Conservation Bill Considers Landowners Environmentalists Say Measure Compromises Endangered Species Act

A bipartisan group of senators unveiled legislation Tuesday aimed at making endangered species protection less threatening to landowners, but environmentalists quickly denounced the measure. The administration’s support was at best unclear.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who helped craft the legislation, attended the news conference at which four senators introduced the measure. But he quickly said he was not there to deliver the administration’s support.

“I’m not here on behalf of the Clinton administration to deliver its endorsement,” Babbitt said, although he made clear he likes much of the bill and called it “a marvelous beginning.”

That left Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., who considered the bill pretty well wrapped up after months of negotiations with Democrats, searching for words.

“I don’t think I’m looking for much more of a ride on this,” he said.

The legislation would provide new incentives to landowners to protect species voluntarily and give them a greater say in developing species habitat protection plans. It also would set time limits on when such a plan must be developed and require additional scientific review in listing species as endangered.

The measure would put legislative support behind a so-called “no surprises” approach Babbitt has used administratively to deal with controversial species protection cases. Under this approach landowners who agree to take certain measures to protect species, or set aside land for species habitat, would be assured they would not be bothered by the Endangered Species Act years down the road.

The bill was negotiated by Chafee, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee; Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, its ranking Democrat; Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho, chairman of the endangered species subcommittee; and Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, that panel’s ranking Democrat. Babbitt also participated in many of the talks.

Chafee said he planned to have a committee vote on the bill within two weeks.

The aim is to protect species and still make the law flexible enough “so landowners don’t see the Endangered Species Act as a liability, but as an asset,” Kempthorne said.

But environmental groups, who earlier this week had lobbied the Clinton administration to stop short of endorsing the bill, said its provision would weaken species protection.

“The bill adds new layers of review to a listing process that already comes too late for many species,” said Michael Bean of the Environmental Defense Fund.

Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife, said the thrust of the bill is focused on keeping species from disappearing and not their recovery. He called the “no-surprises” provision “a terribly flawed process” that doesn’t make room for future circumstances that might warrant additional actions to protect a species.

Industry and labor groups praised the bill.

“We are very encouraged that we’re finally beginning to address seriously” changes in the 1973 law, said John Turner, chairman of the Endangered Species Coordinating Council. The group represents 200 organizations, including cattlemen, timber and mining companies, and some labor unions.

John McCarthy, conservation director of the Idaho Conservation League in Boise, praised the measure.

“There are some definite improvements, and there are some definite danger zones that they’re stepping into,” McCarthy said. “A lot of it depends on whether what’s good in it sticks. And a lot of that is going to depend on whether there is funding for the good things.”

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