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EDITORIALS
Endangered wildlife under the gun again
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Memo to all endangered species: Head for the hills.

The United States Interior Department is considering sweeping changes in the federal Endangered Species Act that would put the historic legislation on the path to extinction.

The proposed changes would reduce protection for critical habitat areas; transfer some authority for imperiled species to states and allow governors to block attempts to re-introduce species in their states.

Interior Department spokesmen caution that the proposed changes are still very much under review, and that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne will decide whether to make the changes.

Here's why that is little comfort to all creatures great and small: Kempthorne sponsored legislation to weaken the Endangered Species Act when he was in the Senate so he will likely approve the changes.

In addition, when he was governor of Idaho, Kempthorne sued to block reintroduction of the grizzly bear to a wilderness area near the Montana border because he said it would expose citizens of his state to a "flesh-eating, anti-social animal."

Congress should intervene to halt these wholesale changes in the landmark legislation to prevent the Interior Department from undermining the original intent of the legislation.

If changes are needed to better balance the need to protect species with the rights of property owners and developers, than make the necessary adjustments. Don't eviscerate the 34-year-old act.

If the proposed changes had been included in the original Endangered Species Act when it was signed into law by President Nixon in 1973, the bald eagle would not have been put on the list. The bald eagle was one of the first species to be listed under the act. Twenty-five years later, in a visit to Barton Cove in Gill, home to nesting bald eagles, then U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt credited the legislation with saving the species from extinction.

The Endangered Species Act recognizes that every animal and plant on this planet is irreplaceable.

It's worth saving.