The endangered Endangered Species Act

When it comes to desert despots sitting atop sand boxes of oil, there is no doubt that the current President Bush follows in his daddy’s footsteps. But when those footsteps lead toward protecting desert bighorn sheep or gopher tortoises or other endangered and/or threatened species, Pop is abandoned like a California condor.

While conservative talking heads will try to tell you that the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is one of those Democratic, environmental-whacko, liberal schemes that no self-respecting Republican would sign on to, the truth is quite the opposite.

The ESA, which celebrated its 30th anniversary on Dec. 28, 2003, was signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon in 1973. The bipartisan legislation sailed through the Senate 92-0 and passed the House by a 355-4 margin.

According to a Defenders of Wildlife report, the 1990 administration’s Science Advisory Board reported to the senior Bush that the loss of species and loss of natural habitat were two of the greatest long-term threats facing humankind.

George H.W. Bush apparently trusted and supported these and other scientists by listing, as endangered, an average of 58 species per year during his term in office. The Clinton administration likewise heeded the call of conservationists and listed an average of 68 species per year. Then George W. Bush took the reins. Since 2001 this administration has listed 25 species, all under court order.

Defenders of Wildlife has looked at 120 ESA cases under the current administration. In 76 cases attorneys for the administration argued against current judicial interpretation of the ESA. In 90 percent of those cases the court ruled that the administration was in violation of the Act. In 44 cases the administration concurred with the ESA. They won 40 of those cases.

In one particular case that smacks of politics and nepotism as well as blatant disregard for the ESA, a federal court ordered the Bush Administration to pay Save the Manatee Club and its fellow plaintiffs hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees after the plaintiffs sued the administration for its foot-dragging tactics. The administration had been directed by a federal court order to designate new refuges in Florida by September 2001 to help protect the endangered manatee.

According to Roger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife, the president’s brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who was facing re-election, caved to pressure from the recreational motorboat industry and sent a letter to the Department of Interior asking that the refuges not be designated.

The Bush Administration simply ignored the court order. Four months after the order should have been implemented, the administration released an incomplete list of refuges and announced that it would not formally designate sites until December 2002 — a month after the gubernatorial election. Besides costing the administration hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, the delay also cost the lives of 71 manatees. The slow-moving aquatic mammals were victims of motorboat collisions.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service administer the ESA. Since the inception of the ESA in 1973, 1,318 species have been listed. Fifteen of those species have recovered to the point of delisting. But according to a USF&W press release, “perhaps the Act’s greatest accomplishment is that it has prevented the extinction of many species. Despite the dire straits of all the species listed, only seven have been declared extinct.”

Western North Carolina has shared in the success of the ESA. Due primarily to the effects of DDT, the peregrine falcon was extirpated from the eastern U.S. by the mid-1900s. Thanks to the ESA and the work of the USF&W, along with partners like the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) and the Peregrine Fund, this fast-flying falcon was de-listed in 1999. Today about a dozen pair of peregrines nest across Western North Carolina at places such as Chimney Rock, Looking Glass Rock and Devils Courthouse.

The American bald eagle, another ESA success story, has also returned to nest in the region. A pair has nested on Lake James in McDowell County since 1999.

Threatened and endangered species in and along the Little Tennessee River in Swain and Macon counties helped garner support for the Needmore tract that is now in the hands of NCWRC. Needmore is home to two endangered fresh water mussels – the Appalachian elktoe and the littlewing pearly mussel. It also provides habitat for the threatened spotfin chub (fish) and a threatened plant, Virginia spiraea.

While there are many reasons to protect rare and/or endangered species, the one that rings truest with me was stated in the USF&W press release: “Endangered species are indicators of the health of our environment. Their decline alerts us to the fact that the quality of some of the basic elements, elements that we depend on – air, land and water – are being compromised. When we protect endangered species and conserve our natural habitats, we protect ourselves and conserve our own communities.”

I wish G.W. was more like dad.

(Don Hendershot can be reached at ddihen@juno.com)