Manufacturing a new enviro-crisis

Inter Lake editorial

Never before have we seen a clearer illustration of the enviro-crisis industry that has developed in this country until this week, when a group called WildEarth Guardians filed a lawsuit seeking endangered species protection for 681 plants, insects, birds and animals.

"In a world that's bombarded by climate change, pollution, habitat destruction and human overpopulation, clearly few of our rare species are going to be secure in the long term," declared Nicole Rosmarino, director of WildEarth Guardians' wildlife program. "That's the basis for the petition."

Well. That pretty much covers all the bases. Now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must go to work, preparing a legal defense to address how all of the above supposed eco-maladies do or do not threaten 681 species across 12 Western states. That should only take dozens of attorneys and hundreds of briefs and years to complete.

But maybe not. This is precisely the situation where a level-headed judge is needed as a check and balance, a jurist who has the common sense to literally punt this case out of court.

It is a nuisance case that will put the Fish and Wildlife Service in a legal purgatory that it already knows too well, and keep the crusaders at WildEarth Guardians busy for a long time to come.

The federal agency's director, Dale Hall, said delays in listings under the Endangered Species Act have resulted from years of - you guessed it - litigation. That's right, the Fish and Wildlife Service has been tangling with literally hundreds of lawsuits that keep agency biologists busy responding to court orders rather than doing actual work to protect truly threatened and endangered species.

There are lawsuits aimed at forcing listings. Then there are lawsuits forcing "critical habitat" designations. Then there are lawsuits challenging the service on whether it is providing adequate protections for species that are listed.

In one of the best understatements ever, a spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service described it as "a bit of a vicious cycle."

The Inter Lake gets a continuous stream of ESA-related press releases from groups like WildEarth Guardians. Surely, there are species that deserve priorities and protections, preferrably practical projects, rather than shotgun lawsuits that are nothing but bread and butter to groups like WildEarth Guardians. We can only imagine the fundraising potential - not to mention court-awarded legal fees - that comes with trying to protect 681 species.