Monday March 17, 2025
The Fence Post —
Two conservation groups are launching a suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the “blanket rule” that disregards science and hinders habitat restoration efforts under the Endangered Species Act. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Property and Environment Research Center want the agency to adopt the approach used by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which develops tailored regulations to recover threatened species guided by science and the specific needs of each species.
The Endangered Species Act directs agencies to list species and take steps to recover them. To do so, the agency is supposed to design science-based regulations tailored to the needs of each species. Citing administrative convenience, the FWS established the “blanket 4(d) rule” to bypass this process, ignoring science and species-specific considerations. As a result, the agency’s one-size-fits-all approach has yielded poor species recovery rates. By comparison, the National Marine Fisheries Service’s tailored strategy has recovered species at twice the rate of FWS’ blanket approach.
“While the blanket rule is certainly easier for bureaucrats to administer, it doesn’t work for species like the gray wolf, greater sage grouse and arctic grayling,” said Jonathan Wood, PERC’s vice president of law and policy. “Given the challenges of recovering America’s imperiled wildlife, the Endangered Species Act needs to be as effective as possible by applying science, harnessing incentives and adapting to real world outcomes.”