Ranchers fear expanding scope of ESA

The federal government wants to clarify the Endangered Species Act with two upcoming policy changes that ranching interests fear will greatly increase the law's scope. In both cases, the Obama administration is attempting to resolve legal disputes over language in the act -- and appears to side with arguments that would interpret its authority more broadly. Ranchers would be affected by a more expansive understanding of the ESA's scope, as many rely on public lands for grazing and own property potentially inhabited by protected species. The combined effect of the policies would be to subject more land to ESA restrictions while relieving the government from considering the law's full economic impact, according to rancher advocates. The first policy deals with how the government deals with a species that faces varying levels of danger across its range. Under the ESA, protections are extended to a species that is endangered or threatened "throughout all or a significant portion of its range." The Bush administration understood the law to mean that protections may only apply to the "significant portion" where the species is threatened or endangered, not to areas where it's healthy. However, two federal judges disagreed with that approach because it excluded some members of a listed species from ESA protection. The Obama administration withdrew the previous policy and has proposed a replacement to resolve "tensions and ambiguities" in the law. The proposed policy states that if the viability of a species is at risk in a significant portion of its range, protections will apply across all of its range. One practical effect of the new policy will be to open more of the landscape to designation as "critical habitat," said Karen Budd-Falen, an attorney who represents ranchers and other natural resource industries. "It will be more designations and bigger designations," she said...more