Wildlife Service Must Consider Citizen Endangered Species Petitions

WASHINGTON, DC, June 8, 2004 (ENS) – A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stop ignoring citizen petitions to list species on the Endangered Species Act.

The decision could affect listing decisions for more than 240 species currently on the agency's candidate list for Endangered Species Act protection.

"The Fish and Wildlife Service created a bureaucratic black hole for endangered wildlife to avoid protecting these species," said Jay Tutchton, director of the University of Denver Environmental Law Clinic. "The court just put an end to this charade."

For the past five years the agency has been using a Petition Management Guidance System that allowed it to ignore citizen petitions for species already on its candidate list.

Species on the list are considered warranted for protection, but precluded because the agency has higher priorities. Conservationists contend the agency has used the candidate list to delay needed protection for imperiled species - some have been on the list for 30 years.

Last week's ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia came in a case centered on the Fish and Wildlife Service's refusal to protect the Gunnison sage grouse.

Conservationists petitioned for Endangered Species Act protection for the Gunnison sage grouse in 2000, citing evidence that the total population had fallen to 3,500.

The Fish and Wildlife Service responded that the species was already on its candidate list and that budget constraints precluded further action.

But the agency failed to convince the court that its policy meets the requirements of the Endangered Species Act, which orders the agency to act on listing petitions within 90 days.

Although the lawsuit dealt specifically with the grouse, the ruling prohibits the use of the policy nationwide.

"We are pleased that the court has put a stop to this illegal program," said Michael Axline of the Western Environmental Law Center. "The Service has deep sixed citizen petitions for far too long. We hope that now the Service will focus its energies where they belong - on saving these species, as required by the Endangered Species Act."

The Fish and Wildlife Service declined to comment on the ruling and is reviewing its implications.