Reexamining the Endangered Species Act, 1995 Environmental Conference Proceedings

Kevin J. Finto

Hunton & Williams

Over the past few years several events have focused the attention of the pulp and paper industry on the Endangered Species Act (ESA or the Act). For example, the listing of the spotted owl as an endangered species brought logging operations to a standstill in large areas of the Pacific Northwest. The widespread resurgence of another endangered species, the bald eagle, is a mixed blessing; it is a welcome recovery of our national emblem, but it could pose a threat to timbering and development activities in areas throughout the United States. The settlement of a lawsuit in the last days of the Bush Administration requires the Department of Interior to list an additional 400 species over the next four years. Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt has also requested authority and resources to take an inventory of wildlife and "zone" wildlife habitat throughout the country. These events have provoked a variety of responses. For example, Georgia Pacific took the initiative to enter into a voluntary agreement with the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the Red Cockaded Woodpecker on timberland in several southern states. Congress is also reexamining the Act’s goals and methods of achieving them as it deliberates on its reauthorization. Enacted in 1973 to protect species in danger of extinction as well as their critical habitats, the ESA has pitted supporters of economic growth against advocates of wildlife conservation. The ESA is of obvious importance to the paper industry because it can curtail or even prohibit the cutting of pulp wood. This paper provides a detailed description of substantive and procedural requirements of ESA and recent proposals to reduce the economic shock of its implementation.