Small Landowners Fear Corporations Seek Backroom Deal on Endangered Species

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TO ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:

Small Landowners Fear Corporations Seek Backroom Deal on Endangered Species

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 -/E-Wire/-- Large corporations are pressuring the Bush Administration for special exemptions to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for their benefit at the expense of smaller landowners, says a grassroots coalition.

Grassroots ESA Coalition members are asking the Bush Administration to resist pressure from large multinationals for a special arrangement that hurts farms, ranches and other small land owners, as well as endangered species.

The exemption at issue is Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs). These are deals where the federal government and large corporations agree to certain preservation measures, including prohibitions on use of some land. In exchange, corporations gain an agreement that no further restrictions will be placed on the property in the future. Well over one hundred HCPs were signed between the Interior Department and large companies during the Clinton Administration.

One problem with HCPs is the cost. They require extensive biological surveys, can take years to negotiate and cost several million dollars. This places smaller landowners at a competitive disadvantage, a situation which many fear multinational companies may use to their advantage.

Equally important, many small landowners have provided crucial wildlife habitat for years. They object to being forced to give up control over their property to the government, which has a dismal record of land management. Several members of the coalition spoke out on the issue:

"Livestock producing families throughout the West not only help supply the world's most abundant, wholesome and cheapest food supply, but also provide year-round water, forage and habitat for the nation's wildlife. Family businesses deserve just as much consideration as any other element in the environment," said Caren Cowan, who is from a fourth generation ranching family in New Mexico and is Executive Director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association.

Bruce Vincent is a logger from Montana, and head of Communities for a Great Northwest. He stated, "I hope the new administration will enact reforms helping small woodlot owners with a few hundred acres. They need to be taken into account as well as the industry leaders, whose land holdings are larger than entire northeastern states."

Mark Pollot, a land use attorney from Idaho, added, "In order for the Endangered Species Act to work, it has to be fair to everyone. Changes that benefit some landowners at the expense of others place the goal of protecting species at risk."

"There is every reason to be optimistic that the Bush-Cheney Administration's endangered species policies will protect the property rights of farmers, ranchers, and other land owners. They are after all from Texas and Wyoming, and endangered species policies that don't protect property rights hurt the species they're supposed to protect," said Rob Gordon, Director of the National Wilderness Institute.

The Grassroots ESA Coalition was created in 1995 by small land owners, conservationists and free market environmental organizations to work on improvements to endangered species policies. It seeks solutions that will both conserve threatened and endangered species and protect private property rights.

Grassroots E. S. A. Coalition

Kathleen Benedetto [REDACTED-PHONE]

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