Law protects species even if fed rules change
HUDSON, N.Y. » State Assemblywoman Didi Barrett says legislation signed last week by Gov. Andrew Cuomo will protect the state’s wildlife even if the federal government takes certain species off its endangered list.
Didi Barrett, D-Hudson, said the new law will go a long way toward saving New York’s endangered wildlife.
“The environment is in desperate need of protection, but the federal government has moved to make it easier to remove species from the endangered species list, ignoring climate change concerns and sound science,” Barrett, who sponsored the bill (A04077) in the Assembly, said in a prepared statement.
“This law protects endangered species in New York state from federal policies that would remove them from the endangered list, regardless of if the state believes that they are still in need of protection. Now those protections will stay in place until the state has conducted its own review of the species’ viability.”
Barrett represents New York’s 106th Assembly District and is running for a sixth two-year term this fall against Dean Michael, R-Clinton.
Barrett said the new law, based on research by students at Pace University, requires that any endangered and threatened species, as designated by the U.S. secretary of the interior, continue to be subject to protections in New York state regardless of federal action.
“A species would only be removed from the list if it is determined to no longer be endangered or threatened by the commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation,” Barrett’s office said.