Biodiversity is for wimps
You can say this for Bush. He is certainly going to leave a memorable legacy.
Today is round 426 of being peeved at the Bush administration's management of science and environemental policy. Today's target? The endangered species act: Species protection list dying off.
Okay, let me just say that making it harder to list species is a REALLY REALLY bad idea. It is already very difficult to get species listed. And there is only minimal official incentive to manage them protectively before they are listed--basically, only listed species get management plans. Because there just aren't enough resources in money and manpower to even manage all the listed species, much less ones that are just above the cutoff.
But in addition, "Officials also changed the way species are evaluated--by considering only their current range, not their historical range-and put decisions on other species in limbo by blocking citizen petitions that cause legal deadlines."
So basically, you can't consider the information that the species has declined rapidly in the last 50 - 150 years (i.e. post-settlement, for the midwest), even if a hypothetical species' historical range was the entire continental US and now this hypothetical species is only found in non-contiguous populations in Arizona and Utah. You are only required to protect the species when they approach the minimum viable population. How big is a minimum viable population? Ha ha ha ha, it varies by species! You have no idea, really! And can potentially encompass the entire distribution of the species, rather than local populations with unique genetic material! Suckers! Besides, any species wimpy enough to be wiped out clearly isn't worth keeping around.
Ahem. All sarcasm aside, in practice, 500 breeding pairs is often used as a cutoff. I'm just a little bit annoyed by this. Read the article. Then read the Longer story from Sunday's Washington Post. You'll be peeved, too.
Yes, in essence this is all old news. But it is important old news to consider as we are gearing up to elect a new president. Hopefully one who will not silence our scientists and gut our national resources.
Today is round 426 of being peeved at the Bush administration's management of science and environemental policy. Today's target? The endangered species act: Species protection list dying off.
Okay, let me just say that making it harder to list species is a REALLY REALLY bad idea. It is already very difficult to get species listed. And there is only minimal official incentive to manage them protectively before they are listed--basically, only listed species get management plans. Because there just aren't enough resources in money and manpower to even manage all the listed species, much less ones that are just above the cutoff.
But in addition, "Officials also changed the way species are evaluated--by considering only their current range, not their historical range-and put decisions on other species in limbo by blocking citizen petitions that cause legal deadlines."
So basically, you can't consider the information that the species has declined rapidly in the last 50 - 150 years (i.e. post-settlement, for the midwest), even if a hypothetical species' historical range was the entire continental US and now this hypothetical species is only found in non-contiguous populations in Arizona and Utah. You are only required to protect the species when they approach the minimum viable population. How big is a minimum viable population? Ha ha ha ha, it varies by species! You have no idea, really! And can potentially encompass the entire distribution of the species, rather than local populations with unique genetic material! Suckers! Besides, any species wimpy enough to be wiped out clearly isn't worth keeping around.
Ahem. All sarcasm aside, in practice, 500 breeding pairs is often used as a cutoff. I'm just a little bit annoyed by this. Read the article. Then read the Longer story from Sunday's Washington Post. You'll be peeved, too.
Yes, in essence this is all old news. But it is important old news to consider as we are gearing up to elect a new president. Hopefully one who will not silence our scientists and gut our national resources.