Critical Habitat
As institutionalized in the U. S. Endangered Species Act of 1973, critical habitat is considered the area necessary to the survival of a species, and, in the case of endangered and threatened species, essential to their recovery. An animal's habitat includes not only the area where it lives, but also its breeding and feeding grounds, seasonal ranges, and migration routes. Critical habitat usually refers to the area that is essential for a minimal viable population to survive and reproduce. The Endangered Species Act is intended to conserve "the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend." Thus, the Secretary of the Interior is required to identify and designate critical habitats for species that are listed as endangered or threatened under this law. In some cases, areas may be excluded from such designations if the economic, social, or other costs exceed the conservation benefits.
The listing of imperiled species and the designation of their critical habitats have become politically sensitive, since these actions can profoundly affect the development and exploitation of areas so designated, and can, under some circumstances, limit such activities as gas and oil drilling, timber cutting, dam building, mineral exploration and mining. For this and other reasons, the Department of the Interior often has been reluctant to list certain species, and has excluded species from the protected lists in order not to inconvenience certain commercial interests.
Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act requires all federal agencies and departments to ensure that the activities they carry out, fund, or authorize do not jeopardize the continued existence of listed species or adversely modify or destroy their critical habitat. This provision has proven especially significant, since federal agencies such as the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Fish and Wildlife Service control vast areas of land that constitute habitat for many listed species and on which a variety of commercial activities, such as logging or mining, are undertaken with federal permits.
However, Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act has been implemented in such a way as to generally not affect economic development. The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (and, in the case of marine species, the National Marine Fisheries Service) is directed to consult with other federal agencies and review the effects of their actions on listed species. According to a study by the National Wildlife Federation, over 99% of the more than 120,000 reviews or consultations conducted between 1979 and 1991 found that no jeopardy to a listed species was involved. In some cases, "economic and technologically feasible" alternatives and modifications, in the words of the act, were suggested that allowed the federal activities to proceed. In only 34 cases were projects cancelled because of threats to listed species. In rare situations, where the conflict between a project and the Endangered Species Act are absolutely irreconcilable, an agency can apply for an exemption from a seven-member Endangered Species Committee.
The earliest major conflict over critical habitat under the Act was the famous 1979 fight over construction of the $116 million Tellico Dam in Tennessee, which would have flooded and destroyed several hundred family farms as well as what was then the only known habitat of a species of minnow, the snail darter (Percina tanasi). (Since then, snail darters have been found in other areas.) Congress exempted this project from the provisions of the Endangered Species Act, and the dam was built as planned, although many consider it a political boondoggle and a huge waste of taxpayers' money.
More recently, efforts by environmentalists to save the remnants of old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest to preserve habitat for the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) created tremendous controversy. Thousands of acres of federally-owned forests in Oregon, Washington, and California were placed off-limits to logging, costing jobs in the timber industry in those states. However, conservationists pointed out, if the federal government allowed the last of the ancient forests to be logged, timber jobs would disappear anyway, along with these unique ecosystems and several species dependent upon them. In mid-1993, Interior Secretary announced a compromise decision that allows logging of some ancient forests to continue, but also greatly decreases the areas open to this activity. As natural areas and wildlife habitat continue to be destroyed and degraded, conflicts and controversy over saving critical habitats for listed endangered and threatened species can be expected to continue.
Resources
Books
Bean, M. J., et al. Reconciling Conflicts Under the Endangered Species Act: The Habitat Conservation Planning Experience. Washington, DC: World Wildlife Fund, 1991.
Kohm, K., ed. Balancing on the Brink of Extinction: The Endangered Species Act and Lessons for the Future. Covelo, CA: Island Press, 1990.
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