Protections for endangered species restored‚É

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal agencies again will have to consult with government wildlife experts before taking actions that could have an impact on threatened or endangered species.

The Obama administration said Tuesday it was overturning a rule change made in the final weeks of the Bush presidency.

Officials at the Interior and Commerce departments said they have reimposed the consultation requirement that assured the government’s top biologists involved in species protection will have a say in federal action that could harm plants, animals and fish that are at risk of extinction.

Such consultation had been required for more than two decades until the Bush administration made it optional in rules issued last December, just weeks before the change in administrations. Environmentalists argued that the change severely reduced the protection afforded under the federal Endangered Species Act.

“By rolling back this 11th-hour regulation, we are ensuring that threatened and endangered species continue to receive the full protection of the law” and that top science will be the foundation of the decision-making, said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Agencies in the Interior and Commerce departments share responsibility for managing and enforcing the Endangered Species Act and employ the government’s top scientists in species protection.

Environmentalists widely praised Tuesday’s action, but some expressed dismay that Salazar didn’t also rescind a rule that limits the protection to the polar bear, which last year was declared as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act because of disappearing Arctic sea ice as a result of climate change.