From: "Katie Regan" <kregan@americanlands.org>
Subject: "No Surprise" Bush Administration Re-Issues Policies Harming Endangered Wildlife
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 13:12:52 -0500
For Immediate Release: December 13, 2004
Contact: Daniel Hall
American Lands Alliance
503.978.0511
wafcfbp@americanlands.org
"No Surprise" Bush Administration Re-Issues Policies Harming
Endangered Wildlife
Washington, DC - On Friday, the Bush Administration re-released
controversial rules that largely exempt timber companies, real estate
developers, oil companies and others from fixing problems with plans
allowing the companies to destroy endangered wildlife and their
habitats across millions of acres of non-federal land.
At issue are "Incidental Take Permits"-permits for non-federal
landowners to destroy or otherwise "take" threatened and endangered
wildlife and habitats normally protected by the Endangered Species
Act. These permits are supposed to be accompanied by "Habitat
Conservation Plans" (HCPs) that mitigate the companies' impacts.
Unfortunately, most HCPs allow a substantial loss of wildlife
populations and habitats, fail to include sound scientific
assessments, and fail to provide for species' recovery.
Nevertheless, take permits and HCPs have been approved on over 39
million acres, with millions more acres pending.
A federal judge recently tossed-out the Administration's "permit
revocation rule," and called into question the closely related "no
surprises" rule. The "no surprises" rule largely exempts companies
from revising their HCPs in response to new scientific information,
or even changes in the companies' own land management practices.
Some of these permits and plans last as long as 100 years-meaning new
information and changing conditions are inevitable. Under "no
surprises," taxpayers must pay companies to fix flawed HCPs.
Proponents of "no surprises" argue that the permit revocation rule
compensates for problems with "no surprises." However, the
revocation rule makes it very difficult for wildlife agencies to
change or cancel companies' Take Permits and HCPs. The
Administration's policy also requires that a Take Permit/HCP
virtually drive a species to extinction for the permit to be revoked.
What's more, revoking companies' Take Permits will do little to
correct flaws with their HCPs, once imperiled species and their
habitats have been "taken."
Theoretically, HCPs could benefit wildlife, in return for providing
landowners with regulatory flexibility-as was originally envisioned
by Congress. However, this will require, among other things:
· Strengthening the mitigation requirements for Take
Permits/HCPs, so they genuinely benefit and avoid harming threatened
and endangered species, and support the species' recovery, in return
for providing regulatory flexibility to the landowners;
· Requiring HCPs to monitor species' habitat and population
trends, and take corrective action if the plans' conservation
objectives are not being met; and
· Tossing out the "no surprises" rule and adopting a more
balanced approach to the issue of landowner assurances, one that
helps both species and landowners, by providing clarity on the
process for improving HCPs over time, without locking-out
improvements, and by sharing the financial cost of species recovery.
Friday, the Administration re-instated a slightly revised version of
the permit revocation rule. The "no surprises" rule will likely be
reinstated without corrections.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HCPS AND "NO SURPRISES:"
http://www.americanlands.org/issues.php?subsubNo=1086834263
###
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