Why Improve ESA?

Industry and Agriculture

The Problem

Recent endangered species listings and critical habitat designations have greatly hindered farmers', ranchers' and industry's efforts to meet market demand – even in an environmentally responsible manner. 

For example,

Farmers throughout California’s San Joaquin Valley depend on state water projects to deliver irrigation water.  Access to this water has been challenged by a Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit – and California’s farmers are worried their fields may be parched, like the fields of Klamath, Oregon farmers after the courts and federal regulators took away their water in the name of species protection.

In San Bernardino County, a much-needed new hospital was delayed, moved and made significantly more expensive to build because of the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly. 

Throughout Southern California, the coastal California gnatcatcher’s listing has put hundreds of thousands of acres off limits to water districts, homebuilders, road builders and others who are trying to help the region cope with its booming population.  Recent studies have shown the gnatcatcher is genetically identical to Mexico's gnatcatchers, calling the species’ listing into question.

How H.R. 3824 could help

• H.R. 3824 ensures that all stakeholders, including local and regional land use agencies, are consulted when the federal government develops recovery plans.
• H.R. 3824 eliminates critical habitat designations, which in the past have caused many lawsuits that sought to disrupt the California water system.
• H.R. 3824 establishes a grant program for private property owners who voluntarily participate in species conservation and protection. This means that farmers, ranchers, and developers would have an incentive to participate in cooperative conservation.

Read H.R. 3824 for yourself or see a section by section analysis of the bill.