President Calls for Big Cuts for ESA Listings

The President’s fiscal year (FY) 2019 Interior Department budget proposal would limit Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing activity to $10.9 million, which is about half the $20.4 million received in FY 2017.
Gavin Shire, public affairs head of the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), said in a statement, “Our focus is on prioritizing species recovery, where we have funding for recovery planning, five-year reviews and down- and delisting packages.” The budget proposal for Interior notes that officials want to focus “available resources on the recovery of the more than 1,660 species listed domestically as threatened or endangered, nearly 400 of which were listed between 2010 and 2017.”
According to conservation groups, the massive reduction in funding would force officials to “triage” species. FWS funding for ESA listing work has remained roughly flat at around $20 million for the last six years. The White House proposed cutting it last year but would have still allocated about $17 million for listing-related funding. If Congress approves this budget request, the agency will have to carefully select which species receive protection.
Other ESA-related cuts include a $25 million decrease in funding for habitat conservation and $53 million less for Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund grants, which support habitat conservation on non-federal lands.
The FWS has detailed a seven year “national listing workplan” for t...

Source: Public Policy Reports - February 23, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: AIBS Source Type: news