02/17/05 E.S.A. reform collaberation, Pt. 2

There is no question that in the opinions of several Congressional types that reform of the Endangered Species Act has been needed for quite some time, one that balances landowner and economic concerns with species recovery. Just ask one of the champions of E.S.A. reform, California Representative Richard Pombo. POMBO: We have listed a lot of species and I think at some point at that process we kind of lost site of what the Endangered Species Act was really all about. And the purpose of the Endangered Species Act is recovery. And we have just not been able to do that. There have been only ten species that have been removed from the list, and the rest of them have stayed on there and that is just an abysmal record. One reason such reform has not been forthcoming from Congress has been the inability of individual lawmakers championing E.S.A. reform to come together to create a collaborative effort. That is why a group of lawmakers like Pombo, Oregon Representative Greg Walden, Idaho Senator Mike Crapo and others announced they were doing just that. The goal is bringing a framework which with individual ideas of lawmakers could be incorporated into a comprehensive E.S.A. reform package. CRAPO: Our goal is to strengthen the Endangered Species Act by improvement habitat conservation and recovery, providing more and better incentives, and enhancing the role of states where appropriate. Overall we believe that the Endangered Species Act can be less contentious and more effective. This group believes they have bi-partisan support for their efforts. But Crapo says the real indicator that the time has come for a joint Congressional effort is the growing support of such partnerships within the environmental community. CRAPO: I've been encouraged over the last year by the willingness of partners like Environmental Defense to focus on recovering species. I worked with them last year as we announced their back from the brink campaign which is focused on a dozen or so species that they believe can be recovered quickly. We don't yet know what the coordinated bill will look like, but I'm committed to have it conform to these goals. And as Walden points out, such collaboration will be the only way to successfully reform the Endangered Species Act, restore species, and protect landowner's property rights and livelihood. WALDEN: So I'm excited by his opportunity. I'm open to the ideas to be expressed here. I think this is a task no only we can get done but we must get done. As you can see from the data, a lot of species & not much recovery.