Politics and the Web of Life
Help Protect the Endangered Species Act
By Lesley Adams
One of the most hopeful moments of 2005 flew out of the eastern swamps of Arkansas. The mythical Ivory-billed Woodpecker had been considered extinct for decades until recently sighted by some dedicated—perhaps obsessed—biologists. In early 2005, ornithologists published an article in the journal Science recounting their discovery that involved canoes, cameras, audio recorders, high-tech equipment and reserves of hope and patience.
The Ivory-billed is the largest woodpecker north of Mexico and the third largest woodpecker in the world. It once roamed much of the eastern United States and Cuba, until its habitat was almost entirely destroyed by clearing land for timber and agriculture through the 1940s. The giant bird has become a symbol of the bottomland forest wilderness that once extended across the southern United States. Its rediscovery has become a symbol of hope in a world increasingly void of wild places.
Now conservationists are scrambling to get protections for the magnificent bird under the Endangered Species Act. The 1973 landmark environmental law did not exist when the woodpecker was dwindling towards extinction in the 1930s. Some land developers in the southeast US are not excited about the rare bird’s rediscovery, and are augmenting some Congressional efforts to make the law itself dwindle away.
The Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act is one of our country’s keystone environmental laws, codifying a commitment to biological diversity and the treasured future of forthcoming generations. In a period of heightened environmental awareness and widespread degradation, Richard Nixon signed legislation that recognized a collective responsibility to protect our biological inheritance and its inevitable bequeath. Today we have a responsibility to protect this visionary and effective law.
For over thirty years, the Endangered Species Act has been a safety net for our nation’s species on the brink of extinction such as bald eagles, grizzly bears, peregrine falcons and wild salmon. In addition, the law also protects the ecosystems that endangered species depend upon, which provides important safeguards to America’s mountains, forests, and rivers.
But today, America’s natural heritage is threatened by politicians and special interests in Washington, DC that seek to eliminate the checks and balances that the Endangered Species Act provides. Not surprisingly, the charge to gut the Endangered Species Act is led in large part by developers who wish to see open areas aggressively transformed into strip malls and suburban sprawl.
From the Central Valley of California, Representative Richard Pombo is leading a personal crusade to unravel 30 years of environmental protections for endangered wildlife. Pombo, seated in the House of Representatives since 1993, is a wealthy rancher who touts a cowboy style, but whose family has made it rich on real estate. The Pombo family owns hundreds of acres in and around Tracy, California.
The town of Tracy has quadrupled in size since 1980 and is situated at the foot of the Altamont pass—a vital freeway between East San Francisco Bay and the Central Valley. Rapid development is swallowing up the agricultural lands that fill the Central Valley to make way for endless parking lots and single-family homes.
Unfortunately, the endangered and elusive San Joaquin Kit Fox shares habitat space with Pombo and his family’s real estate around Tracy. The San Joaquin Kit Fox is the smallest fox in North America, with an average weight of about 5 pounds. This kit fox once roamed the grasslands and scrublands of California’s San Joaquin Valley, but by the 1960s, much of the population had been killed through habitat loss and degradation from land conversions, intensive land use practices and pesticides. The San Joaquin Kit Fox has been listed under the Endangered Species Act since 1967 (originally under the predecessor to the current Act).
Due to ill-perceived threats from federal law, Representative Pombo’s primary legislative goal has long been to kill the Endangered Species Act and eliminate barriers to the use of private property.
As Pombo rose into public office in the early 1990s, he deeply aligned himself with private property rights advocates and anti-environmental right-wing conservatives, including recently resigned House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. In 2003, Pombo became the youngest committee chairman in Congress as head of the House Resources Committee, which oversees the Endangered Species Act.
Destroying the Safety Net
In September, Pombo introduced his extinction bill, which would significantly weaken protections of the Endangered Species Act. If this bill becomes law, it would eliminate habitat protection, abandon the commitment to recovering species on the brink of extinction, repeal protections against hazardous pesticides, and politicize the scientific decision-making process. In addition, it would set up an unprecedented entitlement program that would require the federal government to use taxpayer dollars to pay developers for complying with the Endangered Species Act’s prohibition against killing or injuring endangered species. With dire consequences for America’s natural heritage, Pombo’s bill would cut large holes into a safety net that works to protect species on the brink of extinction.
Additionally, in December, Senator Crapo (R-ID) introduced a bill that would significantly weaken protections for endangered species. Although the bill purports to provide greater incentives for private landowner conservation, the legislative language does not carry out the bill’s stated goals. Instead, the bill would seriously diminish the Endangered Species Act’s safety net provisions.
These bills represent some of the most serious threats to the Endangered Species Act in its 30-year history. The Endangered Species Act is a landmark law that prompts us to be good stewards of our land and the web of life it supports. It has been successful in preventing the extinction of hundreds of species, including humpback whales, wolves and bald eagles. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to leave behind a legacy of protecting endangered species and the special places they call home.
Luckily for the diverse and colorful fabric of life, most Americans support the Endangered Species Act. This beloved law has the overwhelming majority of citizens behind it. These attacks on the law are devious, offensive and should be promptly squelched.
However, the Endangered Species Act could certainly use some changes. Resource managers under both Clinton and Bush have been reluctant to make the Endangered Species Act a priority due to special interest pressures. This reluctance has had crippling effects after years of under-funding the Act, resulting in a listing backlog of hundreds of species that need protection. The Endangered Species Act should be fully funded so that it can accomplish its intended goals, and eventually it should move beyond protection at the species level to protect endangered ecosystems as a whole.
It is critical that members of Congress stand up for America’s natural heritage and oppose schemes to repeal the protections that the Endangered Species Act provides. Please call your Senators toll free thru the Capitol Switchboard at 1-877-851-6437, and ask them to support the Endangered Species Act, oppose any bill that would weaken protections for species and habitat, and demand not just a prevention of rollbacks, but also a strengthening of this critical safeguard. Future generations deserve the rediscovery and hope of their own Ivory-billed Woodpecker.
Lesley Adams
is Outreach Coordinator at the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center (www.kswild.org).
February/March 2006
Politics
and the Web of Life
Lesley Adams
Another
World Is Possible
Gar Alperovitz
The
Cochabamba Water Revolt
Jim Schultz
In
the Kingdom of the Half-Blind
Bill Moyers
The
Man Who Sold the Iraq War
Amy Goodman interviews James Bamford
The
Translucent Revolution
Arjuna Ardagh
Rescuing
a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble
Lester Brown
Is
There a Friendlier Option for a Post-peak Future?
Bill McKibben
Awakening
The Unique Potential in Each Child
Danella M. Shea
The
Education of Jarvis Masters
Anna Smith
The Ashland Independent Film Festival
5th Annual Siskiyou Environmental Film Festival
Daily
Life and Stillness
Christine Breese, DD, Ph.D
The
Science of Spiritual Marketing
Andrea Adler
Books in Brief
Moksha Mokma
Necessity
is the Mother of Invention
Asha Deliverance
Cosmic
Calendar
Salina Rain
San Joaquin Kit Fox
Ivory-billed Woodpecker
