Pro-Timber Land Policy Suspended
12/30/97
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Headline: Pro-Timber Land Policy Suspended
Source: The Associate Press
Date: 12/30/97
Author: Scott Sonner, Associated Press Writer
Copyright 1997: Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a temporary victory for
environmentalists, the Clinton administration has
suspended a program that allows timber companies to
protect fish and wildlife on their land voluntarily
instead of following stricter rules imposed by the
federal government.
But the special exemptions, which informally began
in 1994, could become the law of the land next year
as part of a Republican-led rewrite of the 1973
Endangered Species Act. The Clinton administration
also could decide to make aspects of the program
permanent despite a court challenge.
``It is a victory for us but it's only temporary,''
environmentalist Leona Klippstein said Tuesday of
the administration's decision to temporarily shelve
the exemption program.
Klippstein is the conservation director for the
Spirit of the Sage, based in Pasadena, Calif., which
is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which is
forcing the government's hand on the issue.
Facing a court deadline, the administration agreed
on Monday to a two-month moratorium on the special
program, although hundreds of existing exemptions
covering millions of acres will remain in effect.
The suspension gives the government more time to
answer charges in the lawsuit and revise its policy.
Filed in November 1996, the lawsuit says the
Interior Department never formally adopted the
controversial land use policy, subject to public
comment, and therefore can't legally enforce it.
The policy -- known as ``no surprises'' -- promised
private land owners that if they meet certain
habitat conservation requirements, they won't be
subject to more rigid prohibitions on land uses such
as logging, mining and livestock grazing.
The administration presented the idea to Congress in
1994, appeasing the new Republican majority by
making the Endangered Species Act friendlier by
emphasizing voluntary protection over aggressive
enforcement of prohibitions on commercial activities
and listing more animals as in danger of extinction.
Now, the exemptions carried out through the informal
policy are a key element of proposals in Congress to
rewrite the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
The policy is intended to provide certainty to land
managers, such as timber company executives who have
to plan logging rotations up to 75 years in advance.
By the end of the year, the administration had
planned to have entered into agreements covering 18
million acres of state and private land.
Critics, however, say that the voluntary
fish-and-wildlife protection agreements don't
provide enough assurance that endangered animals
won't become extinct in the future, especially if
there's a natural disaster or further loss of
habitat.
``Making century-long assurances to developers and
timber companies ... is ecologically unrealistic,''
environmentalist Klippstein said.
The timber industry is counting on Congress to
change the law.
``As long as the administration's efforts to work
with landowners is disrupted by litigation, we have
no assurance that our reliance upon them is
protected,'' said Frank Stewart, spokesman for the
American Forest & Paper Association.