Changes Coming In Enforcement Of Species Law

The Clinton administration soon will suggest ways to improve enforcement of the Endangered Species Act but sees no need for significant changes in the law, Congress was told Thursday.

“Previous administrations often seemed determined to demonstrate not that the Endangered Species Act could work, but to the contrary, that it couldn’t work,” Assistant Interior Secretary George Frampton Jr. said.

“This administration has set out to show that it can,” he said.

Frampton said Republican efforts to cut spending on endangered species listings at the Interior Department could ultimately lead to more listings of threatened and endangered species.

“We know the Endangered Species Act has problems. We are working to solve those problems. It would be counterproductive in trying to solve those problems to simply cut off funding,” he said.

Frampton told the House Appropriations subcommittee on the interior that much of the cost of the program comes from research and studies to find ways to protect fish and wildlife without resorting to listing under the act.

More money is used to move toward removal of species from the protected list, he said.

The panel voted Wednesday to rescind $2 million from the department’s endangered species program to reduce the deficit.

Frampton said that amounted to half the money the department has left this year for species listings. “The net result of having half the money might be to list more,” he said.

Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, chairman of the subcommittee, said he doubted that would happen. “If you need money for de-listings, you will get it,” he said.

Frampton pointed to agreements reached with private landowners in the Pacific Northwest to protect northern spotted owls.