SWAMP WATCH
Head of Department of Fish & Wildlife was just appointed, former lawyer for Monsanto with NO EXPERIENCE relative to her new position…..what could possibly go wrong?
“The Trump administration’s anti-regulatory agenda is turning it into the extinction presidency,” said Greenwald. “The vast majority of the American public wants to see endangered species protected, but administration officials are flushing these imperiled plants and animals down the toilet for their patrons in the oil industry and other polluters.”
Analysis: Trump Administration Withholding Lifesaving Protection for 78 Species
Feds Fall Behind on Addressing Backlog of Wildlife Needing Protection
PORTLAND, Ore.— For the second year in a row, the Trump administration has fallen short in protecting species under the Endangered Species Act, ultimately putting dozens of native plants and animals at heightened risk of extinction.
According to a new analysis by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to make protection decisions for 57 species or designate critical habitat for another 21 promised under a seven-year workplan developed by the agency in 2016.The agency is under the leadership of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
“Zinke and other Trump officials are preventing the Fish and Wildlife Service from doing critical work to protect species from extinction,” said Noah Greenwald, the Center’s endangered species director. “The wolverine, lesser prairie chicken and Hermes copper butterfly are all species Trump and Zinke left high and dry.”
The workplan was created to address a backlog of more than 500 imperiled species awaiting protection decisions. In fiscal year 2018, the workplan called for 82 separate decisions about listing species or designating critical habitat. Another 13 decisions were never completed in fiscal year 2017, for a total of 95 decisions.
Instead the agency only managed to make 18 decisions in 2018, resulting in listing of only four species and proposed protection for only eight species. Another six species were denied protection, including one, the beaverpond marstonia, which had gone extinct waiting for protection.
“The Trump administration’s anti-regulatory agenda is turning it into the extinction presidency,” said Greenwald. “The vast majority of the American public wants to see endangered species protected, but administration officials are flushing these imperiled plants and animals down the toilet for their patrons in the oil industry and other polluters.”
Delays in protecting species have real consequences. At least 46 species having gone extinct waiting for protection since the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973. During the Obama administration, a total of 357 species were protected for a rate of 37 per year. Likewise under the Clinton administration, a total of 523 species were protected, for a rate of 62 species per year.
So far the Trump administration, which has protected just 14 species — all but one proposed under the previous administration — is shaping up to be even worse than the Bush administration, when only 62 species were protected.
95 Imperiled Species Covered by Fish and Wildlife’s Workplan
| Species Name | Fiscal Year Scheduled | Action Type | Outcome | Candidate |
| Arkansas Mudalia | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Ashy Darter | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Atlantic Pigtoe | 2018 | 12M | PL, 4(d) | |
| Barrens Darter | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Barrens Topminnow | 2018 | 12M | PL, 4(d) | |
| Bartram Stonecrop | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Beardless Chinch Weed | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Beaverpond Marstonia | 2018 | 12M | Negative, extinct | |
| Big Cypress Epidendrum | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Black Rail | 2018 | 12M | PL, 4(d) | |
| Black-capped Petrel | 2018 | 12M | PL, 4(d) | |
| Blackfin Sucker | 2017 and 2018 | 12M | Negative | |
| Brook Floater | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Cape Sable Orchid | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Carolina Madtom | 2017 and 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Cedar Key Mole Skink | 2017 and 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Chihuahua Scurfpea | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Clam-shell Orchid | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Donrichardsonia macroneuron | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Eastern Hellbender | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Elk River Crayfish | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| False Spike | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Florida Sandhill Crane | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Franklin’s Bumblebee | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Joshua Tree | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Lesser Prairie Chicken | 2017 and 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Longsolid | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| MacGillivray’s Seaside Sparrow | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Mohave Shoulderband Snail | 2018 | 12M | Negative | |
| Mountain Blue-eyed Grass | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Neuse River Waterdog | 2017 and 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Ozark Pyrg | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Panama City Crayfish | 2018 | 12M | PL | |
| Panamint Alligator Lizard | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Peppered Chub | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Purple Lilliput | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Redlips Darter (broken out from ashy darter complex) | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Round Hickorynut | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| San Joaquin Giant Flower-loving Fly | 2017 and 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Seaside Alder | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Slenderclaw Crayfish | 2018 | 12M | PL, 4(d) | |
| Tinian Monarch | 2017 and 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Tippecanoe darter | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Tricolor Blackbird | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| White-tailed Prairie Dog | 2018 | 12M | Negative | |
| Woodville Karst Cave Crayfish | 2018 | 12M | Negative | |
| Yellow Banded Bumblebee | 2018 | 12M | Missing | |
| Humboldt Marten | 2018 | 12M remand | PL, 4(d) | |
| Northern Spotted Owl | 2017 and 2018 | 12M uplisting | Missing | |
| Black Pine Snake | 2018 | FCH | Missing | |
| Elfin Woods Warbler | 2017 | FCH | Missing | |
| Kula Wahine Noho | 2018 | FCH | Missing | |
| O`oko`Olau | 2018 | FCH | Missing | |
| Spring Pygmy Sunfish | 2017 and 2018 | FCH | Missing | |
| Uhi Uhi | 2018 | FCH | Missing | |
| Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo | 2017 | FCH | Missing | |
| Candy Darter | 2018 | Final | Missing | |
| Mist Forestfly | 2017 and 2018 | Final | Missing | |
| Trispot Darter | 2018 | Final | Missing | |
| Western Glacier Stonefly | 2017 and 2018 | Final | Missing | |
| American Wolverine | 2018 | FL | Missing | |
| Louisiana Pine Snake | 2018 | FL | FL, 4(d) | |
| San Fernando Valley Spineflower | 2018 | FL | Negative | |
| Black Warrior Waterdog | 2017 and 2018 | FLFCH | FLFCH | |
| Texas Hornshell | 2017 and 2018 | FLPCH | FL | |
| Yellow Lance | 2018 | FLPCH | FL | |
| Big Sandy Crayfish | 2017 | PCH | Missing | |
| Florida Bonneted Bat | 2017 | PCH | Missing | |
| Florida Bristle Fern | 2018 | PCH | Missing | |
| Green Sea Turtle | 2017 | PCH | Missing | |
| Guyandotte River Crayfish | 2017 | PCH | Missing | |
| Miami Tiger Beetle | 2017 | PCH | Missing | |
| Red Knot | 2017 | PCH | Missing | |
| Sonoyta Mud Turtle | 2018 | PCH | Missing | |
| Suwannee Moccasinshell | 2018 | PCH | Missing | |
| Chapin Mesa Milkvetch | 2018 | PLPCH | Missing | Yes |
| Fremont County Rockcress | 2018 | PLPCH | Missing | Yes |
| Frisco Buckwheat | 2018 | PLPCH | Missing | Yes |
| Frisco Clover | 2018 | PLPCH | Missing | Yes |
| Hermes Coper | 2017 and 2018 | PLPCH | Missing | Yes |
| Island Marble | 2017 and 2018 | PLPCH | PLPCH | Yes |
| Marrón Bacora | 2018 | PLPCH | Missing | Yes |
| Ostler’s Peppergrass | 2018 | PLPCH | Missing | Yes |
| Red-crowned Parrot | 2018 | PLPCH | Missing | Yes |
| Sierra Nevada Red Fox | 2018 | PLPCH | Missing | Yes |
| Striped Newt | 2018 | PLPCH | Missing | Yes |
| Texas Fatmucket | 2018 | PLPCH | Missing | Yes |
| Texas Fawnsfoot | 2018 | PLPCH | Missing | Yes |
| Texas Pimpleback | 2018 | PLPCH | Missing | Yes |
| Wright’s Marsh Thistle | 2017 and 2018 | PLPCH | Missing | Yes |
| Georgetown Salamander | 2017 | rPCH | Missing | |
| Narrow-headed Gartersnake | 2017 | rPCH | Missing | |
| Northern Mexican Gartersnake | 2017 | rPCH | Missing | |
| Salado Salamander | 2017 | rPCH | Missing | |
| Slickspot Peppergrass | 2017 | rPCH | Missing | |
| Key | ||||
| 12M | 12-month finding determining if species warrants listing | |||
| PL | Proposed listing | |||
| FL | Final listing | |||
| PCH | Proposed critical habitat | |||
| FCH | Final critical habitat | |||
| Candidate species | A species that has been found to warrant protection, but is waitlisted | |||
| 4(d) | A rule defining prohibited activities for a threatened species |