The 'Dear Colleague' letter to the Interior Appropriations Committee leadership that Sen. Salazar signed and Senators Crapo (R-ID) and Lieberman (I-CT) initiated, calls for a modest 2.5 percent increase in funding for endangered species programs over what the President called for in his 2009 budget. According to the letter's cover, "More than 200 already-listed species are on the verge of extinction primarily because too little attention and funding is available for recovery activities." The letter continues, "Failure to provide adequate levels of funding for endangered species operations will only ensure that species slide closer to extinction, decreasing chances for recovery while increasing the costs."

Although underfunding of endangered species programs has been a historic problem, the Bush administration has been overtly hostile to endangered species issues like no other administration: It has extended protections to far fewer endangered species than any other administration, and has then only done so when compelled by courts. It has attempted to undercut effective endangered species policy and hired industry hacks to oversee endangered species programs who then illicitly altered scientific findings to favor industry over conservation. When all these attempts fail or are exposed by the  Washington Post, the Administration's handiest and perhaps most effective tool is failing to fund endangered species programs. We thank  Sen. Salazar, environmental champions like Sen. Wyden (D-WA) and fellow Dear Colleague letter-cosigners (Sens. Crapo, Cardin (D-MD), Lieberman, Kennedy (D-MA), Kerry (D-MA), Sanders (I-VT), Stabenow (D-MI) and Wyden), for their efforts to restore adequate endangered species funding. 

Excerpted from Senate Dear Colleague Letter: "The number of candidate species awaiting protection under the Act, many of which have been candidates for years, totals 280. The number of projects reviewed under the consultation program has increased dramatically, from 40,000 in 1999 to more than 67,000 in 2006. Development and implementation of Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs), which allow activities to proceed while still protecting species, continues to grow, with funding critically needed to help ensure timely and effective development and monitoring of 500 existing and more than 350 new HCPs that together will cover more than 70 million acres when complete."

Core Endangered Species Programs

The four Fish and Wildlife Service endangered species operating accounts are key to effective implementation of the Endangered Species Act. All four program areas are currently experiencing at least a 30 percent staffing shortage due to budget constraints, an unacceptable vacancy rate.

1. Listing – This account funds the protection of new plants and animals under the Endangered Species Act, as well as habitat critical to recovery. Currently, more than 280 species sit on the candidate waiting list for protection. Candidate species wait an average of 19 years to be listed and since 1975, 64 have gone extinct while waiting – seven times the number of speicies that have disappeared under the full protection of the ESA.
2. Recovery - While the Endangered Species Act has been extremely successful at preventing wildlife from going extinct, the purpose of the Act is to protect and recover endangered and threatened fish, plants and wildlife.
3. Consultation – The consultation program is an important part of the checks and balances system to ensure that endangered fish, wildlife, and plants are protected on the ground. There has been a dramatic increase in demand for consultations recently, jumping from 40,000 in 1999 to 67,000 in 2006. Shortage of personnel in this program area causes delays of project reviews thus creating conflicts between agencies. The consultation budget also funds the Service’s work with non-federal entities for permitting and development of Habitat Conservation Plans; lack of funding prevents the Fish and Wildlife Service from ensuring that these plans are properly developed, implemented and monitored.
4. Candidate Conservation - This program protects species before they are actually listed, thus in theory averting the need to ever list them at all. As mentioned above though, fish, plants and wildlife on the candidate list go extinct at a much higher rate than those with full protection – in part because of severe understaffing for this program.

Additional Endangered Species Programs

Cooperative Endangered Species Fund – This fund provides grants to states for wildlife and habitat conservation activities on non-federal lands for listed and candidate species. At least 65 percent of federally listed species are found on non-federal land. Without the proposed increases states will fall further behind in their ability to independently work to protect at risk species. Crucial conservation activities funded by these grants include: research, species status surveys, habitat restoration, captive propagation and reintroduction, planning assistance, and land acquisition by states for Habitat Conservation Plans and recovery.

Landowner Incentive and Private Stewardship Grants – These grants provide funding for voluntary conservation actions taken by landowners to conserve at-risk plants and animals on private lands, which benefits us all. The Landowner Incentive program awards competitive grants to state and tribal conservation agencies for their work with private landowners and tribal lands, while the Private Stewardship program provides funding directly to individuals and groups implementing private land conservation actions. In 2007, funding was awarded to efforts in 46 states. Regrettably, neither program was funded in the FY ’08 Interior appropriations bill due to budget constraints; these important programs should be re-started in FY ’09. The demonstrated need for these programs has far outstripped available funding in the past – the amount requested for worthy projects on average totaled two to three times the yearly available funding.

BLM Threatened and Endangered Species Management – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) controls habitat that supports more than 300 federally listed or candidate species. This program, along with their Fisheries and Wildlife Management program, funds inventory and monitoring, habitat restoration, endangered species recovery, and other proactive conservation activities vital to maintaining healthy, functioning ecosystems and fish, wildlife, and plant populations. Recently, an average of 30 percent of these funds have been used to pay for the compliance activities of the BLM’s energy, grazing, and other non-wildlife related programs.Traditionally, funding for compliance work has come from benefiting programs. In addition, the programs are substantially understaffed. For example, the BLM has only one biologist per 591,000 acres of land, and more than $60 million is needed annually just to implement actions assigned to BLM in recovery plans for listed species.