The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was signed into law in 1973 to protect animal and plant species at risk of extinction due to habitat changes or loss. The ESA is intended to conserve the habitats and to foster the recovery of threatened or endangered animal and plant species across the United States based on sound data and science. And though the ESA was never intended to be used by environmental organizations as a litigation tool, it has since been abused in order to halt development or destroy economic growth and job creation while diverting millions of taxpayer dollars away from species recovery.
Over the past few years, there have been numerous efforts in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, and elsewhere to list species as endangered and place hundreds of thousands of acres of land off-limits to economic development. And a new, stronger wave of threats is expected.
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Weekly Newsletter – 7/26/19
Weekly Newsletter |July 26, 2019 Issues Conservation groups to sue over West Texas lizard as ESA listing decision looms. Last week, two conservation groups filed a notice to sue the Trump administration over the dunes sagebrush lizard’s Endangered Species Act status. Defenders of Wildlife and Center for Biological Diversity claim development in Texas and New Mexico jeopardize the lizard’s habitat [...]
Weekly Newsletter – 7/19/19
Weekly Newsletter |July 19, 2019 Issues New sage-grouse management plan proposed in Wyoming. For the first time, Wyoming’s greater sage- grouse team is recommending the governor adopt an explicit policy in his executive order to increase the bird’s population and expand its habitat. The executive order — first issued by Gov. Dave Freudenthal in 2008 and updated by Gov. Matt [...]
Weekly Newsletter – 7/12/19
Weekly Newsletter |July 12, 2019 Issues Victory for property rights in Supreme Court fight over gopher frog. A long-running legal battle over Louisiana’s dusky gopher frog ended quietly in a court settlement late last week. After scientists identified a plot of private land in Louisiana as containing the ideal ephemeral ponds for the frog, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [...]