Remembering the Linkage of Life : Babbitt’s approach: sensible environmentalism

After years of divisive rhetoric and costly, timing-consuming litigation pitting owls against jobs, welcome new signals from Washington and a federal appeals court point to a more deliberate and constructive approach to endangered species protection.

Since taking office last month, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt quickly staked out an aggressive position. For example, last week he told the American Mining Congress, not the most sympathetic audience, that the federal Endangered Species Act “however controversial and sometimes illogical it may seem in specific applications,” has “enormous support and ought to have enormous support because the issue of preserving the biodiversity and land and habitat use in this country is an important item.”

Babbitt said the act is “the biggest issue” before his department and vowed that the federal government will step up its enforcement of the law. “Get into the game,” he urged the mining industry specifically, but his message undoubtedly was meant for other resource industries as well.

Babbitt’s hand is strengthened by last week’s decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The narrow legal question was whether the President or his staff--in this case referring to former President Bush and his appointees--can informally intervene, through secret com- munications, in decisions by the Endangered Species Committee regarding the spotted owl. The court ruled that those Bush Administration communications were illegal and ordered a new hearing on proposed timber sales in western Oregon.

But in a broader context, the ruling should bolster the integrity of the formal regulatory process. Past administrations, Babbitt charged, “deliberately flouted the law,” forcing the department to respond to court-ordered deadlines for protecting endangered species rather than assuming its statutory responsibilities. Indeed, the U.S. General Accounting Office reported last year that as many as 3,000 species, beyond the 650 already on the endangered species list, may be threatened or endangered.

Babbitt intends to head off such lawsuits by developing protection and recovery plans before a suit is filed. Central to the success of this effort will be the nationwide “biological survey” that he proposes to undertake and the allocation of more resources to the Fish and Wildlife Service, which bears major responsibilities for enforcing the act. Those resources could come from a long overdue review of federal land fees for such uses as grazing, mining and logging.

This nation’s biological diversity is inextricably linked to its long-term economic future. Babbitt clearly understands this vital linkage.