Endangered Species Act - We Should Act Now
By Trent LoosI recently attended the California Cattlemen’s Convention in Sacramento where I was fortunate to hear Congressman Richard Pombo, Chairmen of the House Resource Committee, address the concerns of the day. I have been following his work for quite some time because I noticed that he was willing to go out on a limb for resource providers where most elected officials fear to offend the vocal minority. You may be aware of some of the impacts of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, which currently has 1400 species listed or proposed, but it is actually much worse than I ever imagined.
The crowd gasped in unison when Pambo stated that, “the Endangered Species Act (ESA) takes precedent over every other issue in Washington”. Someone the crowd asked if he meant every issue other than National Security. Pombo replied “No, including National Security.”
How could that be? Pambo offered California’s Camp Pendleton as an example. Camp Pendleton is committed to operating and maintaining the world’s finest amphibious training facility. With more than 125,000 acres of varied terrain and 17.1 miles of shoreline, Camp Pendleton is one of the Department of Defense’s busiest training installations. Each day and night, thousands of Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen hone their skills from the sea, on land and in the air above the Marine Corps’ premiere amphibious training base. And it is all done with “Critical Habitat” areas for endangered species marked as “off limits.” Is it more important to train our military to save the lives of our citizens or to jeopardize that training in order to spare the life of a couple desert animals?
Herein lies the great irony of this whole situation. As adjacent private lands have been developed, activists have become more insistent that Camp Pendleton take action to protect the habitat for the seventeen endangered species that are currently residents there, and to include other species and other habitat under more restrictive management protocols. All this is accomplished through lawsuits, not scientific data. And what are these folks doing to save the lives of these creatures as bulldozers clear the land for their multi-million dollar estates?
We are all aware of the importance of river transportation for grain exports. Missouri faces issues different from California but with the same general overtone. On Monday, Chairman Sam Graves of the House Subcommittee on Rural Enterprises, Agriculture, and Technology took his case for the need to reform the Endangered Species Act to St. Joseph, MO. "When it comes to the Endangered Species Act, common sense became extinct a long time ago," Graves said. "The Endangered Species Act is a Washington creation, but its effects reach all the way into the heartland. It's well past time farmers and small businesses had a real and powerful voice in this debate."
The whole problem boils down to litigation and the fear of lawsuits. ESA lawsuits are so routine that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) staff spend more time and dollars handling litigation than 'saving' endangered species. The FWS reports that as much as two-thirds of its budget for placing endangered species on the protection list is consumed fulfilling court orders and settlement agreements. How many species could be saved if this money was spent on animals instead of defending the lawsuits?I will be the first to admit that most of us do not want to deliberately eliminate any species but at what expense can we attempt to save them. Congressmen Pombo stated that only 12 species have ever been removed from the list. I have one perfect example from my recent trip to Louisiana. The alligator was once listed as endangered only to learn later that they were not endangered but simply clever enough to hide. The science used to determine the actual inventory was that bad. Congressmen Pombo concurred that the problem with the current ESA is that it is written in a manner that supports poor science.
One thing is for sure. To determine the actual population of any species, you must go beyond those hallowed halls of Washington DC and you must go beyond the litigious mentality of our so-called environmental community. This, like so many other issues, is going to require a grassroots effort of local citizens to come forward and share personal experiences. The really encouraging thing is that it appears we have the listening ear of key legislators. Now, are they hearing you or the Sierra Club?
