Species Act Needs Enough Latitude To Create Habitat, Think Tank Says

The Endangered Species Act could be improved by using its existing flexibility and fostering cooperation between government and the public, a University of Idaho think tank says.

But the Forest, Wildlife and Range Policy Analysis Group’s latest assessment questions whether there is enough latitude in the 23-year-old act to do so. The solution in most cases is providing adequate habitat.

“The debate centers on how we could save species more effectively by putting limited species conservation budget resources where they will do the most good, which implies a mechanism of choice that is currently absent in the ESA,” said group director Jay O’Laughlin and research associate Phillip Cook in their report.

The act requires federal agencies to try to save everything, whatever the cost, the report said, and the National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have extended their scope to private land through regulatory powers the U.S. Supreme Court upheld this year.

It could be changed to factor in economics through such means as tax incentives for private landowners who provide habitat, the report said.

The responsibility for salmon recovery in the Northwest’s rivers should be shifted from the fisheries service to the Fish and Wildlife Service, the report said. The fisheries service should oversee the runs only during their time in the ocean.

The federal agencies could maintain their oversight role under a modified act, the report said. The states would gather data to support listings, as well as planning and implementing recovery.

“It is worth considering whether more money made available to the states might be more effective and more efficient than building the federal fish and wildlife regulatory bureaucracy,” the report said.

Rather than waiting for the population of a species to get low enough to worry about extinction, potential problems could be identified and mitigated before the Endangered Species Act is invoked, the report said.

If that cannot be done through cooperation, then the sanctions in the law become necessary, the report said.