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Reckless endangerment
The Endangered Species Act is in jeopardy of being gutted because of a perceived conflict between the law and property owners.
A Times Editorial
Published October 1, 2005
We could live without the key deer, manatee, wood stork, red-cockaded woodpecker and dozens more endangered animals in Florida (and hundreds in other states). But why would we want to?
The Endangered Species Act has been one of the most successful and popular environmental laws. The key element of the act applies only to public land and to private land where the owner is seeking federal money or a permit to alter the ecology, such as filling wetlands. So the act is not the great threat to private property that its critics claim.
That didn't stop Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., from using the private-property argument as a reason to gut the act. His bill, mockingly named the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act, is an insidious effort to make the law unenforceable. The bill passed the House of Representatives this week.
One provision in the Pombo bill could bankrupt the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that enforces the act. It would require the agency to pay developers for any lost profit on land set aside for endangered species.
The act's most effective provision requires the government to protect "critical habitat," land needed for the species to recover. Pombo's bill would repeal that provision, replacing it with a weakened requirement to identify land of "special value," a term that has yet to be defined.
The bill also would allow the secretary of the Interior, a political appointee, to override scientific findings. And the government would be given a brief period of time to act. If an agency failed to meet the deadline, a developer would be able to proceed without restriction.
Pombo called the Endangered Species Act "a failure in terms of the conflict with private property owners." That assumes the property owner is always right. There may be unnecessary litigation and delay, but that means the current law should be tweaked, not destroyed.
Pombo is right that few species have been removed from the endangered species list, but if he gets his way, the list will only grow longer.
[Last modified October 1, 2005, 01:45:17]
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