Now, it turns out, the Walrus is on a very long waiting list.
The federal Fish and Wildlife Service is in triage of emergency mode as he fights with an avalanche of petitions and lawsuits on the endangered species list, the main tool to protect plants and animals facing extinction in the United States. Over the past four years, some environmental groups have requested that more than 1 230 species appear, compared to 12 years in which requests annual average only 20 species.
Some environmental groups argue that greatly expanded lists are necessary as supporters of the evidence that the world is entering an era of mass extinctions related to the destruction of habitat, climate and other changes. These threats require a focus on whole ecosystems, they say, rather than individual species.
Fish and Wildlife Service officials say the dam has paralysed the registration process. Last month, the Agency asked the Congress to intervene and impose a limit on the number of species, it must take account of the protection, opening the way for a confrontation.
"Numerous petitions species requests flooded domestic species of the program from the list list of capabilities," the service wrote in his application of 2012 budget. Already it faces a backlog of 254 species - including the diving dog prairie of Gunnison and Wolverine in North America, Yellow-billed. He said that their protection is warranted but precluded by a lack of resources.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has refused to make them accountable available for comments. But Gary Frazer, Deputy Director of the Agency for endangered species, discusses mass applications in an interview last year.
"These megapetitions put us in a difficult spot, and they will essentially close our capacity to the list of the candidates, in the foreseeable future," said Mr. Frazer. "If all our resources are used to respond to petitions, we have resources to species on the endangered species list." It is not a happy situation. ?
Two environmental groups, the Center for biological diversity and WildEarth guardians filed 90 per cent of the petitions of lists since 2007 and maintain that a bioblitz, such that it is often called, is the best strategy to force the service to be more assertive in its mission of wildlife protection.
"We want to compel the Fish and Wildlife Service to look at the magnitude of the crisis of extinction of the United States," said Nicole Rosmarino, Director of the wildlife WildEarth guardians program, which is based in Santa Fe, N.M. "we want a system where the service is actively species and the protection of merit rather than the current" "system where groups such as ours must drive this process."
All of the environmental community seems divided on the strategy of mass-list of exhibits.
"It's probably the case that the resources and staffing for the Fish and Wildlife Service are insufficient," said Bob Irvin, senior vice President for conservation programs of defenders of wildlife in Washington. "The question is, is link service in knots the best way to save the Web of life."
In its 2012 budget request, the service found that in 2011, it will be able to list definitive decisions on only 4% of the petitions in the year, as required by law, down 12% in 2010.
Since Congress passed the years 37 of the endangered species Act, some 1 370 species have been listed, the last being the southern rockhopper. Last month, the Agency has asked Congress to impose a limit on the amount of money, the Agency may spend on the petitions of list processing, both to control his workload and as a defence against prosecution. "We essentially would use that as our defense for not doing more," Mr. Frazer, Deputy Director of the Agency for endangered species, testified, "so that we can balance among the various tasks that we have."
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