…As President, will you uphold our Endangered Species Act and better fund it, to protect imperiled plants and animals?

“Yes. It’s funny… the first thing I ever said in public, about anything, was about the snail darter. I wrote a letter to the editor. ESA was under attack, right? I wrote a letter to the editor, and I won – I was very proud – ‘the letter to the editor of the month’ award from the Yakima Republic. Probably the biggest achievement I ever had,” Inslee suggested. More seriously? Inslee confirmed he supports the ESA and adequate funding. “Oh, totally, but we need to understand, it’s not enough. I mean, we can have the ESA, but if climate change eats the ecosystem alive, you know, we have to start planning. We can have the strongest ESA, but if we don’t stop climate change, and we lose these ecosystems, (realize that) habitat is everything; Without habitat, you don’t have the species. That’s why I care about it.”