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Senate bill would create landowner incentives to preserve species

By Erica Werner
December 15, 2005, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Landowners would get tax breaks in exchange for helping plants and animals, and would have more input into plans to preserve species, under a rewrite of the Endangered Species Act proposed Thursday by two senators.

The bill by Republican Mike Crapo of Idaho and Democrat Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas offers more for environmentalists to like than an Endangered Species Act rewrite that passed the House of Representatives in September over opposition from many Democrats and moderate Republicans.

Its introduction was a sign of growing interest in the Senate in tackling large-scale changes to the landmark 1973 law. While environmentalists credit the Endangered Species Act with saving species like the bald eagle, many farm and property rights groups contend its provisions get in the way of legitimate land uses and provoke lawsuits instead of helping plants and animals.

The bill by Crapo and Lincoln includes a number of provisions designed to draw support from landowners, including the creation of committees they could sit on to help guide plans to help species. The bill also would set up "conservation banks" property owners could use to accumulate and trade credits for taking actions to help species, and would give property owners tax credits for actions to conserve or recover species.

"We waste so much time in the courts that we end up not accomplishing anything, and so I think ultimately our objective needs to be what the ultimate objective of this legislation was 30 years ago, and that is not only being helpful in preventing species from extinction, but also the recovery of them," Lincoln told reporters on a conference call.

"Compensations and rewards to landowners are so critically important. Those incentives need to be there," she said.

Neither Crapo nor Lincoln sits on the committee with jurisdiction of the law, the Environment and Public Works Committee, where Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., is waiting for recommendations from a public policy group in Denver, Colo., before introducing his own bill. Those recommendations are expected in February, but Chafee's spokesman said he views the Crapo-Lincoln bill as helpful to his efforts.

The House-passed Endangered Species Act rewrite contained some major changes not embraced by the Senate bill, and which Chafee has voiced concerns about. The House bill would require the government to compensate property owners if steps needed to protect species thwart development plans, and would stop the government from designating "critical habitat" where development is limited.

House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., who wrote the House bill, said Thursday that he likes what's in the Crapo-Lincoln bill but that critical habitat and landowner protections need to be addressed - suggesting difficult negotiations could lie ahead in crafting an endangered species bill both the House and Senate could agree on.