Gorton Plan Called A Danger To Species Conservation Leaders Say Proposal Would Gut The Endangered Species Act

A plan by Sen. Slade Gorton to rewrite the Endangered Species Act is so extreme that it would eliminate virtually all federal protection of fish and wildlife facing extinction, conservationists charged Thursday.

“It sounds to me like he wants to gut it, lock, stock and barrel,” said Kevin Kirchner, an attorney for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund.

“If this passes, almost anything goes,” said Jim Waltman, director of wildlife and refuges programs at The Wilderness Society. “It is a pretty radical bill.”

Gorton unveiled his tentative proposal in a speech to the timber industry’s Northwest Forestry Association at the group’s annual meeting in Stevenson, Wash., on Wednesday.

It would give the secretary of the interior - the secretary of commerce, in the case of oceangoing fish - the authority to simply decide a species is not worth saving. That option is not available under current law.

There also would be options for conserving an existing population short of the standard required in present law, and for prohibiting “direct injury or killing of the species.” Economic impacts, including job losses, would be part of the equation in choosing an option, Gorton said.

Currently, the act requires the government to act to protect and rebuild the population of any species listed as threatened or endangered. Management and recovery plans can consider economic impacts, but the initial listing decision is based solely on science.

“It is clear to the people of the Pacific Northwest that the act has a fundamental failure: It does not consider people,” Gorton said.

“Under my legislation, there will be no wiggle room for the bureaucracy. The secretary will be required to make a decision, announce it to the world, and then live with the consequences,” he said.

The secretary’s decision would be based on “the broadest array of human, social, economic and biological factors,” Gorton said.

Gorton said the bill would be cosponsored by Democratic Sen. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana.

Kirchner said Gorton’s proposal was more radical than any of the ideas offered by the Bush or Reagan administrations.

“The idea of letting the agencies decide whether or not they want to enforce the act is like letting convicted felons decide if they are going to serve any jail time,” Kirchner said. “This is so radical and extreme that I don’t even think that many of Senator Gorton’s colleagues would vote for this.”

Waltman was less sure, noting that Gorton now is chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the interior.