The Endangered Species Coalition is banding together with numerous environmental organizations this month in a campaign to thwart anticipated legislation to gut the Endangered Species Act.
Ecowatch reports:
A small yet vocal group of congressmen are gearing up this summer to dismantle the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Campaign finance records of these lawmakers reveal that they have all taken significant money from extractive industries frustrated by the law's protection of critical habitat for endangered species.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY.), Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) and Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industries. (LINK)
Endangered Facts:
- 1447 animals are protected by the Endangered Species Act
- Wolves create trophic cascades that protect water.
- Two endangered bat species are the main pollinators of agave, which is used to make tequila
- The Endangered Species Act has succeeded in keeping 99% of endangered species from going extinct. This includes the bald eagle, grizzly bear, the leatherback sea turtle and the Florida manatee.
- Idaho has fewer than 800 wolves that may drop to fewer than 150 if proposals to reduce their populations are allowed.
- Yellowstone wolves are causing a trophic cascade of ecological change, including helping to increase beaver populations and bring back aspen, and vegetation.
- 227 species would already be extinct without the ESA.
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