Demand Reform of the Fish and Wildlife Service

  • by: Lynn Hamilton
  • recipient: United States President Barack Obama's administration

The Endangered Species Act has the potential to save the earth's most imperiled animals. So why doesn't it have a better track record? According to a recent article in the Huffington Post, the act has a meager two percent success rate in saving endangered species. 

That's because the act is basically administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service which cowers in fear of politicians and big business. A recent survey shows that the personnel of the USFWS, themselves, think they are hopelessly in thrall to political interests. Eighty-three percent of the service's own scientists said the staff the service is caving to politics. To put that into perspective, the Centers for Disease Control claim they only cave to political pressure 75% of the time. The western wolf delisting was driven by political considerations and that has resulted in a lot of dead wolves. Coal mining interests effectively shut down talks about listing the endangered sage grouse.

Please join with me in asking the Obama administration to reform the USFWS with new leadership and new guidelines that make politically-motivated decisions impossible. 

Dear President Barack Obama:

We the undersigned appreciate your sensitivity to environmental matters, but it appears that the Endangered Species Act is failing. It is failing to save endangered animals specifically because any time an animal is proposed for the list, land and business owners rise up against the listing, claiming it will pose a hardship and cut into their profits. They then mobilize whatever politicians they have in their pockets to defeat the proposal. Unfortunately, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which is commissioned with putting animals on the list, far too often caves to these political and business pressures. Your administration needs to reform the USFWS from the top down. Replace leaders and establish new guidelines. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service should act in the best interests of fish and wildlife, not ranchers and miners.

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