Debating Pombo's Extinction Bill- Brent Plater

Brent Plater appeared on KQED's Forum show with Michael Krasny to debate pesticide industry lawyers and lobbyists who attempted to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act in 2005-6.

The San Francisco Chronicle's Jane Kay and San Francisco State University's Dr. Carlos Davidson also appeared on the program.

The attempt to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act was thwarted in Congress when the U.S. Senate failed to take up the bill in the 109th Congress.

2008 GGNRA ESA Big Year - Brent Plater

GGNRA Endangered Species Project Needs You!

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) contains more federally threatened and endangered species than any other unit of the National Park System in the continental United States, yet most Bay Area residents are unaware of this. We are launching an exciting project that will connect people with these amazing creatures, and we are asking for your help to make it happen.

The project is called the 2008 GGNRA Endangered Species Big Year. The goal will be to introduce people to each and every one of the 34 federally listed threatened or endangered species found in the park, and help them take specific recovery actions for each species. The gateway for the project will be a website where folks can download a “checklist” of the species, learn about ethical wildlife watching, and sign up for guided trips to see snowy plovers, Presidio clarkia, California red-legged frogs, and many other species that call GGNRA home. People will be able to uploadtheir sightings, compare them to other Big Year “competitors,” and even compare their list to those of a few celebrity participants.

We need your help to make this a successful project. Right now our most pressing needs are help with website design and publicity. We have content and most of the field trips prepared. Please contact Brent Plater at bplater@ggnrabigyear.org or 415-572-6989 if you would like to become part of this exciting project.

Through this project, we hope to make people aware of the importance of the Endangered Species Act and the National Park’s urban park experiment, and to encourage people to be good neighbors to the incredible diversity of life in the GGNRA.

California Red-Legged Frog Protected from Pesticides - Brent Plater

Brent Plater was the lead attorney in Center for Biological Diversity v. Whitman, a case which will reduce the use of 66 pesticides in California red-legged frog habitats.

The EPA recently published documents explaining how the injunction works.

http://www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/es/rl_frog/index.htm

Also:
http://www.epa.gov/espp/litigation/redleg-frog/rlf.htm

And:

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/rlfrog/index.html

Long live Twain’s Frog!

The Snowy Plover Has a Posse - Brent Plater

You saw it here second:













A decade late. By Brent Plater.

Pombocchio - Bryan O'Neal & Brent Plater

You saw this excellent parody of Pinocchio here third:

By Bryan O’Neal and Brent Plater.

Requiem for a River Dolphin - Brent Plater

You heard it here fourth:

It sounds even better than it reads. By Brent Plater.

New Listed Species, New Hope - Brent Plater

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service published this document in the Federal Register recently adding several species to the official list of endangered and threatened species. Each species added to the list were species Brent Plater played a large role in protecting, either as attorney or petitioner:

Partial List of ESA Species listed by Brent Plater:



Not included here were several other species Brent Plater worked to protect over the years, including the Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly, 12 species of Hawaiian Picture-wings, the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, the North Pacific Right Whale, the Southwest Alaska DPS of the Northern Sea Otter, and a few others.

NPR Story on Snowy Plover - Brent Plater

Brent Plater was quoted in this informative story about the attack on the protected status of the Western Snowy Plover Pacific Coast DPS.

The Endangered Species Act and the Snowy Plover.

Fortunately all legal attacks on this diminutive shorebird have been successfully repelled, so far.