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Alert:
Congress Poised to Rewrite the Endangered Species Act! U.S. Representative
Richard Pombo (R-CA) issued a new report condemning the Endangered
Species Act (ESA). Environmentalists and Democrats were quick to
label the report inaccurate, poorly researched and ill-informed. A new
bill, based on the report and likely to propose sweeping revisions to
the Act including measures that make it harder to list a threatened species,
is soon expected by the environmental community.
“The Endangered Species Act is a proven safety net for America’s
imperiled plants and animals,” said Susan Holmes of Earthjustice.
“This report is a recipe for undoing 30 years of progress and driving
scores of species to extinction.”
The report entitled, "Implementation
of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973," criticizes the
Act by claiming that it has failed to recover more than one percent of
the listed species and that very few are meeting their recovery objectives.
Environmental groups point out that the Act’s success cannot be
measured simply by looking at recovery rates. Threatened or endangered
populations of species can take several decades to replenish and many
of the roughly 1800 species were added within the last 15 years.
The report also claimed 60 percent of endangered species are uncertain
or declining, 30 percent are stable, and only 6 percent are improving.
In a formal
rebuttal to some of the main points of Rep. Pombo’s report,
environmentalists explain that ESA data actually show 68 percent of species
with a known trend to either stabilize or improve within six years of
being listed. They also point to peer-reviewed scientific studies that
show the ESA is working.
The report arrives against the backdrop of recent political maneuvering
of the White House and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
to implement “counterpart regulations” that leave listed species
more open to harm from pesticides and a lawsuit
won by Earthjustice, NCAP and Washington Toxics Coalition against EPA
to implement the ESA and protect endangered salmon from pesticides in
the Northwest. (See Daily News on counterpart
regulations and lawsuit.)
Rep. Pombo sits on
the House Committee on Agriculture, a committee notorious for protecting
the use of pesticides at almost any cost. He is also Chairman of the House
Resources Committee that oversees the ESA and other environmental issues.
GOP lawmakers are looking to amend the Act by adding incentives for landowners
and private developers as well as to “strengthen scientific reviews,”
according to The Associated Press.
Among the report’s recommendations are better use of science consistent
with The Data Quality Act (see Daily
News), delisting species that are ‘possibly extinct’ and
making it easier to delist species.
The ESA has remained
largely intact since its inception in 1973, despite three amendments made
through the years by Congress. The Act has an history of being contentious.
Private developers complain that the Act interferes with business while
environmentalists complain the Act should do more to protect wildlife
and habitat. While attempts to “reform” ESA have been made
before, the difference this time may be the heavy representation of business
interests overshadowing both houses in Congress and the White House that
would like to see the Act weakened. According to the Washington
Post there is considerable agreement between Democrats and Republicans
on easing constraints on private development.
“The mischaracterizations in this report are further proof that
developers, and the politicians they give money to, are trying to weaken
the Endangered Species Act, the law that prevented the extinction of the
American Bald Eagle," said Liz Godfrey, Program Director for the
Endangered Species
Coalition. "They are manipulating science to fit their political
agenda, and working to remove the checks and balances that help protect
people from special interests."
Many worry that should the ESA be opened before this Congress, it would
quickly get filled with amendments that benefit powerful lobbies rather
than wildlife. ESA protected habitat has further come under attack by
a bill introduced by Rep. Dennis Cardoza ("Critical
Habitat Reform Act of 2005" H.R. 1299), which is also being fought
by environmentalists trying to prevent the creation of loopholes that
would remove most habitat protections and make the designation of critical
habitat voluntary rather than mandatory.
The potential result
of rewriting ESA today would be the loss of the fundamental principles
that created the Act – to leave behind a legacy of good land stewardship
and protected species and habitat for the children and grandchildren of
the future.
Rep. Pombo's report is available through http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/
TAKE ACTION: Tell your U.S. Senators and Representative to protect endangered species and leave ESA off the agenda! Use this SAMPLE LETTER (adapted from Endangered Species Coalition).
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