Having a Democrat in the White House has not been the salvation environmentalists had expected for protecting endangered species. After watching the Bush administration drag its feet in using the Endangered Species Act, environmental groups thought they could count on President Barack Obama to take care of the backlog of animals and plants awaiting protection.

 

They thought wrong.

 

To date, 251 species are on the federal waiting list—four more than there were last year. In the two years of the Obama administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has granted Endangered Species Act protection to 51 plants and animals, an average of 25 a year. This is better than under Bush, who averaged eight annually, but lower than the Clinton administration, which protected an average of 65 species per year.

 

Some species have waited decades to get protection, such as the Oregon spotted frog (a candidate since 1991) and the eastern massasauga rattlesnake (a candidate since 1982).

 

“Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration is failing to provide prompt protection to wildlife desperately in need of protection,” Noah Greenwald, endangered species program director at the Center for Biological Diversity, told the Associated Press.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Critics Say Obama Lagging on Endangered Species (Matthew Daly, Associated Press)

Prison Inmates Raise Endangered Frogs (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)