The Obama administration would give states more control over conservation efforts under proposed changes it announced Monday to the Endangered Species Act.
The move comes as Republicans in both chambers of Congress are eyeing reform of the law, which they say too often is used to choke potential development, especially in the West.
“These actions will make an effective and robust law even more successful, and will also reinforce the importance of states, landowners and sound science in that effort,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe wants to change the Endangered Species Act, viewing it as a way to leave a legacy. The Oklahoma Republican is 80 years old and has only two years left in his chairmanship. Meanwhile, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, has long been a critic of the Obama administration’s use of the law.
“So the Endangered Species Act, if you’re after command and control — if you want to control the world — great piece of legislation. If you’re actually trying to enhance and save species so they don’t have to be listed, it’s crap,” Bishop told the Washington Examiner in March.
Dan Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, hinted at the changes when he said at a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing in May that the law had “room for improvement.”
The Interior proposals announced Monday would “update policy regarding the role of state agencies to reflect advancements in collaboration between the services and the states.”
It also would require petitioners to receive updated information on the species in question from relevant state wildlife agencies and to include that data in official petitions. Additionally, it recommended expanding options and incentives for voluntary, local conservation programs, focusing resources on eight of the nation’s most at-risk marine species and overhauling interagency consultation to speed decisions on conservation projects.
The actions revealed Monday come as the Interior Department has credited and even devolved some action on endangered species to the states.
On Friday, Democratic Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, proposed a plan for protecting the greater sage grouse meant partly to keep the federal government at bay. Interior must decide by the end of September whether to list the bird, which claims habitat in 11 Western states.
Last month the Interior Department withdrew an earlier proposal to consider listing the bi-state sage grouse, a subspecies of the greater sage grouse that lives along the California and Nevada border, after conservation programs to restore sagebrush the bird feeds on proved successful.
“The proposed policies would result in a more nimble, transparent and ultimately more effective Endangered Species Act,” Ashe said. “By improving and streamlining our processes, we are ensuring the limited resources of state and federal agencies are best spent actually protecting and restoring imperiled species.”
