OPINION EDITORIAL
March 22, 2000
 

Species conservation must be inclusive

Jane Gorsuch, Vice President Idaho Affairs
Intermountain Forest Association

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) contains a perverse disincentive for private landowners. The ESA penalizes landowners who do good things to help recover fish animals and birds. Any landowner who makes his or her land more inviting to a federally listed, threatened or endangered species by improving wildlife habitat, increases the risk of a lawsuit that could shut down their ability to use that land. This, unfortunately, is the downside of the ESA. And it is this fear of the "ESA hammer" that adds to the passion and emotion that surrounds endangered species management issues. Most landowners want to provide homes for fish and wildlife on their land, and they will if they feel they are protected from litigation.

Managing wildlife in Idaho has had a multifaceted and troubled recent history. Wolves, salmon, grizzly bears, and bull trout have all left the management of the Idaho Fish and Game Department as they have, one-by-one, been listed as threatened or endangered. The federal government now has control of managing these species — the Idaho Department of Fish and Game is one of many players in the recovery planning and implementation process—but the department does not control it. As much as the supporters of the 1938 Initiative that created the Idaho Department of Fish and Game may want the Department to manage these species, for all intents and purposes, the Department doesn’t. This is not the best way to manage either fish and wildlife or the habitat that sustains them.

In order to ensure the State of Idaho can responsibly and effectively care for the state’s fish and wildlife, the Legislature should pass SB 1490. This bill, in combination with the Department of Fish and Game fee increase, can help to make the conservation, recovery and management of species something all Idahoans can support. SB 1490 creates the framework to allow people who are affected by wildlife management to have a meaningful voice in the process and a seat at the table.

Currently, the Department of Fish & Game has the authority to manage only non-federally listed species. That means that the State has no meaningful role in developing management plans for species that are threatened or endangered. SB 1490 moves Idaho in the right direction. It creates an Office of Species Conservation in the Office of the Governor. This is the correct place, as the Governor is the only state entity with the standing and the power to negotiate with the Federal government on a government-to-government basis. There have been several voices in objection to this—one of which is that the "science" of the species is somehow removed or threatened. This is not so. When the federal government lists a species—the science is already "in" to a great degree. New science is always welcome but species will not be listed unless the science used at the time supports the listing.

The Office and the money it will take to fund it are necessary to support the Governor's efforts to develop, implement and manage a state position on listed species. Oregon and Washington have similar offices for listed species—and they not only fare better in negotiations with the federal government, they receive more federal dollars to improve habitat and recover listed species.

This bill is our best hope for assisting in the recovery of Idaho’s threatened and endangered species without unfairly burdening the people who manage their habitat. We can only do this by reviving trust and embracing inclusiveness. We all share the same ultimate goal – healthy and sustainable populations of fish and wildlife and healthy communities. This bill is but a tool to that end.