, the Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians, have filed 90 percent of the listings petitions since 2007 and maintain that a bioblitz, as it is often called, is the best strategy for forcing the service to be more assertive in its wildlife protection mission. "We want to compel the Fish and Wildlife Service to look at the full extent of the extinction crisis in the United States," said Nicole Rosmarino, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians, which is based in Santa Fe, N.M. "We would like a system where the service is actively looking for species that merit protection rather than the current system where groups like ours have to drive this process."

The wider environmental community appears divided on the mass-listing strategy.  "It is undoubtedly the case that the resources and the staffing for the Fish and Wildlife Service are inadequate," said Bob Irvin, senior vice president for conservation programs at Defenders of Wildlife in Washington. "The question is, is tying the service in knots the best way to save the web of life?"

In its 2012 budget request, the service estimated that in 2011 it will be able to make final listing decisions on only 4 percent of warranted petitions within one year as required by law, down from 12 percent in 2010.  Since Congress passed the Endangered Species Act 37 years ago, some 1,370 species have been listed, the last being the southern rockhopper penguin. Last month, the agency asked Congress to impose a cap on the amount of money the agency can spend on processing listing petitions, both to control its workload and as a defense against lawsuits. "We would essentially use that as our defense for not doing more," Mr. Frazer, the agency's assistant director for endangered species, testified, "so that we can balance among the various duties that we have."

 

This month, Congress intervened with the list for the first time, removing protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho, but it is unclear whether it will act on the wildlife service's current request.