[PCA] NEWS: New Rule on Endangered Species in the Southwest

[Plant Conservation]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/24/national/24species.html

New Rule on Endangered Species in the Southwest

By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: May 24, 2005

WASHINGTON, May 23 - The southwestern regional director of the United
States Fish and Wildlife Service has instructed members of his staff to
limit their use of the latest scientific studies on the genetics of
endangered plants and animals when deciding how best to preserve and
recover them.

At issue is what happens once a fish, animal, plant or bird is included on
the federal endangered species list as being in danger of extinction and
needing protection.

Dale Hall, the director of the southwestern region, in a memorandum dated
Jan. 27, said that all decisions about how to return a species to robust
viability must use only the genetic science in place at the time it was
put on the endangered species list - in some cases the 1970's or earlier -
even if there have been scientific advances in understanding the genetic
makeup of a species and its subgroups in the ensuing years.

(See article link above for the full article.)