Please Do Not Tap On the Glass

**UPDATE** The proposed rule is published today in the Federal Register (that’s the text link to the rule) and we have until September 15 to send in our comments.

I’ve been wondering where all the NGOs have been this week and why there are no alerts in my inbox. Well, they’re starting to arrive:

• The Center for Biological Diversity provides a letter that you can edit and send to Secretary Kempthorne, protesting the changes. The changes to the ESA include:
  - Exempt thousands of federal activities from review under the Endangered Species Act;
  - Eliminate checks and balances of independent oversight;
  - Limit which effects can be considered harmful;
  - Prevent consideration of a project’s contribution to global warming;
  - Set an inadequate 60-day deadline for wildlife experts to evaluate a project in the instances when they are invited to participate — or else the project gets an automatic green light;
  - Enable large-scale projects to go unreviewed by dividing them into hundreds of small projects.
  In addition, last week Kempthorne and Bush tried to slip another proposed rule change under the radar that would limit protection of a species only to where it is currently found.

  Under the current rule a species has protection in its entire historical range. However many endangered species have lost substantial portions of that range. For example; under the proposed changes, prior to being reintroduced, the California condor would only have been listed in zoos.

• Defenders of Wildlife also has a letter you can edit and send to your Congressional representatives.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is no longer accepting public comments by e-mail or fax. Every other agency in the government does accept comments electronically, but not USFW. So, we have to mail our comments about Monday’s proposed rule to gut the ESA. I learned this by reading SFGate’s Thin Green Line blog and perusing the end of the proposed rule itself. You can access it on the link to the blog.

So, we need to start writing IMMEDIATELY. We don’t have a lot of time left because the Bush Administration cut the usual 60-day comment period in half. They don’t want us to know what they’re up to, so let’s make sure they get lots and lots of written public comments delivered by snail-mail at USFW. You can write your comments and mail them to the following address or you can keep an eye on the National Resource Defence Council’s Switchboard blog for information on how to submit them electronically to NRDC. They will then print out your comments and deliver them to USFW. The link will be live on Monday at NRDC Action Fund.

Here’s the USFW mailing address for comments (they will also post any personal information you provide in the Federal Register):

Public Comment Processing
Attention: 1018-AT50
Divisioin of Policy and Directives Management
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 222
Arlington, VA 22203

s.

Filed under: endangered species, wildlife conservation Tagged: | endangered speciesi act