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Saturday, October 08, 2005
Environment - Revamping species act draws fans, foes
"Revamping species act draws fans, foes in area: Business groups see balance; others fear loss of wildlife," is the headline to this story today in the Louisville Courier Journal, by James Bruggers, about "a congressional effort to overhaul the nation's 32-year-old Endangered Species Act." Some quotes:
[Amy Avdevich-Akin] agrees with biologists, environmentalists and some legislators who say the proposed changes, designed to help business and property owners, could doom rare plants and animals."I think (political leaders) should take every step they can to protect wildlife," said Avdevich-Akin, whose back yard is certified as wildlife-friendly by the National Wildlife Federation, which also opposes the act's revisions. "Keeping everything in balance is what's important."
It's balance of a different sort that's important to business groups celebrating last week's 229-193 vote by the U.S. House to revamp the 1973 species act, a landmark law passed at the height of the environmental movement.
While the bill's fate in the Senate is uncertain, leaders of business groups in Kentucky and Indiana touted it, saying it addresses the need to protect the environment without slashing companies' bottom lines and property owners' rights. The existing law, they said, has become bogged down in litigation and has not proved effective in helping many species. * * *
The proposed Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act would, among other things, prevent the government from establishing "critical habitats" that limit logging, mining and development, and would require payments to property owners impeded by wildlife protections. It represents the largest attempted rewriting of the species act. * * *
The current law's impact in Kentucky and Indiana largely has centered on the Indiana bat, the minnow-like blackside dace and red-cockaded woodpeckers. Mining companies, for example, have had to make concessions such as cutting forests in the winter, when the bats are hibernating in caves.
When the bats emerge, they may find part of their habitat gone, and "they have to go somewhere else … (and) a bat can do that," said Harlan geologist David Howard, adding that the fish cannot -- which sometimes forces mining to move. Indiana bats and the red-cockaded woodpecker have been cited in legal challenges over management of the Daniel Boone National Forest.
A U.S. judge in 1997 temporarily blocked logging in the public forest, citing concerns that the managers were not following their own rules, which was jeopardizing bat habitat. Logging levels have been down since.
Representatives of farm bureaus in Kentucky and Indiana were unable this week to identify any farmer in their state who had lost the use of his or her land because of the endangered species protections but said they were concerned about future conflicts that might arise.
[U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-6th District, the only Kentucky legislator to vote against the bill,] called the bills' property rights provisions costly and dangerous. "The government won't be able to pay," he said, "and the result will be species will cease to exist."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 8, 2005 08:04 AM
Posted to Environment