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A Bipartisan Push Could Change State Wildlife Protection
Sgt. Pam Taylor of the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife follows Puddles, as the dog sniffs for invasive mussels. State wildlife agencies say they lack the funding to fully meet their conservation mission, including invasive species management.
Ted S. Warren
The Associated Press
Scientists say the world is on the precipice of a mass extinction. The United Nations estimates that 1 million species are on the verge of being wiped out, threatened by climate change, habitat loss, pollution, invasive species and poaching.
In the United States, the federal government has oversight of the more than 1,600 species listed under the Endangered Species Act and powerful legal tools to protect them. But more than 12,000 additional species have been identified as declining or rare, and wildlife experts fear that without action many of them will soon be endangered.