Stop the Bush extinction plan for endangered species.

For more than 30 years, the Endangered Species Act has protected wildlife at risk of extinction. Now the Bush Administration wants to eliminate vital checks and balances that are crucial to protect our polar bears, wolves and other imperiled wildlife.

In August, the Bush administration proposed new regulations that would allow government agencies to decide for themselves if their actions would harm an endangered species -- without consulting the experts within the Fish and Wildlife Service or National Marine Fisheries Service. In addition, this proposal would explicitly limit the ability of these agencies to consider how greenhouse gas emissions from such projects could impact polar bears and other wildlife that may go extinct due to global warming.

Instead, agencies proposing projects such as highways, dams, mines, oil or gas drilling and virtually any other activity would be allowed to decide for themselves whether a project is likely to impact any of the nearly 1,400 species currently protected by the Endangered Species Act -- without the crucial independent review now provided by scientific experts at the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

We must stop the assault by the Bush Administration to weaken protections for endangered species. The National Marine Fisheries Service is holding open comments on this issue until September 15, but we must also urge Congress to hold strong and preserve our wildlife by stopping any changes to the Endangered Species Act.

So please fill out the form at right and click the orange button to sign the petition and send a message to protect endangered species to your representative in Congress.