Success of species protection law hotly debated

By TED MONOSON
Star-Tribune Washington bureau Thursday, December 04, 2003

WASHINGTON -- The 30th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act's enactment is three weeks away, but environmentalists and Bush administration officials are already squaring off over the significance of the event.

Defenders of Wildlife released a report on Wednesday criticizing the Interior Department's enforcement of the Endangered Species Act. Administration officials countered the report by blaming environmentalists for problems with the law and questioning their motives.

Defenders of Wildlife President Rodger Schlickeisen said the Bush administration is intentionally weakening the law, which was used to return wolves to the Northern Rockies.

"The ESA is a law in our view that the Bush administration simply does not want to obey," Schlickeisen said.

The report is a joint effort of Defenders of Wildlife's Judicial Accountability Project and Vermont Law School's Environmental and Natural Resources Clinic. The report is the opening salvo in a battle that will center around the 30th anniversary of the law's enactment on December 28, 1973.

Staff members from the environmental group and the law school examined more than 120 court cases involving the Endangered Species Act. They found that in 68 cases, courts found that the administration had violated the law.

The report also noted that since 2001, President George W. Bush's Interior Department officials have placed 25 new species on the list. When Bill Clinton was president from 1992 to 2000 an average of 65 new species were added to the list each year. During the presidency of Bush's father from 1988 to 1992 the Interior Department added an average of 58 species per year.

Interior Department assistant secretary Craig Manson said the administration had not been able to list new species because of lawsuits filed by the environmental organizations.

"What the report does not say is that litigation filed by environmental groups beginning under the Clinton administration produced a flood of court orders requiring the Fish and Wildlife Service to designate critical habitat for hundreds of species," Manson said in a statement.

In his statement, Manson said that the report is partisan and part of an effort to raise money for the organization.

"The Defenders of Wildlife report is a partisan attack filled with factual errors and false statements," Manson said in his statement. "It may be useful as a fund-raising tool, but it has little bearing on what is actually going on with the administration of the Endangered Species Act."

Livestock industry officials joined Manson in dismissing the report and defending the enforcement of the act.

"The message Defenders has delivered is no surprise to me, but I think they are just flat wrong," Wyoming Stock Growers Association executive vice president Jim Magagna said. "I think the administration has acted prudently given the resources they have. They have focused on what needs to be accomplished."

Critics of the law say that environmentalists who want to prevent open spaces from being developed have misused it.

Magagna said that the Bush administration enforcement of the law was better than the Clinton administration's efforts.

"The Clinton administration catered to those who wanted to use the law to stop multiple use of federal lands," Magagna said.

Defenders of Wildlife were strong supporters of the Clinton administration's reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park, while the Wyoming Stock Growers Association opposed the effort.

Critics and defenders of the administration's enforcement of the law agreed that there has not been enough money to enforce it.

"Our report also shows that the administration has been using a self-induced budget crisis to avoid its obligations," Schlickeisen said. "The Bush administration refuses to request more funds for the ESA, even when invited to do so by Congress."

Magagna said lawsuits by environmentalists that forced the government to place species on the list are to blame for the budget shortfalls.

"The fact that they ran out of money reveals that it's a flawed law," Magagna said.

The Rock Springs sheep rancher said he would like to see the law changed so it is easier for species that have recovered to be removed from the list.

"We just need to add some balance to it," Magagna said. "It was a good law when it was passed, but we'd like to see Congress go back and tweak it."

Schlickeisen said that the law is "fundamentally sound" and rejected calls to have Congress amend it. He said it could possibly be improved, but he does not trust a Republican Congress and the Bush administration to make the changes.

While Schlickeisen says he does not trust Republican leaders to amend the law, Magagna said that the Clinton administration's enforcement of the law has sown mistrust among Wyoming ranchers.

"It deterred our people from making sound business decisions," Magagna said. "It has created a sense of mistrust and that is unfortunate."

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