Release: Endangered Species Coalition Comment on the Proposal to Add 48 Hawaiian Species to the Endangered Species List

Jon Hunter 2008-09-30

For Immediate Release

September 30, 2008

Contact: Leda Huta, Endangered Species Coalition (202) 320-6467

Jon Hunter, Endangered Species Coalition (202) 476-0669

Endangered Species Coalition Comment on the Proposal to Add 48 Hawaiian Species to the Endangered Species List

WASHINGTON-- Today, the Bush Administration announced a proposal to add 48 species found only on the island of Kauai, Hawaii to the federal endangered species list and designate critical habitat.

“It is good news that the Fish and Wildlife Service has finally started to do their job, once again, of proposing protection under the Endangered Species Act for plants and animals on the brink of disappearing forever,” said Leda Huta, executive director of the Endangered Species Coalition. “Unfortunately, given this administration's track record, we will have to go over the proposal with a fine-toothed comb to ensure that the protections are really being put into place.”

An End to the Drought?

In the past two years, the Department of Interior has only added one species to the Endangered Species list, the polar bear, which was the result of multiple lawsuits. Even then, Interior Secretary Kempthorne took extraordinary steps to greatly limit protections for polar bears, preventing the U.S. FWS from addressing the main threat to polar bears—global warming..

Earlier this year, the Administration had promised congressional appropriators that they would begin the listing process for 71 species in this fiscal year, which ends today. No process has been initiated for the other 23 species.

“This Administration has the worst record of protection since the Endangered Species Act was created in 1973,” stated Huta. “They have bent over backwards – and around ethics policies – to keep all but a handful of species unprotected and their record on providing adequate habitat for species to recover is even worse.”

The Endangered Species Coalition is a national network of hundreds of conservation, scientific, sporting, religious, humane, business and community groups across the country working to protect our nation’s wildlife and wild places.

www.StopExtinction.org

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