http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2004/09/22/news/news01.txt

Congressional hearing focuses on ESA weaknesses

By Greg Jones, staff writer

They're not opposed to the ideals of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), but all but one of the individuals testifying at the Congressional Field Hearing at Eastern Arizona College on the act were opposed to it as it is currently written.

Of the seven people providing sworn testimony Monday morning before the House Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, six were selected by Republican lawmakers. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), who chaired the hearing, explained that Democrats were given a chance to present witnesses and chose only one, Peter Warshall from Tucson.

Most testimony centered on how the ESA has been detrimental to communities and the organization enforcing it -- with a secondary theme of blaming "radical" and "extremist" environmentalists for all the problems related to forest management.

"We want to get a measure of the net impact that all these laws and policies, laid one on top of the other, are cumulatively having on the people that live and work in the rural southwest," Walden said. "It is vital that the committee meet in settings such as this, away from the spin of Washington, D.C., where we can truly begin to understand the implications that federal laws and policies have on rural communities."

Congressman Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.), who was responsible for bringing the hearing to Graham County, said the intentions of the ESA are good, but it has been hijacked by environmentalists and can no longer serve its purpose.

"It was with the best intention in 1973 that the ESA was put together, but it is now fraught with litigation to the point where it has bankrupted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service," he said. "It's bankrupted the very fund Congress has set aside to protect the species."

Testimony was delivered by two panels. The first panel, comprised of U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Regional Forester Harv Forsgren and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service USFWS Regional Director Dale Hall, focused on forest management.

Forsgren told the committee that the greatest challenge in the Southwest is fire.

"Of the 21 million acres of National Forest System lands in the Southwestern Region, more than 80 percent of that acreage is at moderate to high risk of uncharacteristic wildfire," he said. "Due to effective fire suppression for most of the last century, our ponderosa pine forests that were once park-like, supporting between 50 and 200 trees per acre, are today a dense tangle of up to 2,000 trees per acre."

Forsgren said this causes uncharacteristic wildfires, which burn large areas with high intensity. These are not like naturally occurring wildfires, he said.

Restoring the health of forest and rangelands will require active management and the reintroduction of natural fires.

Forsgren said he is optimistic about a large-scale stewardship contract calling for the treatment of 5,000-25,000 acres of land over the next 10 years.

"The project will reduce the risk of catastrophic fires while improving forest health," he said. "Given the scale of the forest health issues in the Southwest, we cannot effectively address our forest health issues without additional private sector involvement."

Congressman Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) asked if there is any way to thin the amount of acreage necessary without involving private businesses.

Forsgren said he not only thought it wouldn't be possible, he also didn't think it would be appropriate to use a government office to do so.

He said restricting which trees can be removed based on their diameters doesn't make sense.

"We really need to focus on the end result, which is the functionality of these systems," he said.

Hall said there is so much controversy and legal wrangling involved with the ESA that the USWFS budget is "focused on court costs because we will be sued no matter what decision we make."

He said thinning is necessary to protect forests and endangered species, noting that "catastrophic wildfires have no benefit to listed species."

Hall said his department is bogged down trying to meet court decisions and dealing with constant court challenges.

The second panel consisted of Speaker of the Arizona House Jake Flake (R), Graham County Supervisor Mark Herrington (R), Warshall, Executive Director of the Gila Watershed Partnership Jan Holder, and associate director of the Steward Observatory and director of the Mount Graham International Observatory Buddy Powell.

Flake said forests in Arizona have not always been so dense, and he blamed the environmentalists for the problem.

He said in the 1950s and '60s, efforts were made to harvest small trees for paper production. Shortly after, Congress passed the Endangered Species Act, and, "then entered the environmentalists.

"The ESA became the leverage that the environmentalists used to go to the courts to stop the timber and pulp wood sales, which also halted the forest thinning projects that are essential to fire prevention," Flake said. "That marked the end of the market for small diameter trees. Almost all of our sawmills had also gone out of business because the extreme environmentalists had stopped all contracts of timber sales."

He said a lot of progress has been made recently through the stewardship contract, the healthy forest initiative and the president's healthy forest act.

He said private businesses need to be involved in forest thinning and ensuring healthy forests, but "radical environmental groups stop the contracts through lawsuits using the Endangered Species Act as their basis."

He said forest management rules and the ESA need to be revised so "extreme groups" cannot manipulate and abuse them to achieve their own goals.

"Our forests will be harvested," he said. "Either we will harvest them through practical common sense by bringing jobs and a good economy to rural Arizona, or Mother Nature will harvest the forest with catastrophic fire."

Herrington testified about problems with the ESA specific to Graham County. He said the Nuttall Fire Complex burned in areas known for many years to be in serious condition, yet restrictions from the ESA prevented thinning and other management efforts.

He said cabin owners are hamstrung by the ESA from cutting dead and hazardous trees close to their cabins because of rules protecting the Mount Graham Red Squirrel.

He said the red squirrel refugium has also been a detriment to the operators of the telescopes on Mount Graham. He said it is ironic because, despite all the efforts to protect the refugium -- closing roads and prohibiting recreational activities within its borders -- most trees in the area have been killed by insect infestation, forcing the squirrels to move.

"While common sense suggests that the refugium be abolished and the area opened up for treatment, the dogma of ESA regulations continues to lock up this once pristine area and restrict its traditional uses," Herrington said. "In addition, the fuel load approaches 100 tons per acre, which dramatically increases the potential for catastrophic fire and the destruction of the red squirrel, their habitat and the telescope site."

Ross Bryce is another victim of the ESA, according to Herrington. Bryce is the owner of the Spear Ranch and was informed he would have to reduce the size of his herd by 50 percent. Bryce has to reduce the number of cattle from 200 to 100 because his ranching allotment was "potential habitat for the longnose bat," though it was unknown whether the bats were actually there.

Herrington also cited the Solomon Bridge project as another example of the ESA run amok. In 1993, "a 2-1/2 year ESA nightmare" started as the county looked to build a heavily used bridge across the Gila River.

Surveys to see if the Southwestern willow flycatcher focused on listening for the bird's mating call. Because the USFWS personnel thought they heard the mating call, construction of the bridge was stopped.

"This resulted in the Solomon School District, the poorest in the area, shortening its school days and changing activity schedules to accommodate a bird that 'might' have been at the bridge construction site," he said.

Without the bridge, traffic was rerouted 26 miles to the Eighth Avenue Bridge. This was also a hassle for farmers and posed a safety hazard to the public, Herrington said.

He said mounting safety concerns forced the county to begin construction before receiving permits in 1995. The bridge was completed in 1996, and Herrington noted that no legal action was taken against the county.

"Species recovery plans must be balanced with a community's social and economic needs," he said. "We earnestly seek some reasonable balance between the protection of species, our lives and our economies."

Holder said the ESA is important to protect wildlife, but it is an "under-funded mandate by Congress." She also said there needs to be support for farmers and an incentive for them to be stewards of the land.

Millions of dollars have been spent to reintroduce the Mexican grey wolf in the area, but no effort has been made to teach the ranchers how to deal with the animal, she said.

"As a cattle rancher and an environmentalist, what I would like to see is supports and incentives built into the Endangered Species Act to encourage farmers and ranchers to be good stewards of the land," she said.

Powell explained the problems the ESA has caused the University of Arizona and the Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO). He said the Clark Peak fire in 1996 drove home the message that the telescopes were in danger of being burned down.

Efforts were made to get permission to thin around the sites, but to no avail, he said.

Because approval to thin trees around the telescopes could not be obtained, firefighters battling the Nuttall Fire Complex had to spend two days clearing and cleaning the forest around the site.

"In two days, these people conducted more extensive work around the MGIO than the University and its partners were allowed to conduct for 11 years," he said. "If MGIO had been allowed to proceed with controlled, long-term manicuring of the area around MGIO out to a minimum distance of 150-200 feet, such extensive work would not be needed to protect the facilities from catastrophic wildfire."

Powell said the ESA was also used to delay construction of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) for two years.

In 1993, biologists suggested the telescope be built 600 yards east of the proposed site to minimize impact to the red squirrel. In 1994, "radical environmentalists" filed suit, and it wasn't until 1996 that work was allowed to resume on the LBT.

"I and other stakeholders simply request that the managers of the national forests use reasonable implementation of the Endangered Species Act and other laws; implementation that balances the true needs of the species with prudent requests of stakeholders," Powell said in summation. "We believe that although the Endangered Species Act is important and a well-intentioned law, it is broken and needs to be fixed."

Warshall acknowledged deficiencies with the ESA, but defended it as a means to protecting native species and heritage.

He said there are several myths about the ESA than need to be dispelled.

The first myth is that the ESA is the cause for economic decline in rural areas. Mining, he said, has been lost to globalization; commercial agriculture has suffered from water costs, and global price competition and ranching is declining because of development, price competition and prolonged drought.

The second myth is that Congress and federal agencies make ESA decisions based on the best science.

"If we look at actual forest issues in Arizona and New Mexico, it is obvious that the major threat to forests comes from special favor politics, compromised biological science and under-funding of various programs," he said. "These obstacles to good science are not faults within the ESA law itself, but in the arena of inappropriate political influence."

He said stopping special favor politics is important, but it does not require changing the ESA.

Lastly, Warshall said the ESA is not draconian.

He closed by saying the United States has the responsibility of demonstrating to the rest of the world how to protect natural resources, and the ESA is a good starting point.

Warshall also included a list of recommendations to accompany his testimony. His recommendations include holding Congressional hearings before the ESA is deemed satisfied for a project; creating a finer distinction between minimal viable habitat and critical habitat; making biological decisions based on scientific evidence and reporting what data is missing or unavailable when making such decisions.

Congressman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), who chairs the House Resources Committee, said the biggest problem is that the ESA is being abused by environmentalist groups.

He said he's made suggestions similar to Warshall's, but he is accused of trying to gut the bill by the environmentalists.

"They don't want to settle the conflict," Pombo said of the environmentalists.

"If they settled it, they would have no more reason to exist," he said, drawing a thunderous round of applause from the more than 500 people inside the Fine Arts Auditorium.

He said the bills proposed to modify the ESA are honest attempts at saving species.

Renzi reiterated that the hearings and proposed changes to the act are not designed to gut it.


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