House Votes for Marbled Murrelet Protection
6/19/96
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House votes for marbled murrelet
6/19/96
Copyright 1996 by United Press International
Rep. Norman Dicks, D-Wash., offered the amendment to remove the murrelet
language, arguing it would prevent the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from
carrying out its mandate of enforcing the Endangered Species Act. He said
the murrelet's population in California has declined from 60,000 to 6,000
in recent years, largely due to the cutting down of old growth redwood
trees.
"I believe we should be supporting the Endangered Species Act, not
dismantling it," Dicks said.
The author of the proposed ban on funding, Rep. Frank Riggs, R-Calif.,
argued the government should not take private property to enforce the
Endangered Species Act. He noted that the Fish and Wildlife Service
designated 4 million acres as critical habitat for the murrelet, and
only 48,000 of those were privately owned.
"The question is, do you have to have it all?" Riggs said. "Why won't 99
percent suffice?"
The chairman of the House Resources Committee, Rep. Don Young, R- Alaska,
said landowners were being "browbeaten by the government."
"And you wonder why we've got the Freemen, you wonder why we've got the
militants," Young said. "It's because our government got out of hand, and
got out of line with the Endangered Species Act."
A final vote on the Interior Department bill was expected late Wednesday or
Thursday.
Although the murrelet vote was likely to please the White House, the
administration opposed the Republican bill for several other reasons,
including funding levels. The GOP proposed spending $482 million less than
last year and $867 million less than President Clinton asked for.
Almost half the bill's funding goes to Interior Department programs to
manage and study the nation's animal, plant and mineral resources...