RECIPE FOR REFORM
It is in the spirit of sharing in the upcoming celebration to “commemorate” the 30th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that I am sending this recipe to the US House of Representatives Resource Committee staff member who is assembling information on the Act.
Many of us have known since the late 1970’s that the ESA was a disaster. Nothing has been “saved” and the toll on the people of the United States and the people in poor nations that house charismatic plants and animals has been increasingly unbearable. Simply put, we and the plants and animals it sequesters would be far better off without it.
That said, the following recipe for reform of the endangered species engine is offered. It is composed of seven ingredients that would replace the ESA. Like most good recipes, the ingredients are simple and come together to create a complementary whole. The assumptions and claims of the ESA were erroneous and any future actions in this arena must be taken with care.
1. Return management authority and primary legal jurisdiction for all plants and animals (except those named in Treaties [CITES is NOT a Treaty in the sense used in the Constitution]) to state governments where the Founding Fathers wisely placed them.
2. Couch any future (or continuing) endangered species Congressional concerns in terms of mandates to Federal land managers to employ on the Federal estate. Except in the miniscule Federal ownership where Exclusive Jurisdiction applies, Federal lands should be managed under the laws of the state in which they occur. State government lands should be encouraged to provide similar assistance to named species and private property owners should be encouraged to cooperate only through the offer of voluntary tax incentives. Leases, easements, grants, and acquisition by Federal agencies or their NGO surrogates like The Nature Conservancy should NOT be authorized. Not only are they ineffective for the purposes stated, they will (like ever increasing tax percentages) eventually end with a government that owns and rules everything, thereby supplanting “We the People” who established a limited government to provide us with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
3. Do not infer any governmental concern for any plant or animal grouping below the level of species. Leaving an opening for this in the past has allowed University professors and bureaucrats to drive a mack truck of government costs and abuses through the opening that today looks like an interstate.
4. Do not allow any possibility for any taking of private property without compensation. It was an extremely important matter that the Founding Fathers placed these words in the Constitution. Any Federal desire to importune private citizens or their property for animal or plant purposes should be voluntary and should not exceed annual tax incentives without any strings to sign over rights to the government or it’s surrogates. If the cost of all the havoc wreaked by the ESA in just the past decade had been charged to taxpayers as the Constitution demands, the fever for endangered species would have waned long ago. If the government cannot pay for all it “wants” then perhaps it and it’s special interest supporters are living beyond their means.
5. Severely limit any statutory or regulatory penalties for failing to adhere to Federal plant and animal mandates. The recent FWS Federal raiders who invaded a couples home for orchid suspicions or the recent BLM enforcers who molested a barefoot boy over an ORV permit issue such that the boy wound up in a wheelchair are current examples of Federal law enforcement abuses rooted in the hype surrounding endangered species law enforcement. Interior and Agriculture enforcement agencies were transformed in the 70’s and 80’s into Untouchables-wannabees by the NGO’s and bureaucrats searching for stricter laws, broader law enforcement retirement coverage, and larger Federal budget authorizations. Today we are reaping this whirlwind and reversing it will necessitate reforms beyond the scope of replacing the ESA with an American alternative.
6. Any reintroduction or release of any plant or animal in any state should only be with the consent of the state government. The outrage of the Federal government imposing wolves on states and private landowners who strongly object to and are harmed by such actions belongs to the actions of Dictators throughout history. Our Constitution was designed to prevent such central government abuse of a free people.
7. Reconfigure the US United Nations CITES delegation to reflect a program of sustainable uses and proactive management of all plants and animals. The sovereignty of Tanzania and Iceland should be respected regarding their plants and animals every bit as much as we value our own sovereignty. Our UN delegation should push a P-R/D-J type excise custom tax on plant and animal imports which is then redistributed to countries of origin for conservation projects. Enforcement is simple in this regard, failure to use the money for conservation means no future funds. Cooperation and management, not coercion, is the best road to an abundant future for us all.
While we are discussing recipes, think about doing the same to the Marine Mammal Protection Act that has rivalled the destruction and resource waste of the ESA. Return inshore species (manatees, sea otters, polar bears, and some seals) to the states in whose waters they occur. Federal management of high seas species in US and international waters should be proactive management for sustainable harvests and to attain numbers and distributions that encourage commercial fishery recovery and management objectives in the world’s oceans.
Think also about the Animal Welfare Act. Such Federal legislation should only cover Federally funded animal uses, period. The Federal interest in the interstate aspects of things like dog breeding, cockfighting, animal husbandry, circuses, rodeos, etc. should be limited to enforcing state statutes just as the Mann Act does for prostitution and the Lacey Act does for fish and wildlife.
Finally, if after reading this anyone can imagine in their wildest dreams that Invasive Species legislation is anything but a disaster in the wings, I suggest somewhere like Germany or Britain where such “progressive” thought is more advanced would probably be more to their liking. Such things as we have discussed here should never have been allowed to take hold in this country and reforming them immediately should be the duty of every concerned American.
Happy 30th, ESA!
Jim Beers
5 December 2003