Endangered Species Act

The scimitar-horned oryx was listed as endangered seven years ago, but a special exemption from the federal Endangered Species Act allowed breeders of the rare African antelope to nonetheless sell and hunt the animals -- at $5,500 a head. As a result, herds grew exponentially on exotic hunting ranches nationwide, especially in Texas. That exemption for the oryx and two other African antelopes popular with Texas hunters, the addax and the dama gazelle, could disappear Wednesday unless a federal judge approves a last-minute appeal by ranchers for an injunction.

SEATTLE -- Polar bears are skating on thin ice in Alaska these days: Warming temperatures have resulted in dramatic shrinkage of sea ice, leaving the bears with fewer ice floes on which to rest and hunt seals. But at least for the moment, the Endangered Species Act won't be used to control the greenhouse gas emissions that conservationists say are contributing to climate change and posing one of the biggest threats to the bears' survival. The Obama administration on Tuesday released a proposed rule that -- like an earlier version put forward under President  George W. Bush -- exempts operations outside the bears' normal territory from restrictions on activities.

The high priest of off-roading, U.S. Sen. Steve Symms (R-Idaho) told the Blue Ribbon Coalition of off-roaders, timber and mining interests how to handle endangered species that wander onto private land, "Shoot, shovel and shut up." With that kind of leadership and that kind of audience, it is going to take a strengthened Endangered Species Act and all the rest of us to keep things even. ELDEN HUGHES Sierra Club Whittier

The scimitar-horned oryx was listed as endangered seven years ago, but a special exemption from the federal Endangered Species Act allowed breeders of the rare African antelope to nonetheless sell and hunt the animals -- at $5,500 a head. As a result, herds grew exponentially on exotic hunting ranches nationwide, especially in Texas. That exemption for the oryx and two other African antelopes popular with Texas hunters, the addax and the dama gazelle, could disappear Wednesday unless a federal judge approves a last-minute appeal by ranchers for an injunction.

After considering the case for three weeks, the Supreme Court turned down an appeal involving the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly and a broad challenge to the Endangered Species Act. The court's action leaves intact the federal power to regulate the environment for threatened animals and insects, even those that live entirely in a small area of one state.

Hunters in Texas will no longer be able to shoot down three endangered species of antelopes without a federal permit, a judge ruled Tuesday. A special federal exemption had previously allowed breeders of the scimitar-homed oryx and two other endangered African antelopes to sell and allow their animals to be hunted - at $5,500 a head. As a result, herds grew exponentially on exotic hunting ranches nationwide, especially in Texas. However this exemption of the Endangered Species Act disappeared Tuesday after a federal judge rejected a last-minute appeal by ranchers for an injunction.

The California golden trout — the official state fish — will not receive protection under the Endangered Species Act after a 10-year review of scientific information and conservation programs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday. "Conservation measures throughout the trout's historic range have done much to protect the species," service spokeswoman Sarah Swenty said in a statement. "In large part because of those measures, the service determined that the intensity of threats does not indicate the species is endangered, or likely to become so in the foreseeable future.

Federal agencies have changed the designation ofloggerhead sea turtles from a single threatened species to nine distinct population segments; five are listed as endangered and four are listed as threatened. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the change will help scientists tailor conservation efforts to deal with threats faced by genetically distinct groups of the species in regions around the world. The decision Friday was in response to legal petitions filed in 2007 by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Turtle Island Restoration Network and Oceana for additional protections for the loggerheads.

Reporting from San Francisco -- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that the Franciscan manzanita — a plant so rare that only one is believed to be growing in the wild — "warrants protection" and proposed declaring the elusive shrub endangered. The announcement kicks off a 60-day public comment period to allow the federal agency to figure out whether it is possible or necessary to designate and protect habitat critical to the plant's survival and to finalize its determination.

Following Congress' unprecedented move to excise wolves from endangered species protections in Idaho and Montana, the U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday declared wolves fully recovered in most of the Northern Rockies, opening the door for hunts in the fall. The announcement means that wolves will no longer be protected under federal law in much of the region and will be managed like other wildlife species by state game managers. They will remain classified as an endangered species in Wyoming pending additional discussions with the state, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said.

The goal of the Endangered Species Act is to restore healthy, self-sustaining populations of disappearing plants and animals, not to keep them teetering on the brink of extinction. Yet the actions of three states and a handful of congressmen seem likely to undermine the spectacular return of the gray wolves of the Northern Rockies and possibly harm attempts to restore other wolf populations across the country. Even worse, they would set an appalling precedent for undermining the species act. When the Northern Rockies population of wolves reached a robust 1,700 two years ago ?

U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, who manages a ranch outside Billings, Mont., knows quite literally what it means to have the wolf at the door: Several years ago, a single wolf got into his pasture and killed 51 prized cashmere goats. "'Shoot, shovel and shut up' is a joke in Montana," said Rehberg, referring to a longstanding reference among landowners across the West ? perhaps only half in jest ? to the best way to deal with a federally protected endangered species like the gray wolf. The reintroduction of the wolf in the northern Rocky Mountains has been so contentious that Rehberg, a Republican, is joining a group of congressmen preparing an unusual move to aim their weapons at the Endangered Species Act itself.

Environmentalists have petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the San Bernardino flying squirrel, a nocturnal glider native to Southern California mountains, as an endangered species threatened by climate change . The petition , filed Tuesday by the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, is another salvo in the nascent effort to combat global warming through the Endangered Species Act. The move comes after...