To the editor:

On Aug.15, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne proposed sweeping changes to the rules that govern how the Endangered Species Act is carried out, changes that would eviscerate protections for endangered species by excusing thousands of federal activities, including those that generate greenhouse gases, from review under the act.

This proposal followed a proposal issued Aug. 5 that claimed to be just a formatting change to the federal list of threatened and endangered species but that would actually limit protection of endangered species to their current (and usually vastly diminished) ranges.

We should work hard to stop both of the new Endangered Species Act proposals from being finalized – and we can do it. Contact your elected representatives and ask them to prevent the Bush administration from turning our nation’s most crucial species-protection law completely inside out.

Joseph Laframboise,
Lawrence