Battle Set Over Expiring Endangered Species Act

The federal government’s mandate to spend money for the protection of endangered and threatened plant and animal species will expire this year.

Consequently, Congress again faces the prospect of reauthorizing a 20-year-old law that has become the focus of spectacular controversy--largely because of efforts to protect the northern spotted owl, officially designated a threatened species in 1990.

The debate sets environmentalists, who contend that the Endangered Species Act has served the country well, against business, agricultural and development interests, who fervently insist that it is sapping the economy and unnecessarily costing tens of thousands of jobs. To administer the act, Congress appropriated $63.5 million last year and is requesting $65.2 million in the coming fiscal year.

Opposing forces line up much as they have in the continuing struggle over wetlands protection.

Business and industry-oriented groups have organized a National Endangered Species Act Reform Coalition in the image of the National Wetlands Coalition, the most powerful lobbying group for relaxing wetlands protections. Environmentalists, believing they were caught off guard in the wetlands fight, have geared up as well.

About 40 different groups have joined the resurrected Endangered Species Coalition, first put together in 1980. Its objective is not only to defend the act, but to streamline it in a way that would speed the listing process and enhance the protection of creatures designated as threatened or endangered.

So far, the Bush Administration has declined to tip its hand, although Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr., who has the ultimate responsibility for enforcing the act, has become its most notable critic.

BACKGROUND: In the spotted owl case, the secretary for the second time in history assembled a Cabinet-level panel, dubbed the “God Squad,” with authority to determine whether economic considerations outweigh the need to protect a species threatened by extinction. Its verdict, issued last week, was inconclusive, pleasing neither environmentalists nor timber interests, and leaving the owls vs. jobs fight to be resolved by Congress and the courts.

But the prolonged fight over the reclusive bird and the future of the timber industry in the Pacific Northwest cause environmentalists to be more concerned for the future of the act than they were a year ago.

“What we are already seeing is an effort to make it appear that there is an endangered species problem in every congressional district in the country,” said Michael Bean of the Environmental Defense Fund.

“Our adversaries know that it has been difficult for them to change the act in the past because there has been no controversy in so many districts. For most members of Congress, this has been an easy vote.”

Issues such as the owl, and recent proposals to protect California’s delta smelt, the Louisiana black bear and the Snake River sockeye salmon, have made it certain that the upcoming fight will be the toughest political test the act has yet faced.

Three bills to reauthorize it have been introduced. A measure by Rep. Gerry E. Studds (D--Mass.), chairman of the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries subcommittee on wildlife conservation and the environment, already has the wide backing of environmentalists.

A bill by Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) would suspend action on recent listings pending economic impact studies. Another by Rep. James V. Hansen (R-Utah) sets out new far-reaching requirements to take account of economics in listing and protecting species in jeopardy.

OUTLOOK: When the showdown comes, the issue of jobs and economics versus protection of species and their habitat will be joined on several fronts. One of the foremost questions will be whether every sub-species and population of a listed creature must be protected, an issue often raised by Lujan.

It also is expected that critics of the act will seek to make it easier to exempt species from protection when significant economic interests are imperiled. Although both sides are preparing for the congressional battle with a sense of urgency, it is increasingly likely that the matter will be allowed to slide past the law’s expiration date in September, past the November election and into 1993.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Environment and Public Works subcommittee on environmental protection, already has two major environmental bills on his 1992 agenda. Before turning to endangered species, his panel plans to deal with reauthorization of the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act and the Clean Water Act.

The former deals with the disposal and recycling of solid wastes and the later includes the law under which wetlands protection is enforced.

In the House, Studds plans to hold oversight hearings before deciding whether to bring the protection measure to the House floor or allow it to slide until next year.

Wildlife at Risk

Here are the fish and wildlife considered threatened or endangered by the U.S. government. “Threatened” species are on the verge of becoming endangered if steps to help them are not taken.

“Endangered” species are in the most critical stage. The federal government is required to stop any activities it is involved in that might hurt an endangered species’ habitat. The government must also come up with a recovery plan.

Region 1-Washington, Idaho, Oregon, California, Nevada and Hawaii: spotted owl, delta smelt, Snake River salmon, California condor, desert pupfish, southern sea otter, short-tailed albatross, New Mexican ridge-nosed rattlesnake and Oregon silverspot butterfly.

Region 2-New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma: Mt. Graham red squirrel, desert tortoise-which ranges as far west as the Mojave Desert, and the lesser-known jaguarundi, ocelot and Apache trout.

Region 3-Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Missouri: eastern timber wolf, bald eagle.

Region 4-Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands: Florida panther, Florida manatee, red cockaded woodpecker, Mississippi sandhill crane, Louisiana black bear and sea turtles (loggerheads, leather backs, hawksbills and green turtles nest on U.S. beaches--depending upon the species, the habitat ranges from southern Virginia, down the Atlantic Coast, around Florida and across the Gulf of Mexico).

Region 5-the central Atlantic and New England states: piping plover, Virginia big eared bat and Virginia round-leaf birch.

Region 6-the central Plains and Rocky Mountain states, including North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nebraska and Kansas: grizzly bear, northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf, black-footed ferret, Wyoming toad, and Colorado squaw fish, bald eagle and the ocelot.

Region 7-Alaska: short-tailed albatross and Aleutian Canada goose.