The Endangered Species Act vs. Land Owners

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The Endangered Species Act vs.Land Owners

• Whose side are you on?

Lisa D. Hunter, PRTM 820
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Overview

• Creation of the Act
• The List
• Case What would you do?
• ESA at work
• Resolve

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The Act

• Created in 1973
• Was to provide a means whereby the ecosystems
  upon which endangered species and threatened
  species depend may be conserved, to provide a
  program for the conservation of such endangered
  species and threatened species, and to take such
  steps as may be appropriated to achieve the
  purposes of the treaties and conventions

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Intentions

• Save endangered or threatened species from
  becoming extinct.
• Maintain/increases biodiversity
• Focus on more noble species
• Bald Eagle
• Cuddly Species
• Protection from hunting
• Exception Native Americans

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The List

• Contains 1,263 species
• 249 candidate species
• 36 species proposed for listing
• USFWS, May 2003
• Cost for protection varies
• 21 to 46 Billion
• Would you pay this?
• What else would you do with 21 - 46 Billion?

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Errors in The List

• Undercounted Data Errors
• Concho Water Snake (Texas) endangered, 1977
• Threatened in 1986 population estimate of 111
  from 135 in 1977
• 1996 population estimate
• 70,000
• Cost to tax payers
• 3 Million

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• Taxonomically invalid - range either
  underestimated or threat overestimated
• Still considered a data error
• How does this happen?

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Protected Species in SC

• RC Woodpecker
• Bald Eagle
• Wood Stork
• Piping Plover
• Eastern Indigo Snake
• Indiana Bat
• Carolina Heelsplitter
• Flatwoods Salamander

• Hawksbill Sea Turtle
• Kemps Ridley Sea Turtle
• Leatherback Sea Turtle
• Bog Turtle
• Loggerhead Sea Turtle
• Green Sea Turtle

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How the ESA Works

• What happens
• As a land owner, you are required to have the
  species/habitat accounted for
• Typically someone hires wildlife biologists to
  conduct an EIS on their property
• If the species is found you cannot develop
• But is this your land?

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5th Amendment Rights

• No person shall be held to answer for a capital,
  or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a
  presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except
  in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or
  in the militia, when in actual service in time of
  war or public danger nor shall any person be
  subject for the same offense to be twice put in
  jeopardy of life or limb nor shall be compelled
  in any criminal case to be a witness against
  himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or
  property, without due process of law nor shall
  private property be taken for public use, without
  just compensation.

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Progress?

• What kind of progress are we making?
• 25 species removed
• 7 recovered
• 7 extinct
• 11 data errors
• ?? people have lost their land

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Case 1 Yuba County Water District

• Restoration work needed 30 miles
• EIS revealed 43 clumps of Elderberry bushes
  growing around levees
• Valley Longhorn Elderberry Beetle

• Grand total
• 2.3 million
• 55, 800/clump
• 1,495/stem

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Case 2 What would you do?

• While vacationing on the coast you notice someone
  collecting turtles you know are endangered.
• You friends family lost some land because of an
  endangered species last year and went bankrupt.
• Would you turn them in, or let it slide?

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Case 3 What would you do?

• You bought 1,000 acres with the intentions of
  building a home for your family, a barn, big
  garage, and a guest house for your mother-in-law
  when she visits.
• Plan to leave 50 of the property wild
• One day you find a RCW on your property prior to
  development
• What do you do?

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Who or What is the ESA Really Protecting?

• Do you think you are more important than fish?
• April, 2001 Klamath Basin 1,500 family farms
  had water cut off to save the sucker fish.
• July 2001 Okanogan National Forest urgent
  requests for helicopter water drops were delayed
  for hours

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Who Pays?

• Who should pay for a public good?
• If you are a private land owner and cannot
  develop your land, should you continue to pay
  taxes on something you cannot use?
• Is the land still even yours?

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Resolve

• Although the ESA was created with the best of
  intentions, the act has failed to protect the
  species placed under its protection, and it has
  failed to provide any type of protection to land
  owners.
• The ESA has caused more harm than good to the
  private land owner and should be removed from our
  legal system.

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Questions?

• Not too many save some for my group on Tuesday ?

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Sources

• http//www.edf.org/
• http//www.environmentaldefense.org/system/templat
  es/page/issue.cfm?subnav7
• http//laws.fws.gov/lawsdigest/esact.html
• http//www.nesarc.org/
• http//cnie.org/NLE/CRSreports/Biodiversity/biodv-
  8.cfm
• http//www.watchtower.org/library/g/1996/8/8/endan
  gered_the_scope.htm

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• http//endangered.fws.gov/whatwedo.html
• http//www.nesarc.org/
• http//www.crowley-offroad.com/home.htm
• http//www.open-spaces.com
• Society of American Foresters www.safnet.org
• http//www.nwi.org/TechnicalReports/SafeHarborAct.
  html
• http//www.edf.org/documents/929_handbook.htm