Western Governors Urge Congress to Increase ESA’s Effectiveness, Support Sage Grouse and
Sagebrush Conservation Efforts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 1, 2005

WASHINGTON – Western governors are urging Congress to update and modernize the 30-year-old Endangered Species Act to increase its effectiveness and enhance its success in recovering and protecting endangered species. In a related matter, the governors adopted a policy resolution today supporting locally driven efforts to conserve sage grouse and sagebrush habitat and asked the Administration and Congress to provide the necessary resources to ensure their success.

The Western Governors’ Association made recommendations for reforming the ESA in a letter to the leadership of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and the House Committee on Resources. The letter was signed by WGA’s lead governors for ESA issues: Gov. Bill Owens of Colorado, WGA Chairman, and Gov. Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming. The governors said Congress should make “common-sense changes to the Endangered Species Act a priority.”

Owens and Freudenthal said the Western governors “applaud the principles of the ESA and have maintained a long-standing interest in improving species recovery efforts by making the process more efficient and providing more effective incentives for state and private conservation activities.”

“We recently held an Endangered Species Act summit in which we brought together a very diverse set of stakeholders to discuss ways in which the Act could be improved,” the governors said. “The consensus coming out of the summit was that there are many steps we can take together to update and modernize this thirty-year old law. We share the desire of summit participants to increase the effectiveness of the Act and enhance its success in recovering and protecting endangered species.”

The governors’ recommendations include:

Require recovery goals for listed species. Recovery and, ultimately, delisting of species should be the highest priority, and funding for ESA activities should be prioritized to reflect this priority. The Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA-Fisheries should be required to publish quantifiable recovery goals, in consultation with affected states, for threatened or endangered species at the time of the listing decision to provide for objective recovery criteria that both state and federal agencies may work toward in the recovery process.

Enhance the role of state governments in recovering species. The Endangered Species Act can effectively be implemented only through a full partnership between the states and the federal government. One way to accomplish this partnership would be to authorize the delegation of authority for the development of conservation and recovery plans on a voluntary basis to states that choose to accept such delegation, and agree with the appropriate Secretary to perform them in accordance with specified standards. Authority should also be given to the appropriate cabinet secretary to provide grants for the additional administrative costs to the state.

Ensure the use of good science in ESA decisions. Given the broad implications that may arise when ESA actions are taken, significant decisions must be made using objective, peer-reviewed science. Peer review of listing, recovery and de-listing decisions by acknowledged independent experts is important to assure the public that decisions are well-reasoned and scientifically based. Peer review committees should be agreed upon by the Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA-Fisheries and the state. State agencies also have expertise and other institutional resources such as mapping capabilities, biological inventories and other important data that should be employed in developing endangered species listing and recovery decisions.

Incentives for conservation are essential. Western Governors believe that providing economic incentives for landowners to participate in conservation efforts is likely to achieve more efficient and cost-effective results and may lead to more rapid conservation.

The governors said Western states have already demonstrated leadership in the successful effort to conserve the Greater Sage Grouse.

“We stand ready to continue these efforts, and we ask Congress to give us the tools and authority to make state and local conservation efforts meaningful,” Govs Owens and Freudenthal said.

The sage grouse and sagebrush conservation resolution approved by the governors today is cosponsored by Govs. Owens, Freudenthal and Kenny Guinn of Nevada. It urges the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture to devote “any and all resources,” including direct grants to state and local entities for the development and implementation of conservation plans.

“The Governors strongly encourage a continued focus on the health of the species, range-wide, and caution that any disengagement at this critical juncture would likely have negative consequences for the species, private industry and the states,” the resolution states.

The governors said they will create a Sagebrush Conservation Council to assist local working groups with completing their sage grouse conservation plans and to develop a conservation plan for sagebrush habitat.

A copy of the governors’ letter to the House and Senate committees and the resolution are available on the WGA Web site at www.westgov.org.

The Western Governors’ Association is an independent, nonprofit organization representing the governors of 18 states and three U.S.-Flag islands in the Pacific. Through their Association, the Western governors identify and address key policy and governance issues in natural resources, the environment, human services, economic development, international relations and public management.

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