Kempthorne Wildlife Plan Denounced Endangered Species Act Working, Agency Concludes

The nation’s top wildlife official said the latest proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act would reverse successes in saving animals and plants from extinction.

George Frampton, the Interior Department assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, Monday denounced a planned rewrite of the controversial act by Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho.

Frampton’s comments came as the department released its biennial report on endangered plants and animals.

The report indicates the law is working because species listed the longest are recovering at the greatest rates, he said.

Kempthorne’s bill would reverse that trend, Frampton warned, forcing some species off the federal list before they are ready.

Kempthorne introduced his version of endangered species reform Thursday after months of hearings aimed at forging a compromise in the politically sticky issue.

Frampton called the final product a “very, very disappointing bill.”

The Clinton administration’s criticism - the first of Kempthorne’s bill - mirrors its harsh critiques of other Republican endangered species plans, including ones by Sen. Slade Gorton of Washington, and Reps. Don Young of Alaska and Richard Pombo of California.

All of the bills grant state and local officials more say in dealing with endangered species. They give private property owners incentives to cooperate with recovery plans and pay them when environmental rules restrict land uses.

The various proposals also reduce protections for endangered species habitat and make it more difficult for plants and animals to be considered “endangered.”

Frampton called Kempthorne’s plan the most “promising” of the three, but said it still “takes the bald eagle, gray wolf, grizzly bear and listed stocks of salmon off the endangered species list.”

Kempthorne spokesman Mark Snider called that “absolutely wrong,” but later said some species - perhaps the gray wolf, which was reintroduced into Idaho from Canada - might, indeed, be excluded from the list.

, DataTimes