Liberty Matters News Service

June 4, 2003  

Critical Habitat In Critical Condition

"The Endangered Species Act is broken," said Craig Manson, Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks in the US Department of Interior. Due to the unrelenting stream of appeals and litigation over critical habitat, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will soon run out of money to comply with court orders to designate critical habitat and that will affect its ability to protect plants and animals at risk. "Imagine an emergency room where lawsuits force the doctors to treat sprained ankles while patients with heart attacks expire in the waiting room and you've got a good picture of our endangered species program," he continued. The administration will ask Congress for permission to shift funds from other agencies to make up the shortfall, but that will do little to solve the problem according to Manson. "We need to make decisions about how to use our limited resources based on the most urgent needs of species, not on who can get into a courtroom first," Manson said. Speaking of money, Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced last week that the Fish and Wildlife Service will award more than $9.4 million to fund 113 conservation projects through the Private Stewardship Grants Program. The new program is the result of a promise President Bush made in 2000 to provide local communities and private landowners the means to protect and recover imperiled species, the Secretary noted. The Nature Conservancy, along with five Long Island towns, will share an $82,500 largess to protect beach habitat of the piping plover.
Endangered Species Act 'Broken'
Norton Announces Grant To Help Protect Piping Plovers

Colorado's Answer To ESA

The State of Colorado has so far spent $6 million building a fish laboratory on 760 acres near Alamosa that contains manmade ponds and dozens of tanks and tubs where it raises 13 endangered fish and the boreal toad. Last year the state released 33,000 fish and 3,200 toads into area lakes and rivers and plans are in the works to expand the project. Colorado Governor Bill F. Owens has no illusions about the motives of environmentalists who use the Endangered Species Act to promote their agendas. "Some environmentalists have no real desire to recover species," he said. "They really want to stop development, and the Act happens to be the mechanism to do that. We are calling that bluff." Unfortunately, raising species in a laboratory setting doesn't guarantee their survival in the wild, which is a requirement of the law. Not to worry says the governor. The state has just put its toe into the water and has plans to expand its endangered species breeding program. "Soon, we hope to start breeding the mammals," he remarked.
Sex and the State

Timing Is Everything

Residents of Abita Springs, Louisiana, might have recently benefited from the pending investigation into The Nature Conservancy when they took on the state highway department's plans to seize big chunks of their property for a bridge improvement project. The department plans were to take rights-of-way on the south side of State Highway 435 to widen three bridges to alleviate flooding in the area, but the residents protested saying the state could take undeveloped land owned by The Nature Conservancy on the north side of the road instead. Highway department officials explained that they chose to confiscate the residential property to protect the endangered "quilwort" plant found on the Conservancy's land. Denise Wagner and her neighbors managed to convince the Department that the same plant grew in abundance on their side of the road, a fact the state finally acknowledged as it promised to try to redesign the project. Their hard work paid off when the residents learned June 2nd the state would be purchasing 900 acres of right-of-way from TNC. Proving that timing is everything, Larry Burch of the Conservancy agreed to the deal stating; "[W]e want to be good neighbors. We don't want these people to lose their property." The new plan still calls for property on the south side, 30 feet instead of 70 feet, but residents are hopeful that the Department will shift that amount to the Conservancy's side, since TNC is now so cooperative.
Bridges To Skirt Private Land
La. 435 Bridge Project Changes Anticipated

Environmentalists Claim Laws Endangered

Congress has been tweaking restrictive environmental laws lately and environmentalists are complaining. The House Resource Committee added provisions to the 2004 Defense spending bill that would eliminate critical habitat designations on all federal lands, not just military property. Environmentalists fear it could apply to other federal agencies and even private industry. The measure also allows the military to sidestep certain provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and changes the "current definition of 'harassment' of marine mammals, not only for the military, but for all ocean users." Enviros believe that will lead to increased oil and gas exploration as private industry will use the new law to avoid oversight from federal agencies and public comments. Then there are the Bush administration's plans to improve forest health and protect communities from devastating fires. The new rules would exempt small timber projects from cumbersome and time-consuming regulations and limit appeals for thinning projects. Ironically, now that the shoe is on the other foot, the environmentalists charge the rules are part of an "ideological and political agenda" designed to allow timber companies access to large stands of timber and little to do with protecting homes.

Defense Spending Bill Attacks Wildlife Protection
Federal Rules Aim At Cutting Red Tape, Then Trees