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Bush Administration Ignores Science Again, Won't Consider Protecting 16 Endangered Dunes Animals |
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SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, Aug. 21 -/E-Wire/-- In its latest anti-environmental move to please the off-road lobby, the Bush administration announced on August 18 that it will not consider following the U.S. Endangered Species Act to protect 16 unique endangered animals on the Algodones Sand Dunes in the Sonoran Desert of southeastern California.
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The administration made a similar anti-science decision on May 5 for the endemic Andrews' dunes scarab beetle.
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A Bush administration appointee for the Department of Interior, Julie MacDonald, joined an off-road vehicle (ORV) lobby-sponsored junket to the dunes last year and ever since worked to ignore science and the public interest by removing all balanced conservation measures at the dunes.
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Intensive ORV driving on the dunes by millions of vehicles annually is the primary threat to dunes wildlife. Global warming, pesticide drift and border militarization are also significant threats.
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In December 2002, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to list the Andrew's dunes scarab as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
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In July 2004, the Center, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Sierra Club filed another petition with FWS to list 16 additional species that are endemic to the Algodones Dunes: two sand wasps, two bees, one vespid, two velvet ants, three jewel beetles, two scarab beetles and four subspecies of Roth's dune weevil.
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All 17 of these desert animals are found only on public lands at the Algodones Dunes.
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"Our petitions present good scientific evidence to support status reviews. The Endangered Species Act works, and it's the law, but this administration won't follow it. These 17 endemic species need its protection now because BLM's plan to sacrifice the Algodones Dunes to the off-road industry could wipe them out," said Daniel R. Patterson, Desert Ecologist with the Center who formerly worked with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the California desert. "The administration unethically ignored science and reality again with this political decision to serve its supporters in the off-road lobby. We will challenge this illegal government irresponsibility in court."
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"The Bush administration has created a weird and awkward paradigm in which scientific decisions are made by politicians and the courts have to make decisions based on science," said Karen Schambach, California Director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. "It's neither honest nor efficient, and it wastes taxpayer dollars. Worst of all, species go extinct while we wait for the political games to play out."
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ORVs use special tires that cut deeply into the sand, directly killing animals and destroying their habitat. Many of these 17 species are most active from February to April, a biologically critical time that coincides with the season of heavy ORV use at the dunes.
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BLM previously tried to roll back environmental protections on nearly 50,000 dunes acres, opening 86 percent of the habitat to ORV damage, but a federal judge found that it was illegal and blocked the plan on March 14.
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Dunes are hotspots of biological diversity in deserts because they are more mesic than other desert habitats due to their ability to store water. The Algodones Dunes are no exception, harboring dozens of rare endemic insects and plants within its habitat island. Insect species endemic to the Algodones Dunes are adapted to the hot, arid environment and often exhibit habitat specialization, such as dependence upon a particular host plant. Narrow endemic species and habitat specialists are considered more prone to extinction than widespread habitat generalists.
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The Bush administration has by far the worst record of any on following the Endangered Species Act to protect and recover endangered wildlife. Contact Info: Daniel R. Patterson
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Desert Ecologist
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Tel : 520.623.5252 x306
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E-mail : dpatterson@biologicaldiversity.org Website : the Center for Biological Diversity
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