SPECIES (CONT)

works to ensure the basic health of our natural ecosystems.
Political opponents of the ESA have taken to claiming that the Act is "broken" because, though we've had the Act for three decades, species are still being added to the list, while few come off.

Indeed, the bipartisan authors of the ESA were prescient in their concerns. For in the decades that followed, the science demonstrating the need for strong endangered species protection has only grown stronger.

I understand the political motivations behind this argument, but it is disingenuous.

Among other things, it completely ignores the fact that the ESA was not written to prevent species from becoming endangered. It is not a preventive health care system - it is a species emergency room - the place where species go when they're already on the brink of extinction - when the conservation measures that should prevent a species from becoming endangered have failed.
By that measurement, the accomplishments of the Act vastly outnumber the occasional anecdotal stories of development projects delayed and modified.

From wolves in Yellowstone to manatees in Florida, and from sea otters in California to coastal birds on New England's shores, there is no question that the Act has made a big difference, reversing trends that threatened species' existence.

Helping the recovery of the American bald eagle was a signature accomplishment of the ESA - as was recovery of the peregrine falcon and the brown pelican. The American alligator too. Because of the ESA, black-footed ferrets and California condors are being reintroduced to the wild. And across the country, thousands of decisions that significantly impact living nature have been made less damaging because of the ESA.

Please understand: We do not claim that the ESA is perfect. No law is. I would gladly engage in a good faith discussion about how the law itself, and its implementation, could be improved for all stakeholders. To be sure, we should be focusing on ways to get ahead of the endangered species problem, such as providing incentives to landowners to care for the land in a manner that better preserves its ecological health. But with the Act's opponents circling like vultures, opening it up for revision at this time is probably not wise.

Indeed, while the ESA has faced its share of political problems since the early 1990s, never have the assaults been as relentless and all-encompassing as under our current president.

The Bush administration's attack on the ESA started their first week in office, when they immediately froze all pending ESA regulations, halted all listing of new species, and blocked all pending designations of critical habitat for listed species.

They followed this by naming to the highest conservation positions in the administration a virtual rogue's gallery of former special interest industry lobbyists, all with records of fighting vigorously against the ESA.

With these allies in place, the Bush administration then embarked upon a hostile campaign to eviscerate the ESA - to severely weaken protections for endangered species across the board.

Under President Bush, the number of species being added to the ESA list has plummeted. Indeed, this president has an annual listing rate of only eight species per year since taking office. Reagan listed almost 32 species per year while in office. The President's father listed a full 58 per year. Clinton? Sixty-five. Moreover, every single one of the Bush administration's listings has come as a result of court orders - not one listing has been voluntary.

Beyond their refusal to list species, the administration even asked Congress to eliminate a citizen's right to petition for listing, seeking to make all listings discretionary under Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Fortunately the Congress refused the request.

Not content to thwart the ESA's workings in the U.S., the Bush administration is also proposing to relax policy on international trade in endangered species. Proposed Bush rules would allow U.S. trophy hunters and wildlife traders to import more endangered species and body parts with very little oversight - effectively turning them into commodities.