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Watchdog: Trump's Budget Plan Sentences US Endangered Species to Death

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Cuts in US spending for protecting endangered species and preserving critical habitats in President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal 2019 budget could mean extinction for hundreds of threatened species, the Center for Biological Diversity said in a press release on Tuesday.
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"The Trump budget is an absolute disaster for America’s endangered species," CBD Endangered Species Director Noah Greenwald said. "The American wolverine and Sierra Nevada red fox are among the hundreds of species that could be lost if this reckless proposal becomes law."

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The president’s spending plan, if approved by Congress, would cut budgets for habitat and endangered species protection from $20.5 million to just under $11 million, the release said.

The cuts could mean extinction for some of the more than 500 species awaiting protection decisions from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the release added.

Since the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, at least 46 species have gone extinct waiting for protection, including most recently the Beaverpond marstonia snail, according to the release.

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