July 1, 2008

Summer School 2008: The Endangered Species Act

DC Bar Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Section

John Kostyack (National Wildlife Federation) and Eric Bilsky (Oceana) discussed the Endangered Species Act.

John Kostyack is Executive Director of Wildlife Conservation and Global Warming for the National Wildlife Federation, where he leads a nationwide campaign to conserve wildlife and ecosystems threatened by climate change. He is currently focused on helping enact strong natural resources protection provisions in federal global warming legislation.

John frequently writes and lectures on meeting the challenges of conserving U.S. wildlife. With Professor Dan Rohlf, he recently published “Conserving Endangered Species in an Era of Global Warming” (38 Env. Law Rptr. 10203).

John has been a leader in Endangered Species Act policy and litigation, winning victories in cases to protect habitat for the ivory-billed woodpecker, Key deer, Florida panther, gray wolf, and Swainson’s hawk. He also represented a diverse coalition in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in the Court’s first-ever global warming case, Massachusetts v EPA.

Eric Bilsky is Assistant General Counsel and Senior Litigator with Oceana, an international non-profit group that works to protect and restore the world’s oceans.

Mr. Bilsky has fought for marine conservation in a range of cases and issues. He has worked with Oceana since its founding in 2001. Prior to joining Oceana, Mr. Bilsky served as an attorney with the Ocean Law Project at Earthjustice.

Mr. Bilsky’s work to protect marine wildlife from the impacts of destructive fishing and climate change pollution includes Oceana’s litigation and advocacy to protect marine habitat from destructive fishing, participation in the landmark Oct. 3, 2007, petition to the EPA to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from marine shipping, and Oceana’s November 15, 2007, petition to protect the U.S. Atlantic loggerhead turtle from threats from fishing fleets and global climate change.

Mr. Bilsky is a 1985 graduate of Yale College and received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1991.