From our Advocacy Department:

We are happy to report that yesterday, in response to a lawsuit filed against the Commonwealth’s regulatory use of priority habitat screening to protect endangered species, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled unanimously to affirm the state’s authority under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act (MESA).

The priority habitat designation program allows the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game’s Fisheries and Wildlife Division to review projects in environmentally sensitive areas and make recommendations for landowners to avoid impacts to these vulnerable species. Mass Audubon coordinated amicus brief filings in support of the Commonwealth with partners from the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions, Conservation Law Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, Defenders of Wildlife, and the National Wildlife Federation.

The decision by the Supreme Judicial Court reaffirms the Commonwealth’s right to protect its most vulnerable plant and animal species from destruction,” said Jack Clarke, Mass Audubon’s Director of Public Policy and Government Relations. “Mass Audubon applauds the Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Fish and Game for successfully defending the endangered species act before the state’s highest court for the second time in thirteen years. As original drafters of the endangered species act, we look forward to its continued fair implementation and the protections it affords.” Learn more about the decision.

While we take this time to celebrate, we also await news of MESA bills currently awaiting action in the legislature’s Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture. We support Representative Stephen Kulik’s (D-Worthington) consensus bill (H.756) that would strengthen our existing endangered species law, and we continue to oppose any legislation that would repeal or weaken it.

Photo via US Fish and Wildlife Service

Efforts to repeal the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act (MESA) are once again underway, and we need your help!

On Monday, November 4, the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture will hold a hearing that includes two bills Mass Audubon strongly opposes. These bills would result in a repeal of endangered species protections in the Commonwealth.

Environmental groups and the business community alike have supported the standards the program currently uses to protect endangered species. The effort to gut endangered species protections is coming from a limited, but very vocal, few.

Both bills would:

• Dismantle MESA’s Priority Habitat framework for protecting endangered species of plants and animals administered by the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (DFW) Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program.
• Leave property owners with no advance notice of or ability to avoid harm to a state-listed species, leaving them potentially subject to fines and criminal prosecution for causing harm to that species. The existing permitting process, which takes into account the characteristics of each proposed development site, would be replaced by a costly and cumbersome regime that would rely on action against landowners after the harm to the protected species has occurred. Such a regime would not provide effective guidance to landowners or protect endangered species.

We urge you to contact Chairman Pacheco and Chairwoman Gobi today—by phone, email, or mail—to ask them to protect endangered species and halt Senate Bill 345 and Senate Bill 411.

In addition, you can let your own Representative and Senator know where you stand, and ask them to speak to the Chairs as well.

Please also express your support for An Act Relative to the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act, H.756. Mass Audubon supports this consensus bill, which would improve the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act rather than repeal it.

Find out who your legislators are and how to contact them.

Thank you for stepping up to protect endangered species!

Hearing details:
Monday, November 4, 2013
1:00 p.m.
Room A-2
State House
Boston, MA