by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
As appearing in the Daily Sentinel
A group called Environment Oregon is circulating a petition asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to get on with it.
Two years ago, the agency proposed reintroducing sea otters to the Oregon coast, concluding that reintroduction was not only feasible, but essential. The agency has done absolutely nothing about it since.
The government says sea otters are necessary to control the growth of purple sea urchins, which are overrunning the region, “mowing down” underwater kelp forests. Proponents say those kelp forests are “vital to slowing climate change.” Yet nothing has been done to implement the sea otter reintroduction plan. Why not?
It is impossible to overstate — or even understand — how hard it is for USFWS to wrap its mind around the concept of reintroducing endangered species. For 50 years, the Endangered Species Act has been the most powerful tool in the federal arsenal for controlling land and water in America. That’s why 2,368 species have been put on the endangered list, and about 26 recovered. The idea of recovering species and removing them from the endangered list is foreign to the process, history and culture of the USFWS.
