NYT: Obama to confront ESA backlog

The New York Times reports that the Obama administration will attempt to reduce the backlog of candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

There are about 250 candidate species. According to the article, which cites the Center for Biological Diversity as its source, about 100 of them have been waiting for their status to be determined for more than 10 years and 73 of them have been in limbo for more than 25 years.

The ESA requires a finding on a petition to list a species within 12 months of the date the petition is filed.