Lawsuits Allege Politics Harming Species in Seven States

The national environmental group says these lawsuits are the first phase of "a campaign to challenge political interference by high-level Bush administration officials that have stripped protections for 55 endangered species and 8.7 million acres of land."

A legally required "notice of intent to sue" over the 55 species was filed with the Bush administration in August.

Today's lawsuits challenge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's refusal to list as endangered species a fish called the Montana fluvial arctic grayling and the Mexican garter snake found in Arizona and New Mexico.

The group also is challenging the elimination of 109,382 acres of protected critical habitat from three fish species - the Santa Ana sucker in California, and the loach minnow and spikedace - once common throughout the Verde, Salt, San Pedro, Gila, and other rivers of Arizona and New Mexico.

Another lawsuit challenges the agency's refusal to provide any critical habitat for the Mississippi gopher frog. The frog, still found in a few spots in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, is listed as endangered but still has no protection from impending development in its habitat.

"These are some of the most endangered species in the United States," said Michael Senatore, senior counsel for the Center for Biological Diversity. "It's outrageous that federal scientists were blocked from protecting them by political appointees in Washington, DC."

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists issued decisions to list the Montana fluvial arctic grayling and garter snake as endangered species, but those decisions were reversed by former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Julie MacDonald and other high ranking officials.

The Montana fluvial arctic grayling is still found in a few streams. (Photo courtesy Endangered Species Coalition)

The Montana fluvial, or river-dwelling, arctic grayling was once widely distributed throughout the upper Missouri River drainage above Great Falls, Montana, but is now reduced to a single population in the upper Big Hole River in southwestern Montana.

The species continues to be threatened by water withdrawals, livestock grazing, nonnative species, and global warming. The Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that the grayling warranted Endangered Species Act listing in 1994.

In 2004, the agency elevated the species' priority number from a 9 to a 3 because it was judged to be at imminent risk of extinction. In 2006, agency scientists prepared a draft decision to list the grayling as endangered calling the species' status "unequivocal."

Internal agency memos indicate that MacDonald then intervened and the decision was reversed by "the highest levels of management." The final decision to withhold protection was issued on April 24, 2007.

Following a critical report by the Department of the Interior Inspector General documenting systematic abuse and overruling of federal scientists, MacDonald resigned her post May 1.

To calm the scandal, the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pledged to review eight decisions illegally reversed by MacDonald. The Center calls this review, a "cynical effort at damage control" that only "flamed the controversy."

In response to a congressional request, the Government Accountability Office is currently investigating additional instances of science manipulation by MacDonald, who may have been involved in more than 100 instances of overruling scientific determinations on endangered and threatened species.

"The depth of corruption within the Department of the Interior goes way beyond Julie MacDonald and eight decisions," said Senatore. "It impacts hundreds of endangered species and millions of acres of wetlands and wildlife habitat."

The case of the Santa Ana sucker involves two other high level officials in the Department of the Interior. This southern California fish has been extirpated from 75 percent of its historic range. It was listed as a threatened species in 2000 and in 2004, Fish and Wildlife Service scientists proposed the designation of 23,719 acres of critical habitat to protect it.

The Santa Ana sucker is federally listed as threatened. (Photo courtesy SAWPA)

They were overruled by Assistant Secretary of Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Craig Manson and Deputy Assistant Secretary Randal Bowman, claims the Center for Biological Diversity.

The final decision published in the Federal Register on January 4, 2005, was signed by Manson. It excluded 15,414 acres from the proposal, leaving 8,305 acres of protected habitat, after a draft economic analysis estimated conservation costs could range from $21.8 to $30.5 million over the next 20 years.

Manson explained that several existing Habitat Conservation Plans cover the excluded acres, providing conservation benefits for the Santa Ana sucker.

But the Center quotes internal agency documents in which staff complain that "the decision made no sense" and warned of "how difficult this one will be when it comes to straight-facing it with the public and the press."

Today's lawsuits are the latest in a long string of legal challenges to Bush administration species decisions. The designation of any critical habitat at all for the Santa Ana sucker, for instance, was done in response to an earlier lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, as well as California Trout, Inc., the California-Nevada Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, and Friends of the River.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved.