Here's another one. I'm skeptical, though, methinks they are gushing too much.

Peggi




Date: Fri, 6 June 1997 11:00:00 -0600 (MDT)
>From: Mitch Snow <mitch_snow at mail.fws.gov>
>To: fws-news at dataadmin.irm.r9.fws.gov
>Subject: Protection Increased Under ESA
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>OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
>For Immediate Release
>June 6, 1997
>Contact: DOI -- Lisa Guide or Paul Bledsoe (202) 208-6416
>DOC -- Kelly Lees (202) 482-4883
>
>BABBITT AND DALEY SAY PROTECTIONS FOR RARE PLANTS AND ANIMALS
>HAVE INCREASED UNDER THE "NEW" ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT
>-------------------------------
>Private Landowner Involvement is Key to Increased Level of Protections
>
>Protections for America's rare plants and animals are more effective now
>than at any time
>in the 24 year history of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA),
>Interior Secretary Bruce
>Babbitt and Commerce Secretary William M. Daley said today. Secretaries
>Babbitt and Daley
>unveiled two draft conservation incentive policies while highlighting the
>dramatic improvements
>in species protection due to Clinton Administration reforms.
>
>Babbitt said the Administration has been able to address many concerns
>about the ESA
>by using the law's built-in flexibility, allowing private landowners to
>conserve species while
>preserving certainty about the economic potential of their property.
>
>"For the first time in history, the Endangered Species Act is effectively
>saving rare plants
>and animals on privately owned lands," said Secretary Babbitt. "It is a
>difference so profound
>that in practice we really have a "new" Endangered Species Act. We're
>saving hundreds of
>additional species, we are in partnerships with hundreds of landowners, and
>millions of acres of
>private property are being managed to protect America's natural heritage.
>Endangered species,
>and the Endangered Species Act itself, are flourishing under our new
>reforms."
>
>"These new policies demonstrate significant progress in wildlife
>conservation as well as
>fostering greater appreciation for the flexibility of the Endangered
>Species Act," said Secretary
>Daley. "Having used these ESA policies as guidelines we already enjoy
>dozens of successful
>partnerships with the private and public sectors showing that species can
>be protected while
>allowing sustainable development and important government functions to
>continue."
>
>"Four years ago, the act was in grave trouble, with many in Congress and
>the private
>sector supporting damaging revisions," Secretary Babbitt said. "But many
>Americans were
>outspoken in their support for the ESA. With their support we have
>prevented the paving over of
>America's natural heritage by taking the Endangered Species Act's built-in
>flexibility and using
>it for the benefit of conservation. Because the law is now responsive to
>the concerns of
>landowners, we now have something never before associated with the ESA: the
>active
>involvement of landowners, business people, environmentalists and others to
>develop
>partnerships that work."
>
>Administrative reforms of the ESA have vastly increased the number of
>species being
>protected and increased the amount of land being managed for conservation
>by millions of acres,
>Babbitt said.
>
>Since more than half of listed species have 80 percent of their habitat on
>private land, an
>effective conservation program must include significant private lands
>involvement. Currently,
>212 partnerships called " habitat conservation plans" with private
>landowners have been
>completed and signed, and over 200 are at various stages of development. By
>September 1997,
>18.5 million acres of private land will be covered by HCP's, including both
>preserve lands and
>those that will be actively managed for conservation or developed. These
>agreements will protect
>over 300 species, including state and federally listed, candidates for
>listing and species of special
>concern. Only 14 habitat conservation plans were signed between 1982 and
>1993, the year
>President Clinton took office. In addition, a "No Surprises" policy that
>provides assurances to
>landowners who are participating in HCP's was officially proposed as a
>regulation by the Interior
>and Commerce Departments on May 29, 1997.
>
>"Secretary Babbitt's commitment to achieving the goals of the Endangered
>Species Act
>through Habitat Conservation Plans, backed by his No Surprises policy, has
>captured substantial
>enthusiasm and trust from many private landowners and resource users. The
>beneficiaries are
>species which would otherwise be unprotected, even as the sensible
>development of resources
>progresses and benefits the economy, " said Guy R. Martin, of the Western
>Urban Water
>Coalition and Bay-Delta Urban Coalition.
>
>Twenty Five "Safe Harbor Agreements" have brought active species
>conservation to
>nearly 21,000 acres of privately owned land and benefit more than ten
>species. Sixteen other
>agreements are in development and are expected to cover an additional
>14,000 acres.
>
>"These new policies offer the promise of not just preserving the status
>quo, but of
>improving upon it; unless we accomplish that, the goals of the Endangered
>Species Act cannot be
>achieved," said Michael Bean, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) senior
>attorney.
>
>Through habitat management more than 200 rare species are benefiting from
>conservation
>agreements designed to remove threats to species that are candidates for
>ESA protection. These
>Candidate Conservation Agreements are intended to preclude the need for
>listing.
>
>"Innovative multiple species conservation programs--partnerships with
>private interests
>and local government--are giving real hope to the endangered species of
>Southern California,"
>said Dan Silver, Coordinator for the Endangered Habitats League, located in
>Southern California.
>"We strongly support these efforts, but also ask for needed improvements,
>such as in funding and
>scientific input."
>
>While a goal of the new administrative reforms is to prevent the need to
>list declining
>species by taking action to protect them before they become critically
>endangered, other species
>have reached the point of requiring the full protections of the ESA.
>Despite a year-long
>congressionally imposed moratorium on the listing of species, 374 species
>have been added to
>the list during the Clinton Administration, more than during any other
>Administration.
>
>"The Nature Conservancy has been working cooperatively with private
>landowners for
>decades to conserve rare species and ecosystems on their land," said John
>Sawhill of The Nature
>Conservancy. "As approximately 75% of all threatened and endangered
>species rely to some
>extent on private land to survive, we are delighted to see an increasing
>focus on these activities in
>the context of the Endangered Species Act."
>
>Babbitt and Daley announced two policies today, one creating "Safe
>Harbors," which
>will enhance recovery of Federally listed species on non-federal lands,
>and the "Candidate
>Conservation Agreements" policy, intended to remove threats to species not
>yet listed.
>"Safe Harbors and Candidate Conservation are key pieces of the Clinton
>Administration's ESA
>reforms," said Secretary Babbitt. "Both provide important new incentives
>and assurances to
>private property owners to help save and enhance habitat for listed and
>candidate species without
>having to worry about additional regulatory restrictions under the Act."
>
>"Commerce's goal to balance protection of our natural resources with
>sustainable
>development will be complemented through these two policies. The policies
>will also enhance
>our Nation's efforts to save endangered fish and wildlife by providing
>private landowners with a
>better understanding of the act's regulatory guidelines, " said Secretary
>Daley. "More effective
>stewardship or management of private land will keep essential habitat
>undivided, maintain and
>restore unique habitats and create other unique benefits for endangered
>species."
>
>"The Southern California Natural Community Conservation Program has taken
>endangered species protection beyond regulatory gridlock and ideological
>posturing and built a
>bridge between environmental protection and economic imperatives," said
>Monica Florian, Sr.
>Vice President of the Irvine Company. "It has made conservation on private
>lands feasible and
>even desirable from a landowners' point of view. The NCCP has provided an
>innovative and
>practical means to conserve multiple habitats on a large scale and to
>protect multiple species
>before they are in danger."
>
>
>Babbitt said that under the draft Safe Harbor policy, the Fish and Wildlife
>Service and the
>National Marine Fisheries Service (the Services), in cooperation with
>appropriate state agencies
>and affected Tribal governments, may provide property owners with
>assurances for enhancing
>the recovery of a listed species by voluntarily entering into Safe Harbor
>Agreements. The
>Services must find that species included in an agreement are expected to
>receive a net
>conservation benefit from voluntary conservation activities. A current
>habitat baseline condition
>would be determined and any increase in an animal's population above that
>condition resulting
>from a property owner's voluntary good stewardship would not increase their
>regulatory
>responsibility or affect future land use decisions. The Services would
>issue the property owner an
>"enhancement of survival permit" under Section 10(a) (1) (A) of the act,
>which would allow the
>property owner to return the affected property at the end of the Safe
>Harbor agreement back to
>baseline conditions even if it resulted in the incidental take of a listed
>species. As long as the
>property owner complied with the terms and conditions of the Safe Harbor
>agreement and
>permit, he or she could make any use of the property that maintained the
>agreed-upon baseline
>conditions.
>
>The Candidate Conservation Agreements draft policy is similar in principle
>to the Safe
>Harbor policy but pertains exclusively to species that are facing threats
>but are not yet listed. The
>goal is to remove threats to eliminate the need for listing. If a species
>is nonetheless listed in the
>future, the Services would authorize the property owner to return the
>property to condition
>mutually agreed to in the Candidate Conservation Agreement and would not
>require the
>participating property owner to do more to conserve the species.
>
>Comments about the draft Safe Harbor and Candidate Conservation agreements
>policies
>and accompanying regulatory changes to 50 Code of Federal Regulations Part
>17 must be
>received within 60 days after publication in the _______ (date) Federal
>Register and should be
>addressed to Chief, Division of Endangered Species, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
>Service, 1849 C St.
>NW, (ARLSQ-452), Washington, DC 20240.
>
>
>
>
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>.-
>
>
Ben & Peggi Rodgers
Aptos, CA (near Santa Cruz 122 W, 37 N)
USA
woodduck at cruzio.com


"A bird does not sing because it has an answer,
It sings because it has a song"