Tucson Region

Hearing will examine Endangered Species Act

With this summer's Mount Graham fires as a backdrop, federal lawmakers are coming to the Safford area Monday to hold a formal hearing on the Endangered Species Act. Members of the House Resources Committee will take testimony only from subpoenaed individuals at Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher. The town lies in the shadow of Mount Graham, where the University of Arizona's $120 million Large Binocular Telescope is nearing completion despite years of high-profile lawsuits and protests on behalf of an endangered squirrel. Critics say the Endangered Species Act prevented forest thinning on Mount Graham before the Nuttall and Gibson fires charred 29,400 acres in June and July, but environmentalists say their foes are blowing smoke. The hearing was organized by Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., and will be attended by committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif. Both are vocal critics of the 1973 Endangered Species Act. "For more than 30 years, our ranchers, farmers, miners and lumberjacks in rural Arizona have suffered at the expense of an often-abused federal endangered-species protection law," said Renzi, who is running this fall for a second term against Democratic challenger Paul Babbitt. "I want to bring Washington to the district to see firsthand the economic impact on human beings and how animals and plant life - by some people - have been put above human life." Earlier this month, the League of Conservation Voters named Renzi to its "dirty dozen" list of lawmakers who the national advocacy group considers to have anti-environmental voting records. Calling Monday's meeting a "kangaroo court" and "taxpayer-funded campaign stunt," five conservation groups say they'll hold their own press conference before the hearing since the public can't testify and witnesses will be stacked against the Endangered Species Act. Congress is now weighing two bills that would alter how the government uses science in endangered-species policy and how it maps "critical habitat" - areas considered important for species' recovery that may face additional regulation. "We seek some reasonable balances that can push the momentum of this legislation back to its original spirit," Arizona Farm Bureau President Kevin Rogers said. "Opportunities for regulatory relief on endangered species is a high priority for our members." Critics say the law tramples private-property rights and has failed to help species recover - 1,265 U.S. plants and animals are now classified as threatened or endangered, but only 39 species have been delisted, often due to their extinction or revised scientific data. But Craig Miller of Defenders of Wildlife said the law has "worked well for Arizona." "Thanks to this law," he said, "we have wolves in the Blue Range of Eastern Arizona, condors at the Grand Canyon, more bald eagles along the Salt and Verde rivers and the Apache trout well on its way to recovery."