Species on Endangered List Challenged

[Guest guest]

[Republicans are doing their best to gut the

Endangered Species Act. The left has got to take back

the government soon, or there's going to be no saving

the Environment. The Earth may well have reached a

pivotal point now. Rick.]

 

 

Source >

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-05-30-endangered-species_x.htm?csp=27

 

 

 

Species on endangered list challenged

 

Updated 5/30/2006 11:58 PM ET

 

 

By Laura Parker, USA TODAY

 

Ever since a 3-inch fish protected by the Endangered

Species Act stopped construction of a dam in Tennessee

in 1978, the law has been known as one of the toughest

environmental laws on the books.

Environmental groups have used it to halt development

in pristine lands across the nation. Today, the law

designed to protect animals such as the manatee from

extinction also has become a legal tool of

property-rights groups and developers.

 

PHOTOS: Global warming affects species from caribou to

harlequin frogs to coral

 

In a counterpunch to environmentalists who have filed

lawsuits aimed at protecting hundreds of plant and

animal species by listing them as endangered or

threatened, property-rights groups such as the Pacific

Legal Foundation are filing lawsuits to have animals

and plants removed from the list so that development

can proceed.

 

Meanwhile, industry groups have filed dozens of legal

challenges aimed at allowing development on lands set

aside by the U.S. government to help protect

endangered species.

 

" The conventional wisdom is that environmental groups

exclusively used this provision in court, but today,

the industry lawsuits challenging critical habitat

designations far outnumber environmental challenges, "

says Pat Parenteau, a law professor at Vermont Law

School in South Royalton, Vt.

 

In a study he published last August on active

litigation involving the Endangered Species Act,

Parenteau counted 45 lawsuits filed by industry groups

and five filed by environmental groups.

 

Litigating the list

 

At the forefront of the movement is the National

Association of Home Builders, which recently prevailed

in a legal battle over Arizona land that had been

designated as a habitat for the cactus ferruginous

pygmy owl. Two environmental groups have sued to

restore the designation, and a court hearing on the

issue is scheduled for Friday.

 

Likewise, the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation,

based in Sacramento, is pressing the federal

government to re-examine several animals and plants on

the endangered list.

 

Both groups have found a relatively friendly audience

in the Bush administration, which in recent years has

loosened many of the restrictions in the Endangered

Species Act. Among other things, the administration

has focused on giving private property owners

incentives to protect vulnerable species, rather than

banning activity on such land.

 

" We've had property owners coming to us for years, "

says Rob Rivett, chief attorney for the foundation.

" Finally, it became clear we didn't have any choice

but to try to balance the scales. "

 

The foundation, backed by contributions from

foundations of the conservative Pittsburgh billionaire

Richard Mellon Scaife, began filing lawsuits in the

late 1990s, Rivett says. It is involved in more than

30 active suits across the USA.

 

Last September, the foundation reached a settlement

with the U.S. government in a lawsuit brought on

behalf of the California Cattlemen's Association,

which wanted a review of the 194 plants and animals

listed as endangered or threatened. Under the

settlement, a review of 10 species must be completed

by 2011, Rivett says.

 

The Endangered Species Act requires such reviews every

five years, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

lags far behind, says Renne Lohoefener, assistant

director for the Endangered Species Act at the Fish

and Wildlife Service.

 

" We simply never had the resources in terms of people

and money, " he says. " As a result, we are way behind

in doing them. "

 

New front in Florida

 

The foundation is now representing the Florida Home

Builders Association in a similar lawsuit filed last

November in federal court in Orlando. The lawsuit

seeks to have the status of 106 plants and animals in

Florida reviewed.

 

The Pacific Legal Foundation also is challenging the

endangered status of:

 

• Four salmon in four western states, accusing the

government of counting only natural population to

determine listings, and not counting hatchery salmon.

The suit potentially could ease restrictions on

development and activities around rivers and streams

in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California .

 

• About 20,000 marbled murrelet birds in Coos County,

Ore. County commissioners hope that delisting the bird

would lead to more logging.

 

The Endangered Species Act has prompted litigation

from the moment President Nixon signed it 33 years

ago.

 

" There are more lawsuits now than there were 20 years

ago because there are more species declining and more

habitats being lost than there were 20 years ago, "

says Bill Snape, chief counsel for the Defenders of

Wildlife in Washington, D.C.

 

There are 1,311 animals and plants listed as

" endangered " or " threatened, " according to Claire

Cassel of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1986,

there were 422 listed, she says.

 

Mike Mittelholzer, a vice president at the home

builders association, says his organization's legal

challenges are in response to lawsuits filed by

environmentalists.

 

A bill passed last year by the U.S. House of

Representatives would eliminate critical habitat

protections — and essentially eliminate litigation.

 

Most of the legal battles over the Endangered Species

Act are taking place in rapidly growing urban areas in

the South and West.

 

In the Tucson fight over the cactus ferruginous pygmy

owl, The National Association of Home Builders

objected to the government's plan to set aside 1.2

million acres for the animal and fought to have it

removed from the endangered species list. Last month,

the Bush administration announced it would take the

owl off the list.

 

That decision prompted two environmental groups to sue

in Tucson federal court to block the delisting, says

Kieran Suckling, policy director for Center for

Biological Diversity.