Official Who Nixed Everglades From UN Endangered List Gets Trump Job

"WASHINGTON — An Interior Department official who removed the Everglades from the United Nations’ endangered-sites list during the Bush administration is back.

The Interior Department announced last week that Todd Willens, a longtime Washington-based lobbyist and congressional staffer, will take an assistant deputy secretary job under Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

In 2007, Willens urged the United Nations World Heritage Committee to remove Everglades National Park from the list of endangered natural and cultural sites over the objections of the committee’s scientific advisory group.

The UN acquiesced to Willens’ request, and the Everglades was removed."

Alex Daugherty reports for the Miami Herald July 11, 2017.

Source: Miami Herald, 07/13/2017