Environmental organization plans to sue government over endangered species
Jul 12, 2011
The Center for Biological Diversity plans to sue the Interior Department over its actions toward over 55 endangered species in 28 states. It also seeks to restore 8.7 million acres of protected habitat for animals, the Seattle Times reports.
The lawsuit, which may be the largest legal action in the history of the 34-year-old Endangered Species Act, accuses the federal government of illegally removing one animal from the endangered species list, failure to put three animals on it, and proposing to decrease or remove protection from seven others. It will argue that all of these actions are breaches to the Endangered Species Act, according to the news source.
It also claims that the government took away protection from 8.7 million acres of critical habitat for a number of plant and animal species ranging from Texas to Washington.
The government was able to take these actions by exaggerating the costs of protecting the species or offering scientific proof that a species no longer needed protection. For example, the organization says that the government manipulated a scientific review on the marbled murrelet native to Washington to make it appear not threatened.