Despite Imminent Bald Eagle Delisting, Feds’ Proposed New Eagle Rule Burdens Land Use Too Much

After dragging its feet for nearly 80 years since President Clinton declared the bald eagle recovered, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service is finally set to remove the bald eagle from the Endangered Species Act list, on or before June 29, 2007. However, a new federal rule on land use in the vicinity of bald eagles is too harsh and will burden small property owners and businesses without justification, according to Pacific Legal Foundation, whose attorneys filed the lawsuit that led to bald eagle delisting.

Announced June 1, the federal rule purports to interpret the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. However, the rule is so restrictive that it would effectively negate the removal of the bald eagle from the federal Endangered Species Act list, according to Pacific Legal Foundation Attorney Damien Schiff.

For this reason, a legal challenge is being considered by PLF attorneys and their client, Minnesota author and landowner Edmund Contoski. The restriction may mean that Contoski’s long wait to be able to build small lakeside cabins on his land could go on, because there are eagle nests in the area.

“Everyone from scientists and environmentalists to the federal government agrees that the bald eagle has fully recovered, and that’s why it’s being removed from the ESA list,” said PLF’s Schiff, who won last year’s federal court order in Contoski v. Kempthorne that is forcing the Fish and Wildlife Service to delist the eagle. “But the feds’ new land use rule will have the effect of canceling out that change. It’s as restrictive as if the ESA listing had never been lifted.”

Under the ESA, a landowner is prohibited from building within a 330-foot radius of an active eagle’s nest at all times of the year. The new regulation from the Fish and Wildlife Service mandates a similar “no development” radius, according to Schiff.

A link to the regulation that would undermine the delisting process is at PLF’s web site: www.pacificlegal.org.

About Pacific Legal Foundation

Pacific Legal Foundation is the largest public interest legal organization dedicated to property rights and balanced environmental protection.