2012's Endangered Species Act: That Will Be $5.40, Please.

Least Bell's Vireo received a $3,636,851.00 to stick around on Planet Earth a while longer. Dairy Mart Ponds in the Tijuana River Valley, CA.

Environmentalists of all stripes will be interested in Extinction Countdown's summary of how much the federal government spent in protecting threatened and endangered species in Fiscal Year 2012.

A few tidbits:
- $1.7 billion was spent on listed species, up from $1.59 billion the year before.
- Steelhead Trout along the Snake and Columbia Rivers got the biggest bite of the budget .
- Many species, such as Canadian Lynx, received no federal money whatsoever.
- The U.S. citizen paid $5.40 in taxes last year to help protect endangered species.

You can find the blog summary right here, or look at USFWS's official (and surprisingly concise) report right here.