Eliminating Species Act: Senate Legislation Threatens Wildlife and Wild Lands

WASHINGTON – Senator John Barrasso hosted a hearing today in the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) on his draft Endangered Species Act Amendments of 2018 legislation. The draft bill proposes to radically weaken the Endangered Species Act, which has been the nation’s most effective law protecting wildlife in danger of extinction. The legislation undermines reliance on best available science and reduces public involvement in the process of adding ESA protections to species.

The more than 500 plant and animal species with habitat in our national parks are chronicled in a new online database, launched this week by National Parks Conservation Association. The web portal includes species-specific information as well as an interactive map, quantifying ESA-protected species in our national parks. Learn more at: https://esa.npca.org/

Statement by Bart Melton, Northern Rockies Regional Director for National parks Conservation Association

“Senator Barrasso’s draft legislation is the latest in a list of attempts by the Trump administration and Congress to cut the public out of critical decisions that affect our nation’s public lands, wildlife, air and water. It does not ‘amend’ the ESA – it essentially calls for its elimination. Such harmful legislation threatens the long-term conservation of American wildlife and wild lands, and the parks that call them home. This legislation, coupled with the recent House package is the most drastic of the dozens of anti-ESA bills introduced this Congress.

“National Parks Conservation Association opposes this legislation and any attacks to the Endangered Species Act, (ESA) which currently supports more than 500 plant and animal species with habitat in our national parks. The ESA works and has saved more than 99 percent of species listed.

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About National Parks Conservation Association: Since 1919, the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association has been the leading voice in safeguarding our national parks. NPCA and its 1.3 million members and supporters work together to protect and preserve our nation’s most iconic and inspirational places for future generations. For more information, visit www.npca.org.