Wild Earth Guardians entered into an agreement with the Department of the Interior US Fish and Wildlife Service in May, 2011. The Center for Biological Diversity also entered into an agreement with the USFWS in June, 2011. Both of these Corporate Environmentalists promised to limit the filing of lawsuits to 2007 levels due to the fact that the constant filing of Endangered Species Act lawsuits has caused a serious backlog in the FWS, which in itself was causing additional lawsuit filings by these groups. This flooding of lawsuits is part of the "Sue and Settle" strategy that funds a significant portion of these Corporate Environmentalists income. To see the agreement, look at this link:http://www.fws.gov/endangered/improving_ESA/exh_1_re_joint_motion_FILED.PDF" In this article by David Miller of Nossaman LLP, http://www.endangeredspecieslawandpolicy.com/2011/05/articles/fish-wildlife-service/proposed-settlement-agreement-includes-work-plan-to-address-endangered-species-listing-process/ , in 2011 the reasoning behind this settlement agreement was to " allow the Service to systematically review and address the needs of more than 250 species currently listed as candidate species for protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)." and that the work plan included in these settlement agreements would "allow the Service to focus its efforts on species most in need of protection, rather than on deadline litigation." Yet, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Wild Earth Guardians have continued to file lawsuits to force listing decisions. This rushing and forcing of decisions that have a negative and damaging effect on Property Owners and Industry benefits no species or necessary human activities, except the bottom line of these Corporate Environmentalist Organizations. The Western Energy Alliance has done a Sue-and-Settle Legal Analysis of the Center for Biological Diversity and the Wild Earth Guardians, "We have examined petitions to list species under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) and lawsuits challenging listing decision filed since WildEarth Guardians (“WEG”) and Center for Biological Diversity (“CBD”) reached their separate settlements with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“Service”) in May 2011 and July 2011, respectively." This fact finding report is well sourced, and is a dismaying hard look at the truth of what these groups have caused to transpire since 2011. For example, since 2011, 46 petitions have been filed requesting action to list or uplist 122 species. Of the he 46 petitions submitted since May 2011, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Wild Earth Guardians have submitted 34 of the petitions, or nearly 3/4 of all petitions submitted. This is the link to the Western Energy Alliance report, and is well worth reading: http://cdn.westernenergyalliance.org/sites/default/files/Sue-and-Settle%20Legal%20Analysis%20Methodology.pdf The 109 species these Corporate Environmentalists have filed on since 2011 have been in the news through out the United States, and it is costing more than the expenses to the Department of Interior, funded through the taxpayer dollars Property Owners, other citizens, and Industry have contributed. Each state and municipality must also go through the expense (more taxpayer dollars) of studying their own governmental involvement with these species, paying experts to help devise plans to cope with the supposed presence and habitat of listed species. The results of these expenditures cause one to wonder what sort of wild earth diversity is actually being funded?
October 6, 2014