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Endangered: Protect Law, Species

Posted on: Thursday, 5 January 2006, 00:00 CST

By Gzedit

AMERICA'S Endangered Species Act had its 32nd anniversary Dec. 28, marking the day Republican President Richard Nixon signed the landmark legislation. The act has been an overwhelming success. Of all at-risk species it identified, 98 percent have been saved from extinction.

The American bald eagle was a symbol of the struggle that began a half-century ago. Hunting and the loss of habitat sent eagle populations into decline across the nation. Then DDT, the toxic pesticide, threatened to make them extinct - a story told powerfully by Rachel Carson in her classic 1962 book Silent Spring.

Growing public concern for bald eagles and other disappearing creatures sparked Congress to pass increasingly strong laws to protect endangered species in 1966, in 1969 and in 1973.

Today, those historic laws are threatened with extinction. On Sept. 29, the House of Representatives voted 229 to 193 for a bill to gut the 1973 act. This reversal was sponsored by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., a former rancher who has made "private property rights" and opposition to the Endangered Species Act the centerpieces of his political career.

Rep. Nick J. Rahall, D-W.Va., said Pombo's bill would set a dangerous precedent, making the government pay private property owners to obey environmental laws. "What is next? Paying citizens to wear seat belts, to comply with speed limits, to pay their taxes?" Rahall asked after Pombo's bill passed the House.

As ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, Rahall said weakening the Endangered Species Act also has health implications. Nearly half of all medical prescriptions in America come from nature or are "synthesized to mimic naturally occurring chemical compounds," he noted.

West Virginia's other two House members - Democrat Alan Mollohan and Republican Shelley Moore Capito - voted for Pombo's bill.

Earlier this month, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, introduced a similar bill in the Senate. It would eliminate the protection of "critical habitat" for endangered species and exempt pesticides from federal control. Both the House and Senate bills undermine the role professional scientists now play, transferring key decisions about saving endangered species into the hands of political appointees.

The fight to protect rare birds, animals and plants will continue on the Senate floor early next year. Andrew Wetzler, a Natural Resources Defense Council lawyer, warned, "If the Senate passes this bill in any form, it will go to a conference between the House and the Senate. The best way the Senate can defend the act is to do nothing."

Polls have consistently shown an overwhelming majority of Americans support the Endangered Species Act and other laws to protect wildlife. But in recent years, real estate developers and big property owners have mounted a major offensive against the law, with strong support from the Bush administration.

Fortunately, Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. In the past, Chafee has backed the act. Chafee will need a lot of company to prevent Congress from being taken in by shortsighted developers. It should not take the threatened extinction of the bald eagle or any other species to remind Americans of this hard-earned lesson.

Source: Charleston Gazette, The

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