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Agriculture groups praise Endangered Species List rule changes

A final rule modernizing the Endangered Species Act is getting praise from agricultural groups.  Ethan Lane with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association tells Brownfield the new rule deals with key issues impacting producers, like the ability to designate critical habitat without the species on the property. “This rulemaking rolled that back and actually creates a higher bar that Fish and Wildlife must meet in order to put a critical habitat designation either on somebody’s private property or on their public grazing lease.”

without the species on the property. “This rulemaking rolled that back and actually creates a higher bar that Fish and Wildlife must meet in order to put a critical habitat designation either on somebody’s private property or on their public grazing lease.”

The Department of the Interior released the rule changes Monday, also making changes to “threatened” species protection, and interagency consultation.  Lane tells Brownfield the changes to the 4 (d) blanket rule also extend to cover wolves in parts of the U.S. where they are considered “threatened” and not “endangered.” He says, “It’s not retroactive, but the Department of the Interior, should the find themselves unable to promulgate the delisting that they are working on now for the gray wolf, at a threatened listing, they would then be able to go in and say turn management back over to the state.”

Lane says the rule is final, but he expects there will be court challenges to the new rule.

Lane says the right results are achieved when you take federal roadblocks out of the way and give farmers and ranchers who know their land better than anybody flexibility to make the right conservation and management decisions.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall also praised the new rule, saying these new regulations restore the traditional distinction between threatened and endangered species.   He says this approach will eliminate unnecessary time and expense and ease the burden on farmers and ranchers who want to help species recover.

There are also changes to the rule that require improved interagency cooperation.