CANDIDATE PROJECT

Because hundreds of species that require Endangered Species Act protection to survive and recover had been languishing on the “candidate list” for years, the Center in May 2004 petitioned the Bush administration, which protected fewer species under the Act than any other administration in history, to place 225 plants and animals on the endangered species list. The action was the largest single listing effort in the history of the Endangered Species Act.

A coalition of prominent scientists, artists, and environmentalists filed 1,000 pages of legal documents requesting that the government cease delaying Endangered Species Act protection for 225 of the nation’s most imperiled plants and animals — species spanning the country from Hawaii to Washington, California, New York, and Florida.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had already declared that all of the 225 plants and animals covered by the petition qualify as proposed endangered species. Instead of protecting them, however, it placed them on a waiting list called the “candidate list.” A report by the Center showed that systematic delays, including lengthy waits on the candidate list, contributed to the extinction of 83 species between 1974 and 1994. Seventy-nine percent of the 225 petitioned species (178) had been on the candidate list for at least 10 years, 38 percent (86) had waited at least 20 years, and 28 percent (64) had been waiting since 1975. On average, the 225 species had been on the waiting list for 17 years.

In December 2008, the Bush administration issued its final notice of review identifying 251 species as candidates for protection. While the Clinton administration placed 65 species per year on the endangered list, Bush Sr. averaged 59, and Reagan 32, the George W. Bush administration essentially shut down the endangered species protection program, with the worst listing record in the history of the Endangered Species Act: 61 species listed from 2001 through 2008 — fewer than eight species per year. During the two-and-a-half-year tenure of Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, only three species were listed.

The 251 plants and animals include the elfin woods warbler, a beautiful Puerto Rican forest bird that was placed on the candidate list in 1982. The Oregon spotted frog — placed on the candidate list in 1991 — has disappeared from California, is barely hanging on in Washington and Oregon, and was the first species listed as endangered on an emergency basis by the Canadian government. The Aquarius paintbrush, a stunning plant from Utah, was first placed on the waiting list in 1975, as was the white fringeless orchid (AL, GA, TN, KY, SC), and the bog asphodel (DE, NC, NJ, NY, SC). Cagle's map turtle, a Texas endemic, has been waiting for protection since 1977. The yellowcheek darter, an Arkansas fish, has been waiting since 1975. The Hawaiian band-rumped storm petrel, a beautiful bird, has been waiting since 1989.

Since our petition was filed, the Center has gone to court to challenge the candidate listing system, published research papers and held press events on the mismanagement of the listing system, and applied significant political pressure by documenting numerous case studies of inappropriate political intervention that prevented listings — ultimately leading to the resignation of disgraced former Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Interior Julie MacDonald, among other outcomes. Almost certainly in response to our 2004 petition and the subsequent lawsuit, in October 2008 Interior Secretary Kempthorne issued a proposal for protection of 31 of the candidates from Hawaii. This proposal, however, fell short of a February promise by Dale Hall, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, to members of a House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee to propose to list 71 of the candidates during fiscal year 2008. No final rules listing candidate species were issued since the last review was published in 2007. The Center will work to get protections for all the candidate species and will continue to push congressional investigators and the media to examine the endangered species listing program.