LD 883: An Act to Protect Endangered Species Whose Life Cycles Include Maine Land or Waters

Executive Director of the Native Fish Coalition, Bob Mallard, writes for the Bangor Daily News about the Maine Endangered Species Act (ESA).

A coalition of conservationists, native fish advocates, scientists, and former Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (DIF&W), the Department of Marine Resources (DMR), and Maine Department of Environmental Protection administrators and biologists which petitioned the State of Maine to list Atlantic salmon as endangered at the state level were declined.

The most egregious omission from Maine’s ESA is Atlantic salmon. Classified as endangered at the national level, wild native Atlantic salmon in the United States persist only in Maine, and they are hanging by a thread. Restoration efforts in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont have been mostly suspended, leaving Maine as the last hope we have of preventing Atlantic salmon from going extinct in America.

Unable to convince the agencies responsible for the well-being of Atlantic salmon and other at-risk species to act in regard to a state-level listing, the original coalition, along with a number of other organizations that have signed on, is taking their case to the Maine legislature. The coalition is working with legislators in regard to LD 883: An Act to Protect Endangered Species Whose Life Cycles Include Maine Land or Waters, to reinstate the mandatory state-level listing of federally-listed species.

You can read more details here: https://bangordailynews.com/2021/04/22/outdoors/commentary-defying-the-endangered-species-act-at-the-state-level-is-bad-science-bad-politics/