Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and environmental groups today ripped a House proposal to strip funding for new Endangered Species Act listings, slash nearly 80 percent of funding for federal land acquisitions and cut wetlands conservation funding in half.

The GOP's fiscal 2012 proposal to cut $720 million from Interior Department programs places a moratorium on new species listings and critical habitat designations, prohibits species delisting decisions from being challenged in court and nearly guts the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R), a member of the House's Interior appropriations subcommittee, called her proposal to prevent groups from challenging a future delisting of gray wolves in Wyoming or the Great Lakes a "crucial puzzle piece" to the animal's recovery in the state.

But environmental groups called the House package one of the broadest assaults on ESA since it was signed into law in 1973 by President Nixon. Groups fear more anti-ESA riders may be tacked onto the bill as it moves through the House.

While Lummis' wolf provision was expected, the proposed moratorium on ESA listings and habitat was a surprise to environmental groups and Democratic lawmakers, who warned it would imperil a successful conservation law that has saved species including the bald eagle and grizzly bear from extinction.

"I cannot for the life of me see this provision getting through the Senate, much less across the president's desk," said Mike Senatore, vice president of conservation law at Defenders of Wildlife.

The last moratorium on ESA listings to pass Congress came in the mid-1990s as part of a Defense authorization bill that was signed into law by President Clinton.

Senatore noted that while the House bill today prevents species from being "uplisted" from threatened to endangered, it specifically exempts species downlistings and delistings.

The Interior chief today said that while there is much room to improve the implementation of ESA, he was concerned about any proposals to weaken the 1973 law.

"We need to have an endangered species program that does in fact work," Salazar said today in a conference call with reporters from Michigan, where he announced the acquisition of lands for a new national park unit and an expanded wildlife refuge. He cited the success of ESA in saving species like the grizzly bear and whooping crane.

"There are changes and improvements that can be made to how we deal with endangered species," Salazar said, adding that he had not had a chance to review the specific House proposal. "But essentially putting a halt to a program that was started back in the 1970s to make sure that iconic species do not disappear from the face of the Earth, I think, is the wrong direction to go."

Salazar called the broader House proposal a "sad day for conservation" and implored listeners at the news conference to demand better funding for land acquisitions and wetlands conservation projects he said are critical to support recreation spending and boost jobs.

"The House of Representatives ... put forth a budget that will jeopardize the conservation legacy and future of the United States of America," he said. "That proposed legislation will set back America's investments in parks, wildlife refuges and protections for the places people hunt, fish, hike, bike and enjoy."

The House proposal will be considered in the subcommittee tomorrow and likely go before the full House later this month.

The proposal follows a successful rider in Congress' bipartisan continuing resolution in April that stripped ESA protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho and barred environmental challenges. The move drew multiple lawsuits from environmental groups arguing the move was unconstitutional. The complaints are still under review.