List Limbo

Doug Krofta, a biologist who heads the ESA listing program for Fish and Wildlife, says that the mountain of litigation coming from outside groups trying to compel protection for suffering species has stretched the service increasingly thin, especially with the limited number of people who work full time for FWS. It's the most-cited reason why the service hasn't been able to be more proactive on proposing new species. Krofta says that most of the time, the FWS physically cannot take on more work. "Additional funding would help; additional staff would help," he says. "It'd be hard to put an exact number on it."

When asked about the current budget of the listing program, Secretary Salazar, who answers to the president on its progress, tells NEWSWEEK that he will look into new sources of funding, but cautions that a tough budget climate makes the pursuit difficult. "Part of the solution needs to be in managing our lands in such a way that fewer species reach the point where they need to be listed," he says.

The biggest legal avalanche came in 2002, when a lawsuit compelled biologists in all regional FWS offices to devote all available resources to mapping critical habitats for hundreds of already-listed species. When they were finally finished a few years later, a mountain of petitions for new listings awaited.

Conservation groups that are the plaintiffs of those often-bemoaned lawsuits make no apologies. "It's a process that practically invites litigation," says Kassie Siegel, an environmental lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity. Over the past two decades, the CBD has become the legal driver of the endangered-species program. Siegel and CBD conservation biologist Noah Greenwald count their record of litigation among the group's biggest successes. Since 2001, 94 percent of all new listings have been compelled by CBD action. Last summer's high-profile listing of the polar bear was the result of a protracted legal fight between the center and Bush's interior secretary, Dirk Kempthorne.

The polar bear was the last animal to be offered full protection until the Obama administration listed Phyllostegia hispida last month—a 10-month span of virtual standstill for the program. (A species of salamander was listed in early February, though with certain preclusions.) But full listing is the last step of the long process. The Bush administration did indeed keep the ball rolling last fall when Kempthorne proposed 48 new species—known as "the Kauai species"—for full listing, which is expected to occur before October. A few of these are on the current top-40 candidate list.

In its report, WildEarth Guardians calls on Obama to recognize the role a changing climate will have on dwindling populations of species all over the world. Last month Time magazine forecast on its cover an impending mass extinction of up to a third of the earth's species—including, perhaps, even humans. Of course, preventing something of that magnitude might require a mightier sword than the ESA, even if it is driven by a popular president.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the distinctions between the government's endangered, threatened and candidate lists.

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