Editorial: Protecting an endangered act

Monday, March 13, 2006 | 7:18 a.m.

A Senate committee that is poised to write proposed revisions to the Endangered Species Act received a letter signed by nearly 6,000 biologists who begged senators to preserve the law's scientific provisions.

According to the Associated Press, in the letter sent last week to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, scientists expressed concerns about a provision in a House bill passed last year that would give the interior secretary the responsibility to decide what constitutes appropriate scientific data for making decisions under the law.

It is just one of many concerns scientists and conservationists have raised about the House bill that was written by Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif. Pombo's plan would require the government to pay property owners if their development plans are derailed because of measures needed to protect species or habitat. It also would prevent the government from designating areas as critical habitat if development in the area is limited.

The scientists' letter is the latest bid to save the habitat protection provisions offered under the landmark 1973 law that, along with other environmental protections and policies, have become endangered by five years of meddling by the Bush administration and GOP leadership, which value private industry over the public's environment.

President Bush's proposed budget includes nightmarish environmental assaults such as slashing federal land and water conservation grants by 40 percent and cutting more money from the financially strapped National Park Service.

It's still unclear what provisions the Senate committee will propose. They have not yet discussed critical habitat and property owner compensation issues, the AP says. Sen. James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican and the committee's chairman, hopes to present a bipartisan bill later this month.

We hope it offers a vast improvement over the House measure. Lawmakers must halt the Republican-led erosion of policies and laws that protect America's wildlife and natural environment.