[env-trinity] Endangered Species Act

Thu Feb 23 20:33:22 PST 2006

Emelia,
    Senator Feinstein is not amenable to political threats.  She is good at 
listening to factual arguments and can be convinced by them.  I have agreed 
with her and disagreed with her, and I have watched people threaten her with 
political retribution.  I have never heard of it working and it risks losing 
a very powerful ally on most environmental issues.
    Senator Feinstein is impressed with true grass roots lobbying from home. 
She wants to help people if she can.  I know you can frame issues and tell 
penetrating stories.
    Senator Feinstein needs to hear your message on the importance of the 
Endangered Species Act for America's future.  Thanks for your great work.
                                       Mike Jackson
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Emelia Berol" <emelia at trailofwater.com>
To: "Byron " <bwl3 at comcast.net>
Cc: "Trinity List Server" <env-trinity at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us>; "FOTR 
List" <fotr at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us>
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 2:14 PM
Subject: Re: [env-trinity] Endangered Species Act

I hope everyone will send Di Fei a message letting her know how they
will feel about her if she supports Pombo's bill ...

On Feb 23, 2006, at 12:19 PM, Byron wrote:

> ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT:
>
> Report a boost for Pombo's ESA goals
>
> Stockton Record – 2/23/06
>
> By Hank Shaw, Capitol Bureau Chief
>
>
>
> SACRAMENTO - Two critical concepts in Tracy Rep. Richard Pombo's
> proposed overhaul of the federal Endangered Species Act should
> guide the U.S. Senate's attempts to reform the 23-year-old law,
> according to the initial findings of a group senators commissioned
> to help them prepare their legislation.
>
>
>
>
> But the group failed to find a path through the debate's thorniest
> thicket: How to reform the ESA's "critical habitat" provision, an
> often unwieldy tool intended to give threatened critters a place to
> live and multiply.
>
> Overhauling the ESA is no small matter for San Joaquin County, the
> Delta and the Mother Lode, where about a dozen endangered plants
> and animals live, including the San Joaquin kit fox, the Delta
> smelt, the red-legged frog and the riparian brush rabbit.
>
> Congress is closer to wholesale reform of the Endangered Species
> Act than it has been in years, and Pombo has been the driving force
> from the House of Representatives.
>
> He wrestled a bill through the House last year with the help of
> Rep. Dennis Cardoza, a Merced County Democrat whose district
> includes Stockton. The legislation now awaits action in the Senate.
>
> Debate stalled, however, because many senators wanted to hear what
> an eclectic group of environmentalists, industry officials, legal
> experts and scholars called the Keystone Group had to say about
> reform.
>
> Late last week the group sent a letter to six key senators
> endorsing Pombo's emphasis on providing incentives for the owners
> of private land - where 80 percent of endangered species live - to
> stop shooting, spraying, shoveling over and shutting up about the
> critters on their property.
>
> Among its recommendations, the Keystone Group favors an increase in
> programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program, which is widely
> used in other Western states to expand habitat for game animals
> such as sharptail grouse and mule deer.
>
> Other possible incentives could come as tax breaks for landowners
> who actively improve their land to support endangered plants or
> animals. Sens. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.,
> already have sponsored such legislation.
>
> The group did not discuss Pombo's proposal, which would reimburse
> landowners for the lost value of property tied up through
> Endangered Species Act provisions.
>
> Critics such as the Defenders of Wildlife say doing this would
> spark a taxpayer-funded giveaway. Pombo counters with a
> Congressional Budget Office estimate that the incentive will cost
> taxpayers only about $10 million a year.
>
> "It cuts both ways, to be honest with you," Pombo said of the
> report. "I'd half-hoped they'd come out with specific language (for
> legislation), but I think they found out what I did over 13 years:
> This isn't easy."
>
> The Keystone Group letter also backed Pombo's desire to switch
> "critical habitat," which can be haphazardly drawn by overworked
> federal agents, to a more thoughtful "recovery plan" designed to do
> what it takes to lift a species from the brink of extinction.
>
> But how to do that - environmentalists and property-rights
> advocates are deeply divided - could scotch the whole reform effort
> in an election year.
>
> Additionally, Eastern politicians tend to be hesitant about
> tinkering with the ESA, which is sacrosanct among even many
> Republicans there.
>
> Among them is Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee, chairman of the
> Environment and Public Works Fisheries, Wildlife and Water
> Subcommittee and the senator who commissioned the Keystone Group.
> Chafee faces a tough election road ahead.
>
> Chafee has been hoping to craft what he sees as a more moderate
> bill than Pombo's, which Chafee says does not adequately designate
> recovery habitat and lacks provisions to ensure compliance.
>
> Pombo says he wants moderates such as Chafee and California Sen.
> Dianne Feinstein on board with whatever emerges from the Senate.
>
> "She has to be part of it," he said. "Now I'm sure she'll have
> different ideas - I'm not saying my bill is perfect. If they find a
> better way to do this, put it in the legislation."
>
> Pombo's bottom line is in line with the Keystone findings: Refocus
> the ESA to recovery of a species, increase its funding to do that
> and give them an incentive to help save threatened plants and animals.
>
>
>
> But he'll need a filibuster-proof 60 senators with him. Pombo fully
> expects someone to block any reform effort unless it has such broad
> support. And he says he's willing to compromise to get there.
>
> "It's not going to be everything I want. I know that," Pombo said.
> "What we have to do is put together the coalition that gets us to 60."
>
> The Senate is expected to begin debate on the legislation next month.
>
>
>
>
>
> Byron Leydecker
>
> Chair, Friends of Trinity River
>
> Advisor, California Trout, Inc
>
> PO Box 2327
>
> Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327
>
> 415 383 4810 ph
>
> 415 383 9562 fx
>
> bwl3 at comcast.net
>
> bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org
>
> http://www.fotr.org
>
> http:www.caltrout.org
>
>
>
>
>
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