EDF Praises Babbitt For Landowner-Friendly Endangered Species Policy In Texas

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) praised Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt during his visit to Texas today for use of a new policy tool called “safe harbor” that encourages protection of endangered species on private land in the state. Through safe harbor agreements with the Fish & Wildlife Service, landowners voluntarily commit to create, restore, or enhance habitat for endangered species without the risk of incurring legal liability if, as a result of their efforts, endangered species appear or increase in number on their land. In Texas more than one million acres of habitat for endangered species have been enrolled in safe harbor plans. Safe harbor is being used to accomplish the reintroduction of the Aplomado falcon — the rarest falcon in North America — on south Texas ranch land; restore coastal prairie habitat for the Attwater’s prairie chicken, a bird whose numbers have dwindled to 42; and enhance the quality of long leaf pine forests in east Texas that are habitat for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.

“Safe harbor is a policy that works for endangered species and works for landowners,” said Melinda Taylor, senior attorney for EDF. “In Texas, where more than 97% of the land is privately-owned, endangered species’ only chance for survival and recovery is the use of policies that encourage landowners to voluntarily protect habitat.”

Safe harbor has been praised by an unusual spectrum of agricultural, timber, environmental, scientific, and other interests. The American Farm Bureau Federation, for example, praised safe harbor as “a step in the right direction toward creation of [a] ‘win-win’ scenario for species and landowners.” A senior official of Westvaco Corporation, a major timber company, wrote “The Safe Harbor concept can be an important tool to involve private landowners proactively in the conservation of threatened and endangered species.” Fourteen of the nation’s leading conservation scientists, including E.O. Wilson, wrote that safe harbor agreements are “a practical and necessary way to encourage the restoration and enhancement of habitat by private landowners.”

EDF called for the use of safe harbor to protect additional endangered species in Texas. “It’s a tool that can be effectively used to protect an array of declining species in the state, including the golden-cheeked warbler, black-capped vireo, lesser prairie chicken, and Houston toad,&qquot; said Taylor. “It’s a mechanism for making private landowners willing partners in conservation.”