"Mankind has the honor of quite possibly being
the most destructive force to ever hit mother nature. Whether by overhunting or
overpopulation, driving a species to extinction is nothing to be proud of, and
it's certainly not slowing down." Those are the words of Jamie Frater on
his Internet list of the 10 most recently extinct species.
I was saddened as I read through the list and glanced
at the obituary photos of recently extinct animals, such as the Pyrenean ibex, Baiji River
dolphin, Tecopa pupfish and golden toad.
Sorrowfully, many of these calamities happened within
my lifetime. Regrettably, humans had a lot of practice to achieve such an awful
track record of destruction.
Even the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service states:
"Biologists estimate that since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in
1620, more than 500 species, subspecies, and varieties of our Nation's plants
and animals have become extinct."
It further states: "In short, there is nothing
natural about today's rate of extinction."
That rate averages about 78 extinct species per
century. To speed things up and bring notice closer to home, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania lists 73 existing state-designated
threatened or endangered species.
How would we feel if these species become extirpated
or even extinct from Pennsylvania's
resident flora and fauna?
This may become an ugly reality, based upon a
manifestation of ignorance, apathy and greed all concocted into two bills:
House Bill 1576 (sponsored by state Rep. Jeff Pyle, R-Armstrong/Indiana
counties); and Senate Bill 1047 (sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Joe
Scarnati, R-Jefferson
County), now pending in
the House and Senate.
If passed, these bills would essentially modify the
way threatened and endangered species are protected in Pennsylvania. Current endangered or
threatened species would have to be re-evaluated and put through a new
implementation process, using new species listing criteria.
According to the "PA Environment Digest,"
the bill applies to the state Game Commission, Fish and Boat Commissions and
the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which now have the
statutory authority to list threatened or endangered species. In addition, the
bill would immediately eliminate hundreds of species of special concern
entirely from environmental permit review. These species were found by the
agencies to be rare in Pennsylvania
and are tracked for conservation purposes, in order to prevent them from
becoming threatened or endangered.
Game Commission
In a letter to the House Game and Fisheries Committee,
on Aug. 14, Carl Roe, executive director of the Game Commission, stated the
legislation attempts to fix a problem that does not exist and threatens
millions of dollars in federal funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The bill would require all threatened and endangered
species designations made by the Game and Fish and Boat commissions to go
through the regulation adoption process and the Independent Regulatory Review
Commission. Listings by DCNR already go through the regulatory process.
The bill also makes a fundamental change in the way
agencies evaluate species to be listed as threatened or endangered. Instead of
looking at a species range or habitat within Pennsylvania
for which the agencies are responsible, it requires them to look at the entire
range of habitat for a species, even if it occurs across several states or in
large regional areas across the United
States.
In a simplified example, if there are 10 of the
species in New York and only 2 in Pennsylvania, the bill would seem to direct
the agencies to not protect the species in Pennsylvania because more exist
outside the state.
In addition, the bill requires all species now listed
to be re-listed through the regulatory process within two years of enactment of
the bill. This means the commissions would have to re-evaluate and send 73
state-designated threatened and endangered species through the two-year window to
protect their existing status.
The commissions would also have to evaluate the
existing listed species under the new, expanded range of habitat criteria
created in the bill, draft a regulation and move it through the regulatory
process in two years — an all but impossible task with the limited resources
the commissions now have.
Effectively, this means the protection of 73 existing
threatened and endangered species are put at risk by this bill because of the
process outlined in the bill.
Roe points out the bill may also have an effect
opposite to the one intended by the sponsors of the bill. The lack of state
action to protect species may prompt the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list
more species as federally threatened or endangered.
Over the past 10 years, only three species have been
added to the threatened or endangered species list by the Game Commission.
Fish & Boat Commission
Talking points circulated by the Fish and Boat
Commission take a similar position, opposing the bills as unnecessary and harmful
to existing protections offered to threatened or endangered species in
Pennsylvania.
"Because these bills appear to provide protection
only to federally listed T&E species, species that are rare within Pennsylvania, but not
globally rare, will not be protected. Effectively conserving species at the
state level prevents regional and range-wide declines that require federal
listings," stated the commission.
The Fish and Boat Commission points out there is
already a definition of "acceptable data" used by the commission to
consider listing of species by scientifically valid and defensible data.
The commission also said the bill requires a new
database to be created when there is already a database. The Pennsylvania
Natural Diversity Inventory, which is used for environmental reviews, is
considered "one of the most advanced, and arguably the best, environmental
review systems in the country," according to the commission.
The commission is also critical of the bills for
opening access to specific location information for rare, threatened or
endangered species. This could allow anyone to pinpoint their location,
facilitating the potential for harm to those species.
In the last five years, the Fish and Boat Commission
has added 13 species and de-listed 11 species from the state threatened,
endangered and candidate species list.
History repeats
If these bills are passed, it would require all
threatened and endangered species designations made by the Game and Fish and
Boat commissions to go through the regulation adoption process and the
Independent Regulatory Review Commission.
Joe Kosak of the Pennsylvania Game Commission wrote
about the reasons that caused the extinction of the passenger pigeon by 1914.
Kosak said, "Passenger pigeon numbers began to slip in some areas during
the mid-1800s. There was little concern about the birds, though, because they
were so numerous. But the bird protection movement sweeping the country during
this period apparently compelled some Ohioans, in 1857, to petition state
legislators to introduce a bill protecting wild pigeons. A select committee of
the state's senate found problems with the idea. The panel's report
recommended: "The passenger pigeon needs no protection. Wonderfully
prolific, having the vast forests of the North as its breeding grounds,
traveling hundreds of miles in search of food, it is here today and elsewhere
tomorrow, and no ordinary destruction can lessen them, or be missed from the
myriads that are yearly produced."
It looks like history might repeat itself as if we
didn't learn from our past mistakes. Sound familiar? Can we trust the
scientific judgment of the selected Independent Regulatory Review Commission?
Why now?
It's apparent that certain members of the House and
Senate want to change the current methodology of species listings and demand a
new implementation process. But for what reasons? Does House Bill 1576 and
Senate Bill 1047 demonstrate concern about species protection?
Capitol reporter Mary Wilson reports in the State
House Sound Bites:
"We've had questions as to their science, and
there's been a lot of objection to there not being an appeal process, and it's
come from a hell of a lot of sectors," said Pyle. "The underlying
premise of the bills is that there should be more oversight of the endangered
species designation process, since the label often affects permits for
industries like timber, gas, homebuilders and coal."
Rep. Pyle serves as chair of the Environmental
Resources & Energy Subcommittee on Mining.
Unless I've been living on another planet, Pennsylvania has
recently transformed the landscape with a hell of a lot of gas pads, wind
turbines, gas lines and power lines.
I have no objection to progress, as long as we drive
the industrial speed limit and not detour environmental review. It appears the
bills want to remove the endangered species designation and rubber-stamp
development permits. The current system works to minimize environmental impacts
on threatened and endangered species and their habitat.
On behalf of the imperiled 73, they question your
logic? If you have concerns about House Bill 1576 and Senate Bill 1047, please
contact your state representative and state senator.
