Don't Let Obama Shut Out Endangered Species
Right now, the Obama administration
is acceptin comments on a draft policy
interpreting the phrase
"significant portion of its range" (SPOIR),
whichspecifies that if a species is at risk
of extinctionin any significant portion of
range, it shall be protected.
This provision has played a key role in
the recovery of the bald eagle, grizzly
bear and many other iconic wildlife
species, ensuring that animals and plants
receive protection before they're past the
point ofsaving by providing protection to
species in important parts of their home ranges.
The draft policy would limit species protection
in two ways. First, it proposes that a portion of
range would only be considered significant if loss
of the species from that portion would threaten the
species as a whole. This amounts to a regulatory
sleight-of-hand that would effectively eliminate the
SPOIR provision by making it largely synonymous
with a species being at risk in all of its range.
Second, the policy says historic range will not be
considered when determining whether a species
is endangered in a significant portion of range.
In effect, this calls for turning a blind eye to past
losses of species, providing a perverse incentive
to delay determinations of species' status, so that
they may go extinct in various portions of their range,
which would then, in turn, no longer be considered for
protection.
Please tell the Obama administration to scrap this
disastrous policy proposal and develop one that
will truly protect species when they are at risk in a
significant portions of their range.
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