"Obama Budget Retools FWS for Warming World"

"Despite a backlog of endangered species issues and a host of current lawsuits, the Fish and Wildlife Service plans to focus firmly on the future.

Climate change is the theme for the agency's $1.65 billion discretionary budget plan for fiscal 2011. ...

The Obama administration has proposed redirecting cash and personnel toward climate research and acquisition of land that would become corridors for wildlife moving as temperatures rise and habitat changes. Some wildlife biologists and environmental groups have welcomed the change, but the agency's budget worries other environmentalists who are concerned the agency may lose ground on endangered species protection."

Patrick Reis and Allison Winter reports for Greenwire February 10, 2010.