Fish & Wildlife Service - Sage Grouse Not Endangered

[hatrack]

Shocked. Really, I'm shocked by this decision.

DENVER - "The US Fish and Wildlife Service said on Friday its senior biologists have recommended that the greater sage grouse not be listed as an endangered species, a finding for which ranching and oil and gas interests in the West had lobbied hard.

"There is a low risk of extinction," the service's Director Steve Williams told reporters on a conference call.
Williams will make a final decision by Dec. 29, based on the study. He said he could not remember any occasion where he has made a decision about listing a species that went against the finding of the experts. The announcement came as the Western Governors Association, a group that had argued against listing the bird, kicks off a meeting in San Diego to discuss the Endangered Species Act.

EDIT

But environmentalists say the bird's population has fallen from 2 million birds in the mid-19th century to between 140,000 and 200,000 today. They say the species known for puffing up its throat pouch to attract mates could soon be pushed to the brink of extinction. "The species really has had a marked decline," Hank Fischer, special projects coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation, said."

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28427/story.htm

[Benhurst]

1. I guess they train them well at Bob Jones University. If the Leader

says they aren't endangered, then, by definition, they are not endangered. What's good for business is good for BushAmerica. The sage grouse, and any other living thing, be dammed.

[pmbryant]

2. Look behind the scenes and find an abuse of science

http://pmbryant.typepad.com/b_and_b/2004/12/scientific_abus.html

(EDIT: I meant for this to be a reply to the original post.)

[Benhurst]

4. Thanks for your link. And I did mean

to respond to your post. :toast:

[blindpig]

3. "low risk of extinction"

Didn't they say that about the Passenger Pigeon? As far as I'm concerned this stuff is beyond wrong, it is evil.

Or maybe it's an Earth First recruiting campaign? Monkey wrenches, anyone?

[XemaSab]

5. Heinous

Endangered species protection should not be given or denied based on industry lobbying efforts. It's putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.