Tucson-based advocacy group makes industry of suing on behalf of wildlife

Wearing a rakishly unbuttoned short-sleeved shirt and two days’ worth of stubble, Kieran Suckling looks more like an auto mechanic than one of the most influential and polarizing wildlife conservationists in the country. But when he talks about how he came to devote a career to animal advocacy, he betrays an academic career steeped in philosophy and biological diversity. It’s a philosophy that has catapulted Suckling – and the Tucson-based group he co-founded and now directs, the Center for Biological Diversity – to the forefront of the 21st century conservation movement. The group has achieved its high profile in part through its litigation-based approach to conservation. Since July 1, for example, the center has filed 12 lawsuits to prevent development around the country that it contends would threaten various endangered species. Even the center’s detractors, however, concede that it is remarkably successful at effecting change through litigation. Suckling boasts that the center has achieved a favorable outcome in 93 percent of the lawsuits in which it has participated...more

"rakishly unbuttoned"? My, my.