Today is Endangered Species Day: Celebrate by buying a wolf hunting permit!
In the last few days new Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, upheld Bush administration decisions to delist wolves from the Endangered Species and to prevent the listing of polar bears as endangered species. Yet today we celebrate Endangered Species Day.
The offficial release on today’s events states, “U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will honor Endangered Species Day and the numerous nationwide conservation programs underway aimed at protecting America’s threatened and endangered species.
“The Endangered Species Act (ESA), one of the most important environmental laws in history, is credited with saving 99.9 percent of species protected by the ESA from extinction. Co-administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the purpose of the ESA is to conserve imperiled species and the ecosystems upon which they depend.”
I’m thrilled to celebrate the past successes of the ESA – it has been a wonderful tool for protecting wildlife and wildlife habitat. But the fact remains, it has been inconsistently applied, and enforced. By all indicates, the current administration – for whom conservationists had such high hopes – will continue that inconsistent application of the law. Political concerns continue to outweigh scientific facts.
Today, perhaps the best way to honor the ESA on this, Endangered Species Day, would be to write a letter to Sec. Salazar, letting him know you disagree with his politically-motivated plans for wolves and Polar Bears. You can use this link, through the Center for Biological Diversity, to contact him.
