Issue Position: Using Common Sense to Reform the ESA

Issue Position

Effective stewardship of our natural resources must be driven locally, based on sound science and rooted in common sense. The Endangered Species Act impacts every Central Washington community, and the federal government has a responsibility to make certain that these impacts are scientifically necessary and grounded in provable facts. I'm committed to improving the Endangered Species Act by putting the focus where it should be - on real results.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was enacted in 1973 and was initially aimed at protecting endangered species like the American Bald Eagle and the American Black Bear from going extinct. However, the ESA has not succeeded as intended - with species being added to the list but very little recovery being achieved.

In the more than 30 years the Endangered Species Act has been in place, only 12 out of 1,304 listed species have been recovered - a success rate of less than one percent. Congressman Hastings believes that common sense dictates reforms for any program with such an abysmal record of results.

The goal of protecting species from extinction has been hamstrung by bureaucratic processes, rules, regulations, and requirements that often do little to aid the endangered species - though the impact on the economies of local communities and the livelihoods of individual property owners can be devastating. Consider these examples:

* Residents of the Pacific Northwest know that healthy salmon runs depend on many factors, including natural predators and fluctuating ocean conditions. Yet the ESA makes it easy for federal agencies to simply point the finger solely at the dams. Placing 100 percent of the burden of recovery on the hydropower system is not justified by science, inflicts undue economic harm on the region, and ignores the many other factors affecting salmon survival.

* Every summer in excess of three million dollars is being spent per listed salmon to spill water through the Northwest dams even though both science and common sense say there are better ways of furthering species recovery.

* The Northwest timber industry was decimated by the listing of the spotted owl in the 1990's. Recent owl population studies have shown, however, that these ESA-driven measures halting timber production on federal lands haven't had the desired effect. In fact, northern spotted owl numbers continue to decline. The major reason, many scientists now conclude, is that they are being displaced by a more aggressive competitor, the barred owl. Meanwhile, thousands of people in the forest products industry have been permanently displaced.

* In 2001 water to family farms in the Klamath Basin was cutoff in the name of suckerfish when everyone knew there were other measures that would truly help species recovery without bankrupting families and businesses.

Hastings' ESA Reform Priorities

1. Local communities deserve a meaningful role in how resources are managed.

2. Incentive-based recovery efforts on private lands should be the model rather than punitive regulations that discourage landowner participation.

3. Lawsuits by special interest groups that drain resources away from honest recovery efforts must be ended.

4. Nothing less than sound, peer-reviewed science should be accepted.

5. Available recovery resources must be used wisely and efficiently.

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