ANALYSIS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE’S POLICIES TOWARD PROTECTED SPECIES
Abstract
After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States has had an increased
interest
in national defense and military readiness. Current Department of Defense spending
has
increased substantially over the past year in the areas of national defense and military
readiness.
Early attempts to weaken the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection
Act
within the US House of Representatives were blocked. However, the $400 billion defense
appropriation bill, Public Law 108-136, seeks to weaken the Endangered Species Act
and the
Marine Mammal Protection Act to improve military readiness and national defense. Section
318
of the defense appropriation bill seeks to weaken the Endangered Species Act by precluding
the
designation of critical habitat on military installations. Section 319 of the bill
seeks to weaken
the Marine Mammal Protection Act by allowing the Navy to conduct research and training
necessary to national defense even if those activities kill marine mammals.
A policy design theory analysis shows that the Department of Defense has two different
standards for land and marine species; land based organisms will receive high protection
under
the law, however, marine based organisms will receive minimal or no protection. The
rationale
and assumptions of section 318 seem to be sound because of the long running tradition
of
successes of endangered species management on military installations and the limited
inclusion
of critical habitat in endangered species management. More research needs to be conducted
on
the impact of the SURTASS LFA sonar system on marine mammals before the assumptions
and
rationale of section 319 can be determined to be correct.
Type
Master's projectSubject
Department of DefenseEndangered Species Act (ESA)
Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA)
SURTASS LFA sonar system
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/249Citation
Shifflett, Scott (2004). ANALYSIS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE’S POLICIES TOWARD PROTECTED SPECIES. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/249.Collections
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