WildEarth Guardians

Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Letter To President Bush Requesting Pardon for Endangered Western Grouse

In the spirit of Thanksgiving and in honor of the bird that is the symbol of this great American holiday of gratitude, we ask that you pardon imperiled grouse species of western North America by granting them protection under the Endangered Species Act
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

November 16, 2005

Dear President Bush,

In the spirit of Thanksgiving and in honor of the bird that is the symbol of this great American holiday of gratitude, we ask that you pardon the imperiled grouse species of western North America by granting them protection under the Endangered Species Act. Grouse are cousins of the Thanksgiving turkey you will pardon this week - both grouse and turkeys are gallinaceous birds, strong, heavy-bodied, largely ground-feeding species of the order Galliformes.

Your pardon is necessary to prevent imperiled western grouse from suffering the ill fates of other native grouse, including the Heath Hen, which went extinct in 1932 due to catastrophic events and belated protection, and the Attwater’s Prairie-Chicken, which may be beyond recovery, as it currently numbers less than 100 birds and continues to decline.

Just as the 58-year tradition of a Presidential Pardon for the Thanksgiving turkey will save from certain death the pardoned turkey, the 32-year tradition of the Endangered Species Act is an urgently needed and vital safety net for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken, Gunnison Sage-Grouse, Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse, Greater Sage-Grouse, and Mono Basin Sage-Grouse. And just as the Thanksgiving turkey you pardon will be provided a life-long refuge at a Virginia farm, we request that you mandate that the federal public lands of the western United States be safeguarded as refuges for the wild native grouse on whose behalf we write.

Those public lands are presently under assault by oil and gas development, as a result of your and Vice President Cheney’s Energy Plan, which promotes aggressive exploitation of oil and gas from public lands, including important grouse habitat. The imperilment of these grouse signals that ecosystems are crumbling in the blind pursuit of more fossil fuels. Consider that since 1982, 229 million acres of public land (an area larger than the combined size of New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona) have been leased to oil and gas companies, yet our nation is now twice as dependent on foreign oil and three times as dependent on foreign gas as we were in 1982. While the United States possesses only 3 percent of the world’s fossil fuel reserves, we consume 25 percent of global fossil fuel production annually. In a quest for sane energy independence, we must shift to clean, renewable sources and make a national commitment to significantly reducing fuel consumption.

Public lands livestock grazing is also a threat to all of the grouse species of concern. Yet, your Administration is seeking to drastically reduce the public’s ability to participate in environmental analysis that is fundamental to ensuring that the livestock industry does not run roughshod over western public lands. In addition, the perverse subsidies of exceedingly low grazing fees on federal lands are putting grouse between a rock and a hard place, with nowhere to nest. Altogether, the U.S. government provides subsidies to ranchers on the order of $500 million every year. As a champion of rugged individualism, you should oppose such giveaways.

Why should you, the only president to have received a failing grade - an “F” - on your environmental record from the nonpartisan League of Conservation Voters, worry about the concerns we have voiced? The reasons are many:

• Imperiled grouse should be protected out of the spirit of compassion, which marks the Presidential Pardon of the Thanksgiving turkey.
• The natural environment would be truly bereft without grouse on the landscape. Aldo Leopold, the great American conservationist, wrote, "The physics of beauty is one department of natural science still in the Dark Ages. Not even the manipulators of bent space have tried to solve its equations. Everybody knows, for example, that the autumn landscape in the north woods is the land, plus a red maple, plus a ruffed grouse. In terms of conventional physics, the grouse represents only a millionth of either the mass or the energy of an acre. Yet subtract the grouse and the whole thing is dead."
• The vast majority of Americans - some 86 percent - wish for you to preserve and enforce the Endangered Species Act. We expect you to take seriously this mandate and see that prompt and urgently needed federal protection is granted for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken, Gunnison Sage-Grouse, Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse, Greater Sage-Grouse, and Mono Basin Sage-Grouse. Action to list endangered wildlife and plants has been sorely lacking during your five years in office. President Clinton listed 65 species a year during his administration, and your father, President George H.W. Bush, listed 59 species per year. Your Administration has listed only 7 species per year, and you were compelled to do so in every case by the courts. Forestalling federal safeguards for species on the brink of extinction spells disaster, as protection delays lead to species declines. Between 1974-2004, some 42 species for which federal protection was long delayed, vanished forever.
• Smart resource planning goes hand in hand with endangered species protection. Preserving intact lands for imperiled grouse will help conserve natural ecosystem services, which benefit human communities by providing clean water and clean air. Alternatively, more oil and gas drilling will lead to decreased water quantity and quality and worsen climate change, which will severely impact human welfare. Perverse, environmentally degrading subsidies, such as low grazing fees on federal lands, should be ceased and these resources should be redirected toward the conservation of the nation’s wildlife, benefiting all of the American public.
• It is your moral responsibility to safeguard grouse out of reverence for creation. A plurality of faiths and spiritual foundations underscore the need to preserve life on earth. The moral underpinnings for this course range from the inherent value of grouse as beings whose survival must be ensured to our obligation to future generations of humans to leave a rich natural legacy, rather than squander it for the short-term profit of a few.

Imperiled grouse in western North America deserve your pardon. Please expedite federal protection for these birds. In the meantime, pending Endangered Species Act protection for these species, we ask that you direct the Departments of Interior and Agriculture to conduct a systematic review of all federal activities that are endangering these graceful and beautiful creatures.

Sincerely,

Nicole J. Rosmarino, Ph.D., Conservation Director WildEarth Guardians

On behalf of: Animal Protection of New Mexico Animal Protection Institute Center for Native Ecosystems Chihuahuan Desert Conservation Alliance Oregon Natural Desert Association Sagebrush Sea Campaign Sierra Club, Rio Grande Chapter Southern Plains Land Trust Western Watersheds Project

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