Endangered Species Act turns 30 years old
Bush, greens struggle over its future
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Now at the ripe old age of 30, the Endangered Species Act is still a vigorous source of debate, although there are signs that the government and environmentalists are beginning to agree that its future lies in cooperation instead of confrontation.
Instead of relying on a federal regulatory hammer, both sides are shifting toward incentives for landowners who participate in protection programs.
"I think 30 years hence, it's going to be the standard way of operating," said Crain Manson, assistant interior secretary for wildlife.
William Robert Irvin, of the World Wildlife Fund, said there is a shared interest in promoting incentives.
"I think it is the future," Irvin said. "You can get a lot farther with carrots than sticks."
Despite the talk of cooperation, a strong debate still is taking place between the government and environmentalists over the future of the act, which was signed into law on December 28, 1973.
Conservation groups accuse the Bush administration and Republican Congress of launching assaults on the act, including easing protections on military bases and national forests, and seeking to repeal a provision requiring the Fish and Wildlife Service to designate critical habitat for endangered species.
The critical-habitat portion of the law has sparked numerous lawsuits from environmental groups pushing protective designations and the development groups that oppose them.
As recently as May, Manson joined Fish and Wildlife officials in blaming the court battles for eating up funding and forcing them to miss countless legally mandated deadlines.
Although Congress and the Bush administration have been criticized for underfunding the agency, Manson and House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-California, discounted that argument.
Manson said the service is reluctant to make legally required designations because it doesn't add a great deal of environmental benefit -- not because it lacks money.
Pombo has targeted the act for revision next year after a series of nationwide hearings.
"It has not been successful in terms of recovering endangered species, and it's caused a lot of conflict with property owners," Pombo said.
Congress has not reauthorized the act since 1988. It's funded instead on a year-to-year basis as critics and supporters spar over its future.
Yet Pombo, who has fought a running battle with environmental groups, said he thinks Congress could finally reauthorize the act based on a consensus that promotes more use of tools like Habitat Conservation Plans.
Such plans can shift the emphasis to managing large swaths of property to benefit an entire ecosystem, minimizing critics' complaints that the act micromanages landowners to benefit a single endangered species sometimes to the detriment of other wildlife, Pombo said.
"Everybody sees the need to have an Endangered Species Act. We've been arguing for years what that (act) should look like," Pombo said. "As long as we stick to the areas where there is general consensus, I think we can move forward."
Environmental Defense and the World Wildlife Fund tout similar measures like Safe Harbor Agreements and Candidate Conservation Agreements, which also promise property owners some regulatory freedom so long as they take steps to protect endangered species.
"Regulatory incentives really do result in landowners doing good things for their land," without worrying they'll be punished for their good works, said the World Wildlife Fund's Irvin.
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